Project Geekology
Embark on an epic journey with Anthony and Dakota as they delve into the vast realms of geek culture, from cherished classics to cutting-edge creations. Join us for an exhilarating adventure of exploration and nostalgia, as we unearth hidden gems and reminisce about the moments that have shaped us. Welcome to the ultimate celebration of all things geeky!
Project Geekology
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
Experience a fresh take on X-Men: Apocalypse as Dakota watches the film for the first time ever six years later, sparking a spirited discussion with Anthony. Get ready to uncover the standout moments that make this movie a rollercoaster of emotions—from the thrilling portrayal of Quicksilver's high-speed antics to the introduction of the formidable Apocalypse. You'll also hear our thoughts on how Apocalypse's powers are on par with the Infinity Guantlet.
Shifting from mutants to medieval dragons, we share our excitement for House of the Dragon's triumphant return to the small screen. Dakota can't contain his enthusiasm for its top-notch episodes. We also dissect the latest developments in The Acolyte, exploring how the show tackles fan concerns about canon consistency. Plus, Dakota unveils his newly completed Star Wars timeline project, a labor of love that maps out the rich history of the galaxy far, far away.
Laugh along with us as we poke fun at the more absurd elements of X-Men: Apocalypse, like Apocalypse's bizarre learning method via ancient television broadcasts. We critique the recasting and reintroduction of beloved characters, analyze the magnetic complexity of Magneto, and air our mixed feelings about Jubilee's blink-and-you-miss-it role. Finally, we break down the climactic final battle, highlighting Jean Grey’s awe-inspiring Phoenix powers. Tune in for a witty, geeky rollercoaster of nostalgia and thoughtful critique that you won't want to miss.
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A NEW Kind of Star Wars Timeline (Download a FREE Copy Now):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5_TNU1_twQ&t
Twitch (Anthony):
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Welcome to episode 87 of Project Geekology. I'm one half of your host, Anthony, and joining me always is Apocalypse.
Speaker 2:It's Dakota. It's not actually Apocalypse. I didn't want to scare anyone.
Speaker 1:I just Are you sure that you're just not Oscar Isaacs and blue?
Speaker 2:makeup. If I was, I'd be singing it's the End of the World as we know it. But yeah, we're going to be covering X-Men Apocalypse today.
Speaker 1:This was Dakota's first time viewing it, so honestly, it's the end of the world as we know it. But yeah, we're gonna be covering x-men apocalypse today. This was dakota's first time viewing it, so honestly, it's gonna be interesting to hear your perspective on it as a first time viewer. Years later. This is like maybe my second or maybe third time, but definitely like at least second, of actually watching that movie but yeah, it'll be interesting trying to put my thoughts in order for a movie that I should have seen.
Speaker 2:Like what six years? Ago at this point, and I just I just haven't so I'm excited to yeah I'm excited to express my feelings on this wonderful pod with you guys. What have you been up to dakota? What have I been up to well. House of the dragon has started. I don't know if you are into that at all. I don't know if you watched the first, I did, I did.
Speaker 1:I like the first season. I haven't started the second yet. How many episodes are we in? Just one episode or it's two episodes now? Two episodes as of.
Speaker 2:As of this past sunday, it was the second episode. The first episode was fantastic, an incredible re-entry into the world of Game of Thrones. We haven't, you know, been in Westeros for over two years, because you know that's how long it takes for seasons of television.
Speaker 1:Wow, was it really that long?
Speaker 2:It was, yeah, it was like 2022. But yeah, I'm really, really impressed with it. The quality of everything in the show is top notch. Whenever I'm watching something as big and epic as that, I always think, why can't Marvel or Disney or Star Wars do anything on this level? And then I think, oh wait, they did with Andor. Andor is amazing. It's like prestige television.
Speaker 2:But you know, something that you probably also are pretty heavily invested in is the acolyte, which, as of yesterday, released its fifth episode, and it's been pretty lauded all around, I think yeah, well, I feel like yesterday's episode definitely made up a bit for like the one before that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, man, I mean, yeah, I, I text you and I'm not gonna say any like spoilers, obviously, but I had text you saying like I knew it, like like I I knew yeah, I knew it.
Speaker 2:I knew it too. I knew it too. If you go back to my tweets last week for episode four, I was basically saying like, oh, it's so obvious that it's this guy. I mean like literally all the signs are pointing to this guy being the guy in the mask, whatever.
Speaker 1:Right, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I was prepared to be disappointed with the reveal. But the way that they handled that episode and the way that the actor brought that character to life sold me like beyond measure, like it was such a good episode.
Speaker 1:Right, and honestly, I've seen that actor maybe one other thing and he plays like really goofy characters and so it was kind of tracking like that I'm really impressed with it overall.
