And Now, Bryan Singer's Point-by-Point Defense of Every Aspect of X-Men's Apocalypse
Katharine Trendacosta
Today 9:30am
Image: X-Men Apocalypse, 20th Century Fox
Ever since the very first images of Oscar Isaac as Apocalypse were released, pretty much everyone of a certain age had the same reaction: “Is that Ivan Ooze from the
Power Rangers movie?” Well, now Bryan Singer’s stepped up to defend his choices.
His defense for the first and very purple mutant was given at a press visit. Here’s what he said, via
IGN:
There was an image released on Entertainment Weekly, where the effect hadn’t been put in yet, so everyone was — the effect has a pink light on it, and everyone got lit up pink, so people thought Apocalypse was going to be pink. I was like, ‘No, no, they’re all pink. Take a look. Everyone in the picture is pink. It’s a pink picture.’ They maybe just should have taken the pink out of the picture — I should have taken the pink out of the picture. I’m going to take some blame for that. My fault, not Entertainment Weekly’s. That’s the picture I gave them.
Yes, it is. And even though we’ve since seen Apocalypse as blue and with white eyes, those initial impressions have stuck. Even in the “right” color, the shape and expression still strike an Ooze-like note, at least for those who are already primed to see it. On the other hand, the full movie could definitely eliminate that association as people see a lot of un-
Power Rangers-likeaction.
Singer also defended having an Apocalypse who doesn’t appear to be a giant. While he could have cast a body builder, Singer said that it was more important to him to have an actor who can nail “his power of persuasion, and it was very important that he’d be able to connect with his horsemen, at their level, and that he’d be played by a guy who can actually act like Oscar, who’s a fantastic actor.” Plus, we’ve seen him grow in size in the trailer, in a fight with Professor X. Could be a mind battle, but still.
And, rounding out this his defense, Singer had to reckon with the completely normal voice the character had in the first trailer. The director said that they had to use Isaac’s normal voice because, essentially, they didn’t have time to fix it before the trailer came out. “We just needed those words to govern the first teaser. So people thought, ‘Oh, wait, is that going to be his voice during the whole movie?’ It’s like, no, but to tell the story of the first teaser, we needed the voice, and I hadn’t recreated the voice yet.” Seems like they really thought they could get away with using unfinished sights and sounds in marketing this movie, and have since discovered that the internet is place full of nitpicking nerds. Which, guilty as charged.
Basically, all of his explanations boil down to the same thing: we haven’t seen the final product. Which is perfectly fair, but you know what they say: “You only get one chance to make a first impression.”