X-Men: Game of Chaos

X-Men: Game of Chaos is a 2016 superhero film directed by Steven Spielberg. It serves as a reimagining of the characters by Spielberg, since the rights were shared with Bryan Singer, and stars Mark Strong, Jude Law, Sophie Turner, Idris Elba, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Jennifer Lawrence and Tom Hardy. It tells the story from several plot points, primarily that of Charles Xavier, Jean Grey and Erik Lensherr, about the arrival and campaign of an alien named Lucifer.

The film was a box-office success and received widespread critical acclaim for its performances, action, colour, score and story, heralded by both moviegoers and hardcore fans of the Marvel characters. It received a series of nominations and awards and is considered some of Spielberg's best work in the 21st century.

Plot
In 1962, Charles Xavier graduates from Oxford University and moves to America, where he is met by a man named Erik Lensherr. Charles reveals that he has telepathic powers and discovers that Erik is a holocaust survivor. Erik is visibly angered by the revelation and reveals that he has the ability to control metal. They become friends and Charles explains that he is planning to build a school for people like them as a form of sanctuary, a prospect to which Erik proves enthusiastic. However, halfway through the discussion Charles is telepathically alerted by a child's screams and looks out of the window of the plane. In America, a girl named Jean Grey is playing with her friend Annie Richardson when suddenly Annie is hit by a car and killed. Jean cradles her friend's body and screams, the screams that Charles heard, and as she screams the car that hit Annie is ripped apart and the earth begins to shake, wrecking the street around her.

Ten years later, Magneto is helping to magnetically build the interior of Xavier's School's lower levels, including Cerebro - a powerful computer to telepathically locate other mutants. Charles has become obsessed with discovering the source of the screams and his first act is to try and find young mutants, leading up to the source of those screams. Several of the students that he discovers include the abandoned son of a businessman, Warren Worthington III (Who has wings), Scott Summers (Who emits optic blasts from his eyes), Ororo Munroe (Who can control the weather), Raven Darkholme (Who can transform herself into anybody) and Piotr Rasputin (Who can turn his skin into powerful metal). Colonel William Stryker is authorised to covertly investigate the school and its purpose, but not without Charles' awareness. They finally come down to Jean Grey, who has coursed through several psychiatrists before him since the event of Annie's death.

Jean is introduced to her own powers by Charles and he enrols her in the school, but she remains socially extricated from the other mutants because she has become isolated in her years of psychiatric help. She becomes romantically involved with Scott Summers, though, and they bond over their similarities in how they treat their powers. Charles becomes fascinated in Jean and her past, and the possibilities that come with her powers. However, when a fight breaks out between Raven and Warren, the fight unbalances Jean and she becomes violent, rocking the garden of the school and terrifying the students. Charles is consequently faced with the fact that, though mutants are the same species, their differences in background, personality and ideals will set them apart at times. Erik is incredulous that Charles hasn't realised this already.

Meanwhile, Stryker is called back to his base at Alkali Lake, where they have uncovered an unidentified metal craft in which they found a humanoid creature. Stryker reveals, once entering the base, that he has imprisoned a number of mutants in his laboratories to discover and test their powers and whether or not they are dangerous to humankind. The creature is misinterpreted as a mutant, or an original example of the mutant species. While it is put in solitary confinement, still in suspended animation, the creature begins to communicate with some of the scientists telepathically by making them lock down the facility. The creature tries to telepathically communicate with other examples of its species, and its calls are heard through Cererbo by Charles.

Charles is intrigued by the calls and the fact that, while mutants and humans are sorted into two categories in Cerebro, the creature belongs to an inexplicable third category, and is the sole member of that category (While mutants and humans come in cerebro as white and red respectively, the creature belongs to a green category). He goes on a personal investigation into the creature and discovers that it crashed hundreds of years ago at alkali lake, the crash causing the shockwave that made Alkali Lake. The craft is made of a special metal that has been dubbed Adamantium, which has proven impossible to process as a liquid form and is supposedly indestructible. Further investigation alerts Stryker, who appeals to the President to publicly investigate the school for federal threats.