Speaker 2:I think that there are definitely issues that I have with the series, but the issues aren't canon breaking. You know, like it's, there's nothing in the show so far that I have been like, well, that cannot work within canon, because X, y and Z and I think a lot of the arguments that people are making online is that, well, this breaks canon because this undoes what this character says, or this breaks canon because, well, this invalidates this event or character. And I think the issue that people are failing to comprehend is that if something can be explained or if new information can come and reinterpret a scene that we already have or help connect to bridge other scenes that we already know about, that doesn't necessarily break canon. That just means that there's new lore being added on top of that. So if it's not connecting to you immediately, you just have to theorize a little bit about, like, okay, what needs to happen for both of these stories to make sense, and I think a lot of people are failing to even care to like, try and think about stuff like that.
Speaker 1:I think that's that's been most of the criticisms thus far yeah, yeah, I, I honestly like I, I kind of feel the same way about saying things that, like people say, like it breaks canon, and I feel, yeah, like I, I think that there's yet to be something that has been really just like blatantly retconning something. You know For sure.
Speaker 2:It's people who aren't writers, not thinking like writers, you know Like they're just not using their cognitive juice to, you know, theorize ways to make this story work, just because they've already told themselves that I don't like this.
Speaker 1:Right, right, so I. It's the fandom I can't make it work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's that fan. I can't make it work. Yeah, it's that. So anyway, I don't want to get too far into that, but yeah, so that's, that's been my. That's what I'm really excited about right now. Oh oh, I forgot to mention I finished my time saver. If you go to twitter, it's my pinned tweet you can see the entire time saver as I have it right now version one. You know, all the way from the dawn of the jedi era, old republic, the high republic, follow the jedi reign of the empire everything all on one big star wars timeline. The only thing that I really didn't include was short stories and short comics.
Speaker 1:We needed all that dakota.
Speaker 2:I know a lot of people are complaining about it, but I mean not a lot of people, it's like three people, but just really big fans of the short stories. I'm really pleased with the not a lot of people, it's like three people but just really big fans of the short stories. I'm really pleased with the reception. A lot of people liked it on Twitter and you go to that and you want to see an even bigger version of that, like a higher quality thing. That's kind of reserved for, like my Patreon people, because I got to make some money for something that I spent weeks on, you know.
Speaker 1:No money for a joke.
Speaker 2:No money for me. I know, anthony, what have you been up?
Speaker 1:to. I've been up to a whole bunch of purse, not persona, you know. I feel like the last handful of episodes have been like just nothing but, or just been like me just throwing persona in there. I have so one anime that's kind of like bypassed me. I've seen a little bit of it initially, but never like stuck with it until like now I'm starting to watch Black Clover okay, that's cool.
Speaker 2:I I had. It was in my like periphery for a long time. How is it?
Speaker 1:it's good. I I like it. I know that a lot of people have issues with it. I I mean, you know.
Speaker 2:What are the primary issues that people Honestly it's?
Speaker 1:issues. I really, I mean, I haven't listened too much to the issue. I just hear kind of like moans and gripes, nothing that really. That like sticks out to me too much. I mean, maybe the character is too similar to ones like Naruto and Natsu.
Speaker 2:So, it's almost like a blend of naruto and fairy tale in a sense, because, like they have like the whole mage aspect and then the show's almost, the show's got to be almost 10 years old at this point, right, or it's like up there, like at least eight years old. I remember this being, uh, a prominent thing in comic-con, new york comic-Con before COVID.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, no, no, it's definitely been around since before COVID.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I think, if I remember correctly, the general consensus was that it was kind of striking, while the iron was hot in terms of, like you know, there was a big fantasy push in the anime genre or medium at that point. So it was like a lot of fantasy anime coming out all around the same time and it kind of fell into a little like some cliches I guess. But I I can't say for sure if that is what the actual criticisms were or are, because I have not seen it.
Speaker 1:that's just what I remember hearing well, I also know that like people get upset over like anime, when they use tropes and it's like dude, I mean honestly, shonen itself is a trope man, like it's it uses a lot of it's like over the top action, you know, and so like that's what it is and you know some of the tropes I you know, I understand, but like I don't know some of them, like I feed into it over the top action.
Speaker 2:you say over the top action, is it like over the top, like X-Men Apocalypse over the top, or a little under that?
Speaker 1:Maybe about the same, but not as corny. To me I wouldn't say corny. But yeah, we'll talk about that.
Speaker 2:Spoiler alert Anthony thinks it's corny.
Speaker 1:Oh, and I have been playing a good bit of Star Wars Hunters also.
Speaker 2:Oh nice, I haven't played in a week, but it was fun.
Speaker 1:I finally got the Sith character Reeve Reeve. Yeah, she's actually pretty OP.
Speaker 2:She actually is a Force-sensitive character. She's not actually a Sith, but she kind of just pretends that she is a Sith In the game. For all intents and purposes, she is a Sith.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, they've definitely made her. I mean not really just because of the red lightsaber, but she has those characteristics of a Sith too. I do like that. They have that Miraluka in it.
