Director Bryan Singer may be the father of the modern superhero movie. Christopher Nolan may have perfected the medium with The Dark Knight Trilogy, but Singer was the man who started it all with the first X-Men film. From his first mutant film, the dark, flawed, but overall enjoyable X-Men, to X2, his bowing out of the franchise (resulting in the abomination that is X-Men: The Last Stand), and reinvigorating it as producer of First Class, and returning to the director’s chair for the excellent Days of Future Past, Singer has created a mammoth franchise that reboots, and corrects itself. There is no other movie franchise like it, and his latest instalment, X-Men: Apocalypse may be the most divisive of the bunch.

Apocalypse is the final part of the prequel trilogy that started with Mathew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class, follows the fallout of Days of Future Past 10 years later in 1983. We begin, however, in ancient Egypt where powerful mutant, some say the first ever mutant, En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac, under a mountain of make-up) becomes trapped, only to be awoken in 1983. His awakening, and generic villain plan to destroy the world (probably, it’s a little vague), while recruiting a mutant posse called the Four Horseman, which includes a young Storm, Archangel, Psylocke, and an emotionally wounded Magneto (Michael Fassbender), poses a threat to Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and his school of mutants, who stand in his way.

The plot is a little convoluted, and the first third of the film is spent introducing, or reintroducing, the films huge cast of characters. We get young versions of Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Nightcrawler (complete with badass Michael Jackson Thriller jacket), who do most of the films heavy lifting on the good guys side. This is a film that is more interested in the light than the dark, a complete turnaround from Singer’s first film in the franchise, which means that En Sabah Nur, and his goons get minimum character development. Then there’s Quicksilver, played by the delightful Evan Peters, who gets a more expanded role this time out, complete with a slow-motion musical rescue that is the films stand-out set piece.

Despite the thin plot the film does have some great moments. McAvoy’s Professor X is his usual charming self, and a calming presence despite all the chaos. Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique has completed her rogue to hero turn around and is a Katniss like symbol of hope to other mutants. But this is Singer’s film, who himself has completed a four movie turnaround. X-Men, and X” didn’t wear their influential source material on their sleeves the way that Apocalypse does. The film looks incredible, the ancient Egypt scenes recall great Hollywood epics like Cleopatra, and Ben Hur, and Singer keeps the action dynamic enough so that you don’t realise that you just watched Hollywood actors pushing imaginary beams at each other until you’re outside the cinema.

X-Men: Apocalypse may be Singer’s worst X movie, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth watching, if only to witness this incredible franchise keep correcting itself and growing with new story-telling possibilities.