Marvel Comics-based sci-fi adventure, set mostly in 1992, in which a member (Sophie Turner) of the X-Men team of mutants comes close to dying during a mission to save the crew of the space shuttle but instead emerges from the experience endowed with cosmic powers she cannot control. As she goes rogue, endangering the lives of her comrades (in particular Jennifer Lawrence), her plight causes tension within the group (led by James McAvoy). With a more relationship-driven story than many similar films, writer-director Simon Kinberg’s somber ensemble action picture, which also features Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult and Jessica Chastain, elevates forgiveness and solidarity over the desire for revenge. Well-catechized older teens as well as grown-ups will likely be able to cope with the script’s celebration of the substitute family to which the most prominent characters have chosen to belong as well as its grandiose but passing attribution of godlike abilities to Turner’s enhanced superhero.
Watch out for: Pervasive combat violence with some gore, a few profanities and milder oaths, at least one rough term and a single crude expression.
Rated: A-III, adults; MPAA: PG-13