Speaker 2:Yes, they got a Miraluka in it and it looks to me. I don't know if we've talked about it on the show, but in the upcoming Star Wars TV series called Skeleton Crew there's, I think one of the kids, like one of the main kids in the cast is a Miraluka. So a little bit of Legends Expanded Universe, love going on in canon right now.
Speaker 1:I'm actually glad that they're bringing them back to the fold. I always thought that they were like pretty cool characters, yeah, but yeah, yeah, I don't know if you have anything else to add, it's I don't have anything except you know that it's the end of the world as we know it is it apocalypse o'clock?
Speaker 2:yes, 3600 bc. Yeah, it's a what a movie, what a movie there. There are some like really interesting ideas and scenes, some actually pretty good scenes too. There's some really good Magneto scenes and there's some really bad Magneto scenes. There's some really interesting Professor X scenes, and then there's scenes that I'm not really huge on. There's a whole bunch of that around like for pretty much every character in my opinion, though I feel like your boy, quicksilver, doesn't have a bad scene. Yeah, we have to talk about quicksilver, because last time we talked days of future past, we completely skipped over that. I know that you recorded a short bit about it, but yeah, we completely skipped over our discussion of probably the coolest scene in the movie yeah, I love that scene.
Speaker 1:When I was watching it I was like dude, we got to talk this.
Speaker 2:I think a big criticism with Days of Future Past that we could levy at it is that they introduce such a cool character that could potentially change the direction of the entire movie at the drop of a hat and then they just get rid of him, like he goes back home or something Like that's the extent, like he breaks Magneto out of prison and then he's back at home. And I think that's kind of what they set out to address with X-Men Apocalypse, like instead of making him a one-off loser character, as he calls himself, he actually joins in on the fun after saving everyone in the X-Mansion, except for Havoc, I really do think that the actor, his last name, is Evans Peter Evans.
Speaker 2:Yes, wait let's just, I think, I think you're right, evan peters.
Speaker 1:Okay, oh, very close backwards, okay, so so I really do believe that evan peters really shines in the role of quick silver, like he's really. He seems to really like have fun with it. I love how, how kind of quirky he is. But yeah, dude, hey, you know. I mean we're talking about him right now. I know it's like kind of smack dab in the middle of the movie or kind of towards the end, like maybe two-thirds of the way in probably about no, it's about halfway I would say it's about halfway yeah it's a long movie.
Speaker 2:It's it's about two, two hours 20 something minutes. We're back to that like super long x-men movie at this point stage. And yeah, let's talk a little bit about the beginning. I felt that it was actually a really interesting way to introduce the character of apocalypse. You know, we have him.
Speaker 2:I guess they've finished building one of the pyramids and he is getting ready for his like transference, where he like puts his consciousness into another mutant's body, taking their powers as well as all the old powers that he absorbs from other mutants. It's a pretty like terrifying concept because if he keeps doing that like, he's just all-powerful. You know, and that's his goal in this movie. He eventually finds out that there's a guy named Professor X who has the ability, if pushed, to be able to speak to everyone on the planet at the same time in any language that you know the person listening could, you know, understand, which is a really op ability it really is, yeah, yeah but in this you know 3600 bce scene he is betrayed by some of his people and his like four horsemen of the apocalypse kind of do everything in their power to entomb him for the next 5600 years or so so that he can wreak havoc.
Speaker 2:Sorry, havoc jokes, Havoc's dead guys Spoiler. Yeah, wreak havoc on the present.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is interesting. And you know, thinking back on apocalypse, I don't know if his power was the inspiration for characters like All for One. One for All has that ability too, but All for One has that kind of quirk transference that he can do or take on quirks for himself.
Speaker 2:Yes, where he can kind of collect quirks. Right, right, right, and so that's very like apocalypse, like yes yeah, that is actually a really interesting point talking about my hero academia.
Speaker 2:For those of you that don't watch anime yeah, a big villain from that manga and anime but kind of a weird like segue to the present day is is moira mactaggart in an indiana jones outfit. You know, in cairo digging around in like dirty pyramids and you know seeing these people, these random egyptian people, chant something to bring back apocalypse. But like he's been gone for over five, almost six thousand years at this point. He's been gone that long, how would they know how to resurrect him? There was nothing inscribed on the tomb that would bring him back. There also was no paper trail for any of his acolytes to like have written anything down anyway, because they all died at that. You know, his four horsemen died right there, like who left these instructions for these egyptians to raise him from the dead. It's not like the mummy where there was like egyptians to raise them from the dead. It's not like the mummy where there was, like ancient egyptian, like books of the dead to like you know, right, right, it's funny that you said that.
Speaker 1:It's funny that you said that because I was literally thinking at the beginning of that movie, felt so much, so like the mummy yeah, I think that's pretty much how hollywood has always adapted ancient Egypt resurrection stories.
