So my topic is regarding the next X-men movie of 2016 X-men Age of Apocalypse. I want to know fan opinions for a movie how would Apocalypse best be portrayed to be both menacing and a true worthy opponent. My thinking is the film should not rush to show him in his massive hulky form.

1. A giant villain rarely seems truly menacing, in fact making him a cgi hulk seems to overshadow his awesome power set

2. I don't think a superhero movie works with a giant fighting small groups of mutants swarming all around him.It may work in comics but on screen it kind of looks silly.

My take would be to build him up as a menace through the film, we know he can possess or astral project himself vast distances so why not make him initially some essence that possesses mutants and in the process enhances their power, or having a gradual revitalization through his horsemen. Like if the story goes that to be awakened 4 celestial elements at different points on earth hidden for centuries when combined are an activation key for his revitalization chamber that is a machine that would evolve all mutants on earth to their peak but kill every human(even if it is similar to the X-men 1 idea, but this seems a different trilogy so I think it's OK). We have Apocalypse possess and work through first one horseman retrieving a component element/key and then another and at every point we can have X men battle him in a new form ,through taking over a new host .Then with the movie progressing we can say 3 times the X-men get defeated as he takes 3 of the 4 keys. Each horseman would grow in power set as he transfers his essence to the next , so that the next from retains the powers of the first host and also gets new abilities of the current host.To make the film dark maybe each horseman dies when his essence leaves and that is why he needs to find his revitalisation pod to keep his body permanent without needing hosts. he is finally stopped when the 4th horseman is defeated so that his full power or form is not complete and the master revitalization pod is destroyed before he can enter it.

Anyway I was just thinking what would make the story engaging and almost mystical in a way. I mentioned on here before that i don't want Apocalypse to mimic Kang the Conqueror where we have all emphasis on celestial technology and robots, it would be too much like Avengers.I think he should be shown as an essence that when he possesses a mutant maybe some glowing circuitry (almost tattoo like) is shown on their face or body and they turn dark grey in colour and their eyes glow red .Once his in a mutant's body he exhibits his own powers like shape shifting, morphing his body into blades or even power mimicry i.e able to duplicate powers of mutants he fights against while in his host as well as rendering his hosts temporarily(while he inhabits them) indestructible in a much more potent way than even wolverine enabling him to regenerate blown off body parts if he is facing an army or heavy weaponry. As the movie progresses and he gets a new host the newer host has a bigger form and becomes a more and more powerful Apocalypse , his body also evolves in every host such that on top of more powers the celestial tech also is shown to be evolving into a more dangerous weapon system enabling him to morph his body into weapons that can even shoot projectiles or split into autonomous smaller duplicate entities.

Obviously with each essence combining into another , every succeeding body of the horseman host would grow in size and so by the end of the movie we can have a larger Apocalypse that is closer to his comic form and by the end of the 3 horsemen combining he has an awesome power set. We can actually say he selectively picks his horsemen for their power sets that he enhances with his celestial technology that is part of his being, perhaps first horseman could be Sinister who is effectively immortal, the next horseman could be a cyborg like Spiral, the 3rd a telepath maybe Exodus, the 4th a reality-warper. So you get the idea the movie builds up as it goes to an awesome climax. At the end in fact we can have the host/4th horseman that was defeated retain the apocalypse essence so that while Apocalypse's scheme is defeated one of the 'cogs' is still present and so Apocalypse is free to be a threat another day even if this is a concluding chapter to the trilogy.

What do you guys think, I want fans of Apocalypse in particular to brainstorm on ideas here...

since singer is directing, lets not expect it to be religiously truthful to the comic version. I would like to see

for years x-men trains underground to finally take on apocalypse and his horsemen. One by one the x-men takes down each horseman.

Then they attack apocalypse's castle. x-men to attack apocalypse at the same time. each member can show off their powers here.

storm to throw multiple lightning bolts, colosus punches him, iceman do an instant freeze and magneto shatters apocalypse with his powers.

jean and logan to have a super powerful teenage kid = Rachel, but jean will still runaway with scott and die

@darthphoenix: I dont think storm will be in that movie, it is mainly the first class cast. But hopefully she will.

I hope Marvel takes back X-Men when it's done with Fox.

@abaldo: i also hope she will be, they can't take on such an epic and infamous villain and not have the core, favourite characters, that would be such a let down.

