‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ admits the ‘third one’s always the worst’

They’ve battled the villainous William Stryker, the killing machines known as Sentinels and, more often than not, each other.

Now, the mutants of “X-Men: Apocalypse” are fighting their greatest enemy yet: sequelitis.

Oh, sure, Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and the gang still have to contend with En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac) — Apocalypse to his friends — who’s been awakened after more than 5,000 years and plans to “cleanse” the world of humans.

And, on the surface, it may seem a little daunting to be squaring off against the world’s first and most powerful mutant.

But if you’ve ever seen a movie before, you have a pretty good idea that the X-Men will find a way to defeat him.

The real question is whether the franchise can overcome the annihilation fatigue that sets in when the amped-up, ramped-up sequel starts ripping digitally created cities down to their foundations.

Even though the stakes were high in “X-Men: First Class” (preventing World War III) and “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (preventing a post-apocalyptic wasteland), the stories they told were smaller and more intimate. In the former, Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender) sought revenge against the Nazi scientist who killed his mother. In the latter, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) traveled through time to stop Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from committing a murder that changed the course of history.

“Apocalypse,” though, is just another bad-guy-wants-to-kill-billions tale, the guts of which could have been lifted from “Man of Steel,” either “Avengers” movie or pretty much every third blockbuster from at least the past five years. It’s simply too big, loud and generic to be intriguing.

In the decade that’s passed onscreen since “Days of Future Past,” Raven has become a heroine to young people with powers, like a mutant Mockingjay. She’s running her own Underground Railroad, smuggling fellow mutants out of harm’s way and scoring them new identities.

Erik, who’s become an international fugitive, has assumed a quiet life as a factory worker living in the Polish countryside with his wife and young daughter until all three are tragically rousted by police. Full of rage, he’s an easy target when Apocalypse — who sports the skin tone of “Avatar’s” Na’vi and the forehead of professional wrestler Dusty Rhodes — begins assembling his four horsemen. Settling on Magneto, Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Angel (Ben Hardy) and Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Apocalypse infuses them with even greater powers.

Charles, meanwhile, has been using Cerebro like some mutant-powered Facebook to keep tabs on his former flame, CIA operative Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne), whose memory he wiped at the end of “First Class.” Still smitten, Charles remarks to Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) that she’s barely aged a day.

Calling attention to that is the first time the “Days of Future Past” team of screenwriter Simon Kinberg and director Bryan Singer shoot themselves in the foot. Some 21 years have passed between the 1962 setting of “First Class” and the 1983 of “Apocalypse,” yet it’s distracting how little effort has been made to age any of the characters. Raven can make herself appear however she chooses, but Erik, Charles and Hank ought to be showing the wear and tear of those decades. Hank, especially, really should be looking like a middle-aged Kelsey Grammer by now.

Likewise, Singer and Kinberg do themselves no favors by having some of the newcomers to Xavier’s School for the Gifted — Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Scott Summers/Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) and Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) — leave a screening of “Return of the Jedi” only to complain about how the “third one’s always the worst.”

Fassbender once again gets the juiciest bits as Erik is laid low by another personal tragedy. Lawrence gets a couple of nice scenes as Raven. And, as the speed demon Quicksilver, Evan Peters steals the movie with another big scene — even if it’s so similar to his breakout from “Days of Future Past” as to evoke a sense of been-there, been-floored-by-that.

Quicksilver’s inclusion underscores the fact that none of the newbies registers the way he did last time out. There’s no reason other than name recognition to care about the young versions of Jean, Cyclops and Storm. Call them Joan, Laser Eyes and Weather Girl, and they’d be utterly disposable. Jubilee (Lana Condor) is given so little to do, I’d forgotten she was even in the movie until I scanned the production notes.

None of this bodes well for the future.

It’s hard to see a way to top the scale of “X-Men: Apocalypse” without devolving into mindless drivel.

In facing their biggest foe yet, the X-Men may well win the battle, but the franchise just might lose the war.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com. On Twitter: @life_onthecouch