Speaker 2:I guess, if that makes sense, which, you know, it's a popular genre, like it's mysterious, it sells who were these ancient geniuses who were afraid of cats. You know who isn't afraid of cats? Though Apocalypse, he doesn't need to be afraid of cats. When he gets back to the real world, he takes it upon himself to touch a TV and when Storm asks him what are you doing, he goes learning. I was dying laughing Because, like at the time, there's what? Five channels on TV. How is he like downloading it? Like the internet it's not like you know, there's just like a database of, like radio waves that he can tap into. It's just happening in real time. So he'd have to watch. He'd have to be on like stuck to the tv for a good like 10 days to get all the information that, like he actually was able to consume he was.
Speaker 1:It was like that scene from transformers but, like you know, in in transformers.
Speaker 2:I mean, it was like 2007 at that time.
Speaker 1:So the internet has. They had the internet at their disposal like there.
Speaker 2:You know there was none, nothing like that, like he'd have to go to like the library for that information.
Speaker 1:But anyway, I digress dude, there was a lot of mutants in this movie a lot. They did a really interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they they introduced a couple characters, they recast a couple characters. They actually recast a lot. They did a really interesting yeah. Yeah, they, they introduced a couple characters, they recast a couple characters. They actually recast a lot of the characters and, yeah, they played with the timeline a little bit. Like they changed up some things that happened in the original timeline that didn't necessarily happen at this point in the timeline, like they introduced nightcrawler a lot earlier yes to these characters like he didn't know any of these mutants prior to his events in x-men 2, x2 emo emo nightcrawler.
Speaker 1:I liked it.
Speaker 2:I liked I liked that character a lot actually uh, we also get angel too a very, very, very different version of angel, who's like not afraid to hide his powers, which you know he was very much afraid to hide his powers in x-men 3 right, yeah, and it was kind of interesting because, like right, when we were first introduced to him he was fighting the blob yes, another character that we had been introduced to, kind of strangely, in x-men origins wolverine, and I think they just kind of I think they realized how bad that movie was and they've just excised any hint that that ever happened.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, yeah, so he's, he's, he faces off the blob and the blob is actually wearing his like comic accurate outfit, so like there's no mistaking that it is the blob oh, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:If you knew what the blob looked like going into that movie, you knew it was him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you knew what the blob looked like going into that movie, you knew it was him yeah, but one thing, one thing that's interesting is that this is I think this was in 2018 this movie I think like 2016, oh 2016 yeah okay, so it's a little earlier than I thought, but yeah, 2016, and you can start to see like some serious mcu-ification in terms of themes and the way that the story progresses, because there's no at this point.
Speaker 2:This is the third movie in the trilogy, of this new trilogy, and they don't treat it like an ending like x-men the last stand. Did you know? Like x-men the last stand. It was very clear to be an ending Like, from start to finish, this was like the final hurrah for those characters. This movie kind of just treats it like another leg in the saga of these characters, another like MCU-ification. I keep saying that as if it's like a word. It's not a word, I'm just using.
Speaker 2:It is the outfits, like you know, like the really randomly paneled like super suits, you know, like they have like pauldrons that like have way too much decoration and there's even scenes of like Apocalypse, like you know, taking his time making these like super suits for his four horsemen of the Apocalypse. It's so stupid looking easily the worst magneto costume ever. It just it was so hideous. I don't know what they were thinking, but they thought they were eating like. They thought like this is it man, this is the coolest thing ever put to the screen. Wait, we talked about how do we do this? Hold on. We spoke about quicksilver and days of future past.
Speaker 1:We totally skipped over his scene in this movie well, hey, you were like oh, let's go back to the beginning. I was like well, I guess we'll talk about it later.
Speaker 2:Well, let's talk about it, yeah sorry it's, it's all fresh to me. Guys, you have to understand that like between the like. So I started watching it last night. Then I had to pause it because acolyte episode 5 dropped and I was getting spoilers online and from anthony yeah, I was blowing up his phone.
Speaker 2:I said I'm gonna have to upload the deets so I I finished it today and like the first scene that you know, like right smack dab in the middle of the movie, is the scene where he decides hey, you know what I'm gonna go to? I'm just gonna happen to go to Charles Xavier's go for gifted youngsters, which I don't know why he didn't go there to begin with, like I feel like that's something that he should have done.
Speaker 1:I you know, like 10 years ago, like looks for them at some point.
Speaker 2:I mean, because, he had like the card and like location it doesn't take him long to get places right, yeah he gets there really quick, like he could go there visit and, you know, be back in five minutes. It's. It's really it's a it's a quick trip for him, but anyway, the scene is fantastic. They did a really good job of you know, the x mansion is exploding, thanks to you know, havoc wreaking havoc right apocalypse breaks in and steals professor x, you know yes, because of that ability that you talked about earlier.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, yeah, because there's a whole scene, you know, I mean we'll get back. Because there's that whole scene, you know, I mean we'll get back to this, but that whole scene and honestly it was a really cool scene where Professor Xavier was reaching out looking for Magneto, right. And then he gets hijacked by Apocalypse. That was actually like kind of crazy.