@moonstorm: My thoughts exactly! Apocalypse is more of a villain for the original trilogy characters & actual x-men! Not the first class characters! Who cares seeing mystique & beast trying to tke on apocalypse (like they even could) apocalypse needs actual power houses. I would love at the end of DOFP jean & scott be brought back from time being changed & then wed have our original core characters. Cyclops, storm, jean, wolverine, rogue, iceman & collosus! Now tht would be a battle & realistically theyed have a better shot at winning against apocalypse with those power houses. I just hate there focusing on first class characters for this villain considering there not even really x-men & the characters are weaker in comparison to the original trilogy ones. I'm positive fox knows tht their not the popular characters i mean cuz point A) first class was the lowest grossing X movie. I mean yea it did good at box office but not as good as the others & i believe its cuz they put in lesser known & not as popular characters. Jst my opinion tho.

I think that is waaaay too technical. Its a film made for a mass audience, most of which don't know much about X-Men. I highly doubt you will see any magic or celestial technology either. I imagine Apocalypse will just be some all powerful ancient mutant.

I am sure we will see an interesting take on the Apocalypse character with Gambit and Nightcrawler supposedly joining the X-Men, and let's not forget of course, the events of DOFP will likely alter the X-Men franchises history/timeline...so who knows, maybe we will see characters like Cyclops join the X-Men

Apocalypse could be played by VING RHAMES ( my first pick would've been Michael Clarke Duncan ) but Who Knows Who will Ultimately get that coveted role? (:)

@bigfoot09: so true, i totally agree with u! i don't care much for jean grey but yeah it would be rad to see Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, Storm, Beast, Iceman and Colossus take on Apocalypse, and if they managed to throw in Gambit it would really be like the animated series come to life :)

I have a feeling this will be in there

I honestly hope they stay as close to the Apocalypse we all know and love as possible. I for one hope he does change sizes, maybe not get Godzilla big, but 12 feet tall or a little more. Let's face it, Apocalypse is the be all end all of XMen villians. So he needs to be well represented. They have shown Magnito doing some pretty impressive things, and IMO Apocalypse is 10x as powerful as Magneto. The more I think about it, the more I think it should be 2 films, I just don't think they can really do his story properly in a 2 hr time frame. Apocalypse usually had time travel elements to his stories also, so maybe the XMen have to beat him over the course of 2 time periods perhaps? IDK how they are going to do it, but it better be closer to X2 and DOFP ane less like X3 and Origins.

I really liked how X men evolution brought on Apocalypse, every so often you would get a glimps of mesmero opening one of the four doors, and it really brought the suspense of apocalypse. As for the horsemen I thought I saw a link confirming that Selene , Archangel, Holocaust (Apocalypse's son) and Exodus. I know the movie will be a disaster type movie and will look at how ancient people looked at mutants as Gods, and should give Apocalypse good character like why he believes in survival of the fittest. I would like to see celestial form apocalypse, as well as AOA. Just his orgins could be a movie, he is one of my favorite mutants and iv been waiting for this movie since the 90's animated series I watched as a kid, I just hope Bryan can pull it off. Im pretty confident in him after DOFP.

I'd want a much cleaner, streamlined version of the character and plot. It's not really a complex set up - he disagrees that the X-Men are doing the right thing by encouraging weakness, and his belief brings him into conflict with them when he starts attacking major cities. It would be like World War 1 with mutants. This could be the equivalent of "The Avengers" in scale if done right - Apocalypse doesn't really lend himself well to small, character-driven stories.

Yea I am with you all the way here. His motives clash with the X-men which then makes things personal.

I want to see maybe too much in this movie?

-Excellent feats. This is a disaster movie. I want to see Cyclops omni-blast a whole horizon of Apocalypse' army. Storm, using lightning bolts, tornadoes, Hail storms, all effortlessly in combat. Full force Jean Grey like we've never seen her before. Using her Telekinesis to levitate herself moving at sonic speeds, create Psionic force fields, taking machinery, weapons and artillery apartment with her mind, again effortlessly.

-Cyclops as a tactical leader, a strategist, focused. Sure. Storm head strong without being obnoxious or insubordinate. Opinions formed from reason and a sound mind. Jean, sure of herself, confident, wrestling to control the great power within her. I want to see them all grow with personal issues that tie into the arc.

I would say the reason they're more powerful is Xavier is more intent on making his X-men better trained for combat so he and Beast push it especially considering the horrific future they've seen.

-A menacing, charismatic, terrifying and intelligent Apocalypse. Who builds the nation of Genosha into global prominence and wages war on a world who cares for and "accommodates" the weak. I'd like to see factions of his army led by the horseman taking on multiple world powers at the same time. He even boasts the ability to wipe out Earth by himself with one blast, but would rather rebuild it in fire. His powerset is ridiculous and he can tank all of the X-men's best shots with just a smile. A total team effort wins here and they don't destroy him but BFR or trap him outta time or something...

Meh