Critics are split on the new 'X-Men' movie — here's why

Hollywood is expecting some big box office numbers this Memorial Day weekend as "Alice Through the Looking Glass" and "X-Men: Apocalypse" hit theaters.

But with many critics writing off "Alice" as an unworthy sequel to the hit 2010 "Alice In Wonderland," with only a 28% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, let's shift our focus to the new X-Men movie where critics are essentially split down the middle on if it's good or not, with a 49% rating.

Here we break down what the critics like and dislike about the movie, which sees the old guard mutants (Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, and Michael Fassbender") teaming up with the newbies (Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Evan Peters, Kodi Smit-McPhee) to save the world from the first-ever mutant, Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac).

SEE ALSO: Here are the stars of the new live-action "Beauty and the Beast"— and who they're playing

Dislike: Same old story

Though plot isn't really a big motivating factor to going to a superhero movie, it's nice to have a good one. Sadly, director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Simon Kinberg don't really throw the X-Men into any outside-the-box situations. The villain Apocalypse is basically trying to destroy the world and they need to stop him.

That fact annoyed some critics, like Time Out, which thought the movie was "a seen-it-before world domination plot carried out by a petulant Pharaoh with a head like a chewed pencil, and resisted by a bunch of interchangeable, Lycra-clad goody-goodies whose names and superpowers you’ll quickly stop trying to keep track of." 

Dislike: Oscar Isaac just looks silly

Isaac has had a good run, playing the soon-to-be iconic character Poe in "The Force Awakens," and his countless indie film roles. But it seems he had a misfire taking on Apocalypse.

"Oscar Isaac is completely wasted as Apocalypse," wrote Uproxx. "I wish they had kept Isaac out of the makeup, as well. I get that Apocalypse in the movie resembles his comic book counterpart, but who cares? (He kind of looks silly on screen, to be honest.)" 

Dislike: This is supposed to be 10 years later?

Though "Apocalypse" takes place ten years after the last X-Men movie, "Days of Future Past," it doesn't seem like much makeup was used to age the characters.

"The continuity in 'X-Men: Apocalypse' is even more of a nightmare than the continuity in 'X-Men' comics," points out ScreenCrush. "'Apocalypse' takes place a decade after 'Days of Future Past,' but if not for the outlandish ’80s fashions, you’d swear it was set about six months later. Slacker speedster Quicksilver (Evan Peters) still lives in his mom’s basement playing video games, and none of the other actors look older at all, even though they’ve been fighting one another for two decades."