Speaker 2:That was a cool scene. And then they kind of did the whole. We can, you know, arm all the warheads you know around the world. Again, kind of they did their Cuban Missile Crisis, but like around the whole world. And then Apocalypse is just like no more super weapons, and he just sends them off into space, even though he has the power to just disintegrate them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I guess he just wanted to like make a show of, like how easy it is for him to control mankind, or whatever. Like look what I can do that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Look at me. But yeah, so, so apocalypse. He kidnaps professor xavier and, yeah, havoc in the, in the middle of like trying to save him, blows up. It was like the engine of the jet right like that that beast is working on and so it causes this like kind of chain explosion and yeah, this is where we get to quicksilver and dude I.
Speaker 1:I love that in this movie and in the last movie, like both of the quicksilver moments had like he had these like headphones on. He's just like it's like it's like another day in quicksilver's life of saving people. Like he's just like, yeah, let me just throw some music on and he's just like running. But I love that. It's like his speed is like he can like control. It's not like a one note speed, he can control how fast he's going and like there's moments where it's almost time manipulation, right, right. And yeah, like there's those moments where like time had almost like really completely stopped or it's like moving very, very slow and I like how it swaps between that and like real time, like okay, yeah, this is blowing up, but he's like still moving the the. The part I love in that was that he goes up to the roof and like there's that guy trying to kiss the girl and his reaction is just like yeah, just he's like eats them yes, he throws them.
Speaker 1:But it's so awesome because he kind of sets it up to where he puts out sheets. He rolls somebody up in like a mattress and throws them out the window. The freaking dog eating the pizza.
Speaker 2:My favorite part is actually, like you know, he's in the main foyer and like there's a bunch of kids that are about to get blown up and he takes the time to like get like a glass of something, like a vase, and like scoops up all the fish and has the girl hold the fish. Oh yeah, yeah, it was like the fish bowl that.
Speaker 1:I guess, it was getting like thrown up into the air and like, yeah, he grabs it and puts it in the hand of the girl. Yeah, dude, that was so funny. If there's anything to be said about this movie, there are definitely some really awesome scenes, and this is definitely one of those scenes. Like you said, like, oh, I think it's my favorite.
Speaker 2:I think this is my favorite one also so I think I still like the novelty of the one in Days of Future Past a little bit better. This one's longer, but I feel like, because it was the first time we've ever seen anything like that in Days of Future Past, it hit harder for me. I still think that that is the better scene. Even though this was really cool, I do think that the reason they didn't keep doing it for the next film because I don't think that there is another Quicksilver scene in Dark Phoenix right I don't think so.
Speaker 2:It's been so long since I've seen that one.
Speaker 1:I don't even know if he was in that movie.
Speaker 2:I don't think he is. But what I will say is that I think that the novelty of doing scenes like that, movie after movie, will start to wane after a little time, right, yeah?
Speaker 1:yeah, like the like it being, it starts becoming special. You know I I was still like between that first scene and then the, the second scene in this movie. You know I I still like very much so enjoyed it, even though, like we got those movies years apart, I had seen these two movies in the span of a week, you know.
Speaker 2:So you know, you know who? Quicksilver kind of reminded me of that character, Ralph Boner in WandaVision.
Speaker 1:I had to say it. I thought it was awesome that they did bring him into the fold of that. Oh, it was fantastic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was fantastic. Yeah, it was awesome that they did bring him into the fold of that. Oh it was fantastic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was fantastic. Yeah, dude, like I mean he's easily definitely like one of my favorite characters, like in both of these films, you know, days of Future Past and Apocalypse I just think that the casting was great, I think that they nailed it as far as that casting.
Speaker 2:What was it? What do you think about Olivia Munn as Psyluck?
Speaker 1:It was interesting. I felt like, although she was in the movie a lot, I felt like we didn't get so much of her character, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:I don't. I think she might have two lines in the whole movie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I feel like she has the look of Psylocke and maybe casting-wise the look was pretty good. But maybe if I would have gotten a little bit more of Psylocke and, like you know, maybe casting wise the look was pretty good, but like, maybe if I would have gotten a little bit more of her acting wise, then maybe I could have had a little bit more of a definitive opinion on her. But like, really all I can say is, yeah, she looks like Psylocke, but you know, I mean the powers looked cool. I do wish that we had gotten a little bit more of Psylocke, because I do think that Psylocke is a pretty interesting character, you know, with the energy blades and stuff. What do you think about this version of Storm that we got? Interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the character has a much thicker accent than the Halle Berry.
Speaker 2:Right, halle Berry is like American and this one is like I mean very much every now and then every now and then in like the first movie, you can get like a kind of a hint of maybe something else, like in the background of her accent, but I don't know if that's just Halle Berry. But yeah, she was definitely supposed to be like an American character, I think. But this character I don't think she was like from Wakanda, like she is in the comics, but she's definitely african right like I can't place exactly where the accent would have been from.
Speaker 2:But yeah she I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be like she was from cairo or she just happened to be in cairo when things went down, I don't know right, so we had talked about Angel and the person that kind of like finally slot in that last spot of you.
Speaker 1:Like you said, the four horsemen of the apocalypse is Magneto, which is easily the strongest one out of all four of them, you know yeah, and they, they really play with that you.
Speaker 2:You know Aurora Storm. She is an Omega-level mutant, as is Magneto, but I think, just because of what you can do with metal and the vast amount of power that you can siphon from the Earth, his power is just naturally there's more to it.
Speaker 1:You can do whatever you want with metal and honestly, there's so much metal at a microscopic level, there's some sort of metal going on, you know. I mean we had a scene like that in X2 where he's like oh, you have a lot of iron in your blood.
Speaker 2:Right, right, and you know that is a natural thing to have in blood, but like not too much, you know.
Speaker 1:Right, you have in blood, but like not too much, you know, right and and so, yeah, it was interesting that apocalypse kind of enhanced their abilities too, where he was kind of able to pick up the metal and like dirt, you know, yes, and he did that with all of them.
Speaker 1:Like angel, he had his regular wings, but one of them was injured during a fight with him and, uh, nightrawler, where Nightcrawler gets saved by Mystique he has an injured wing and Apocalypse turns those into metal and Apocalypse increases, like the energy output for Psylocke, and he increased the powers of Storm to, I guess, make her an Omega level weather manipulator, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they never really. I feel like they didn't utilize her power all that much in this movie like there was no point where I was just like, wow, they're really like going crazy with you know, like a super advanced storm abilities here. They just gave her crackly hands a lot. You know, like every scene with storm. You know her eyes were like glowing and like she had, you know, palpatine hands, but she that that was.
Speaker 2:That was pretty much it. With magneto, though, when they increased his power, homeboy was literally able to manipulate the entire like metal around the world, like he was creating whole magnetic fields that were like interweaving throughout the entire planet, like it was so op, basically like I clocked out of the movie. You know, I kind of like I shook my head the moment, like they were in auschwitz and like he was able to like just destroy all the buildings because he was able to tap into the microscopic levels of metal and everything, and I was just kind of like I I was just like all right, it's not fun anymore if he could just do anything. Know, I think that for me is like the there has to be a limit for it to be interesting.
Speaker 2:And that's the movie kept going and it was just like now we have, you know, all the silos in the world that we can, you know, open up and send into space at the same time.
Speaker 1:We. There is such a thing as like too much power. You know, like you want to have that good balance and you know that like I mean I've had that issue before, you know, with heroes just like having too much power.
Speaker 2:I thought you were going to say I had that issue before where I had too much power.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you know. I mean remember back a couple of episodes ago. I remember I told you that I was an x-man for some fans.
Speaker 2:And yeah, man, omega level dang wow, I didn't realize we were in the presence of such a such a humble, humble person. No, I'm kidding, but yeah, I, I think, I, I truly do believe that giving characters limits to their power makes them more interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it does, it does.
Speaker 2:Even, like you know, they always bring back Wolverine for even one little scene. He didn't even have a talking scene in this movie. He just you know had to rampage and claw a couple people up.
Speaker 1:I know, yeah, it was so crazy because, like I forgot about that scene, I was like, oh my gosh, yeah, wolverine was in this movie. So, yeah, let's just completely just throw out everything that happened before out the window and just create our own continuity.
Speaker 2:Which is exactly what they did, you know they did. What I appreciate about Days of Future Past is that they gave them a clean slate, even though that clean slate pretty much ends up right back to the original trilogy, you know, with all of those teachers just being teachers at the school, even though they're still alive, you know, at the end of that movie, but anyway I, I didn't right.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I guess, at that point, yeah, the timeline did change and so at this point, yeah, I guess that they could have witnessed wolverine's breakout and that they did know him in the future, you know. So, yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right but it was interesting.
Speaker 2:I never disliked seeing Wolverine in a movie, but it did feel obligatory. You know like it was just like well, we have William Stryker, we're at that random dam, we might as well show Weapon X, right right, you know I'm gonna be honest with you.
Speaker 1:I just felt like, with the presence of apocalypse, striker was almost like didn't need to be in that movie they gave us a lot.
Speaker 2:There was a whole lot going on. You know, they had so many characters they had to separate some of them for a good chunk of the movie.
Speaker 1:They had to, you know. Just stop adding them, you know I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't begrudge the movie that I don't begrudge the movie for having two villains like one a human villain and the other Apocalypse.
Speaker 1:I don't begrudge there being two villains, but I begrudge that they weren't utilized so well, at least for me. I felt like with the Because Apocalypse is is a massive villain. It's like facing off against a Darkseid or a Thanos. You don't really need this other guy here, you know.
Speaker 2:And ultimately they got captured by Striker, and the only real thing that came out of that was A Wolverine scene.
Speaker 2:A Wolverine scene and I think that they had taken their DNA Because in the post-credit scene they have like the Weapon X DNA alongside a couple other DNA. So I'm assuming, you know, they give it to Dr Sinister or something you know, in the next movie, I'm guessing. I don't know, but I did find it funny that they had the characters go and get locked up by William Stryker, only for Professor X to do that like announcement to everyone and William Stryker only for Professor X to do that like announcement to everyone, and William Stryker's just like hey guys, what's going on?
Speaker 1:and they're like we have no idea so what do you think about some of these other castings, like we got Sophie Turner as Jean Grey and Ty Sheridan as Scott Summers yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I'm not opposed to it. Obviously they needed to recast those characters. Well, here's the problem in general that I have with these movies the original trilogy they came out and the movies are supposed to happen like one after the other. They're. They're maybe, I think, between two and three, there's a couple of years between them, but with these movies they're literally 10 years apart. You know, we had the Russian Missile Crisis in like what? 63? Then we had the end of Vietnam in 73. And then we had Sophie Turner and these guys watching Return of the Jedi in 83. They're literally 10 years apart, turner and these guys watching return of the jedi in 83. They're literally 10 years apart. The entire, by the way, the entire purpose of them randomly walking out of return of the jedi was just to say this is 1983, guys, like that's a pop culture reference, so that we could all put ourselves right, right, put it in the timeline, yeah none of these characters have aged from the original movie.
Speaker 2:We have magneto, charles xavier, beast mystique, havoc havoc still looks like he's 22.
Speaker 1:Like what's going on right, yeah, you, you would. I mean like 20 years has passed by at this point, like there would be some aging. There would be some aging, yeah the only way that I that could prop the only person that could probably get away with it, but probably really wouldn't because you know wouldn't do it, would be mystique, because mystique can be anybody and she has longer life than most people right she has extended life so that works for her character.
Speaker 1:But everyone else no, but yeah, I get it. I get it I mean just for the sake of continuity, just like yeah, age.
Speaker 2:So I mean yeah and then the next movie. It's like in the 90s, right, like it's literally another decade, and then you still have like ty sheridan and sophie turner playing these characters.
Speaker 1:I like that they gave us jubilee, like very briefly and then just disappeared her like she was not important to the plot I know that kind of sucked because I felt like it could have been a fun character. I was like, oh, she does look like Jubilee, like she had like the outfit and like kind of that vibe. She had the fit yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she totally fit. So I was excited to see more of that, just because that's such a fun character, and not just the comics, but like the cartoons and everything, she's a recognizable character.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So that was a little bit of a letdown that they didn't do that, but I did like ty sheridan as scott summers. I didn't think I was gonna like sophie turner as jean gray, but I also kind of liked it you know, yeah, I feel like she portrayed that character pretty well, like it was believable she had the trauma aspect down. You know she probably got so much trauma on the set of game of thrones.
Speaker 1:You know, after you know, father died you know she had to like, literally like half the family dying literally probably a little bit more than half the family, to be honest.
Speaker 2:But yeah, anyway, I think both of those characters did really well. I really like this, the scene where scott summers is in school and he's like he goes to the bathroom and he's just like I. His powers are starting to come in yes, and the guy just gets blasted, he gets obliterated, you know, like the bully. It's just like why are you crying? I haven't even beat you up yet. And then he just got like scrunched onto the wall like it was a pretty juicy beatdown yeah, it was interesting.
Speaker 1:I liked what they did with kind of like the effect of makeup, where he was starting to feel the heat of the concussive blast and the area around his eyes were starting to turn red like puffy oh yeah, there was definitely something burning and it's kind of subtly coming in like you saw a flash of it before his eyes went back to normal.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I really I like scott summers as a character, like I think the movies kind of did him dirty, especially the original trilogy, because they just kind of made him be the boy scout, the boy scout, but also like the angry boyfriend character that logan also always has to compete with, which is something that he does in the comics, but he's a much more rounded character in the comics and the cartoons and all that. So I like what they did with him. They gave him a lot of character in this. I liked the subplot of, like you know, he just lost his brother in that explosion and he feels like he needs to step up a little bit, and I also feel for the character because, like, unlike his brother, who can control his powers, he will never be able to control his powers and that's, it's just a crazy thing for him.
Speaker 1:You and like to not be able to fully, ever control their powers right, the thing with Havoc is that, like you know, it's kind of like this beam that he creates, but, yeah, like this beam is coming out of out of Scott's eyes, you know, yeah, and it's just continuous. Man, it's crazy that that they were able to like come up with the whole concept of these specialized glasses that can like contain the blast, you know yeah, like.
Speaker 2:What do they do? Do they just like? Is there a constant blast happening behind those glasses? Is it like bouncing back into his eyes? Or is it somehow like negating the effect when the glasses are over his eyes? I don't know. Let us know in the comments down below when scott showed his powers to professor xavier it'd be like good scene, yeah, he like cuts down that tree.
Speaker 1:He was like yeah, you know, my grandfather planted that tree when he was five. Yeah, you know, it was one of my favorite trees.
Speaker 2:Yeah, swung in the branches, I'm like like he's like that might actually be my favorite excited about this like guy's abilities, but is he like, just like being sarcastic here in this moment?
Speaker 2:I think he's he did consider that you know his favorite tree or one of his favorite trees, because it had a story behind it, right? But you know at that moment, what are you gonna do, like this guy's at his lowest point in his life ever. You know at that moment, what are you going to do Like this guy's at his lowest point in his life ever. You know, like up to this point, and what are you going to do? You kind of have to like, oh well, it was just a tree, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, before we wrap this up, let's talk about the final battle, because I think that is actually something that I enjoyed. You know, I didn't necessarily like the whole magneto destroying the entire world for no reason whatsoever. Nothing happened besides like him making like a force field around apocalypse or something. I will say that the final battle between all the x-men and apocalypse was really well done, because you need that thanos type villain, that that Avengers-level threat, to really bring a cast like that together, and I think they did a really good job with it. I liked that there was a parallel battle going on inside Charles Xavier's mind as well as the actual battle on the outside, and that Apocalypse was so powerful that he could have that battle on two fronts. But you know who else could have that battle on two fronts? Jean Grey.
Speaker 1:Marvel Girl Right and she like, taps into, like Phoenix powers.
Speaker 2:Which was super cool. I think that was the coolest-looking Phoenix power that we've seen in live action up to this point.
Speaker 1:Right, and she talks about it too, that like she's had a struggle, she's like it's not the telekinesis it's not being able to read minds.
Speaker 2:There's something else there, right? Yeah, and I'm assuming that, whatever happens in this scene where she unlocked the powers of the phoenix to help defeat apocalypse, you know like she didn't destroy apocalypse, but she was the catalyst that allowed him and his force field to like be penetrated, and everyone else attacked him at the same time, which was great.
Speaker 1:I like that yeah, I feel like, honestly, she was probably the biggest threat to him out there I think so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think definitely, and she was in control of her powers at this point. You know, like if she had lost control she could have done it probably on her own if the phoenix came out oh yeah, like, just like.
Speaker 1:Unhinged phoenix is just next level. What? You know, and we've been talking about, you know all these characters and stuff. What do you think about apocalypse? I mean, you know, this is oscar isaacs in apocalypse sometimes it was done really well.
Speaker 2:Like I said, in the final battle he was menacing. He was able to kind of you know, he basically had the powers of the infinity gauntlet you know at his disposal because of his lifetimes, of, you know, absorbing other mutants. So he had that gravitas most of the movie. He didn't like a lot of the movie.
Speaker 2:He's just kind of like let's give you a new suit, come on, guys that was his best part, dakota no, his best part was when he touched the tv and he goes look, look, he learned a lot with those five channels. Okay, dakota he did, he did we. We have to talk about magneto, his introduction in the story, because you know he's been doing his own thing for 10 years. He's raised a family. He's a working class dude. You know he's been doing his own thing for 10 years.
Speaker 1:He's raised a family.
Speaker 2:He's a working class dude, you know. He's not living life large or anything, but he's living a normal, happy life. And something happens at work. He literally saved someone's life and they rat him out to the police. They think he's eric lyncher magneto. And then there's that fantastic scene like it was one of the best magneto scenes ever where we see that his daughter has the ability to like communicate with animals and in a act of fear she, you know, thinking that they were going to take her father away from her, something that she feared earlier in the movie she sends all these animals towards these policemen, which causes one of the policemen to release his bow and kill not only the daughter but the mother as well. So in one fell swoop, because of eric's past, his newfound family is dead all of a sudden and she's wearing that locket around the neck and he, you know, makes quick work of that dude.
Speaker 1:That was crazy.
Speaker 2:It was like it was almost like that coin that he had I think it was, it was supposed to, you know, kind of symbolize that the way, kind of symbolize that yeah, yes, yeah, that was crazy, yeah, that was it?
Speaker 1:that was a crazy scene and it was just. It was interesting. Yeah, like you know, magneto had found somebody that accepted him, like his wife knew who, you know his abilities and stuff and still accepted him. And so having that and his daughter just like all like lost and just like in an instant, you know, definitely felt for the guy yeah, so thank you guys for listening to episode 87 of project geekology.
Speaker 2:As always, my name is dakota and I'm joined, as always, with anton.
Speaker 1:Wow, he's anton now I am, you know, because they were over in europe. You know. I had to add a little bit of flair to that. What are we covering next weekend? Is it Logan? Are we covering Logan, or is it Deadpool 2?
Speaker 2:Ooh I think it's Deadpool 2. Let me double check. So after X-Men Apocalypse oh, it is Logan. We're covering Logan next Woo.
Speaker 1:I actually really like Logan I actually really like logan.
Speaker 2:Logan is, like, by far the best wolverine movie, yeah, okay. So I'm excited we we got some good stuff. Thanks, guys. You can check out all of our stuff in the show notes down below. Be sure to let us know how you like the show by giving us a five star rating. Wherever you listen to your podcast, have a good one. Bye y'all. Next time the wool logan.