Back in the base, the creature is awakened as the scientists try to process the metal of its craft, and it attacks the scientists, killing all of them violently. It proves to be superhumanly strong and able to control ionic energy, and after massacring the scientists it leaves the base, but not before hearing violent scraping noises in one of the cells. Stryker returns to Alkali Lake and discovers the carnage that the creature has left, and immediately leaves for Xavier's Mansion, demanding that Charles investigate the creature personally. Erik is deeply intrigued by the creature's description, and by the fact that the humans are now appealing to mutants for help. Jean overhears the conversation and tries to telepathically search for the creature. The creature detects Jean and speaks through her to Charles, identifying itself as Lucifer. Lucifer learns from Charles that he is the last of his species, and instead decides to rule humanity so that its species receives an acclaiming chapter in universal history.

Stryker enlists Charles' help in defeating Lucifer, but refuses to allow investigation into the base at Alkali Lake for fear that his experiments would be discovered. Charles forms a group of his students - Himself, Erik, Jean, Piotr, Scott, Raven and Warren - before leaving and tracking Lucifer on Charles' high-tech aircraft the X-Jet. Meanwhile, Lucifer arrives at a military base near Alkali Lake, an extension of Stryker's experiments, and attacks, provoking the American military to declare it a direct threat and send an army to attack Lucifer. Lucifer decimates the army, so they send reinforcements and a pitched battle erupts between Lucifer and the army, just as the mutants arrive. The mutants are misinterpreted as other creatures in Lucifer's species and the army attacks them too, under Stryker's encouragement.

The mutants, codenamed the X-Men by the military, confront Lucifer, and Charles tries to reason with him but Lucifer cannot be swayed because he wants to make a prominent example of his species' power. After failing to sway him, the X-Men battle Lucifer, who proves to be extremely powerful. The battle progresses to a one-on-one fight between Charles and Lucifer, in which Charles telepathically enters Lucifer's mind and tries to subdue him, but Lucifer becomes enraged and crushes Charles' legs beneath a jeep, incapacitating him and removing him from the fight. Erik is shocked by what has happened to his friend and tries to combat Lucifer himself, to no avail. Meanwhile, Jean is distracted by the sound of vicious scraping and banging against a steel door, telepathically hearing someone yelling. She ventures into Alkali Lake, exploring Stryker's base until she finds the door where she hears the yelling. Telekinetically, she unlocks the door, and a man explodes out of it, brandishing metal claws, and runs out into the Lake.

Erik deduces that the man's entire skeleton is made of Adamantium, revealing that it has been molded into his bones. He dedcues that, because of its shaping and the fact that it is an alien material, it may prove dangerous to Lucifer, who is visibly frightened by the man. Charles, hearing this, enters the man's mind and identifies him as James Howlett, and compels him to attack Lucifer. Jean watches from a distance, trying to hold back the army simultaneously, as James attacks Lucifer and impales him through the heart, killing him and ending the battle. As the army surrounds the X-Men, Jean enters the X-Jet and flies above them, so that they enter the X-Jet and escapes.

Lucifer's body is destroyed by the authorities, but the battle with him is televised around the world and Erik, compelled by what he saw of Lucifer, believes that humans are essentially weaker than mutants and are helpless in front of such power, and he decides to leave, bidding farewell to a comatose Charles - Warren and Raven leave with him. Stryker, realising that his prime experiment has escaped, opts to destroy his base at Alkali Lake and kill the mutants that he imprisoned there. Jean befriends James Howlett, whom she names Wolverine. The other mutants get their own names as well - Piotr becomes Colossus, Scott becomes Cyclops, Ororo becomes Storm, Jean becomes Marvel Girl, and Charles, who has recovered and appears in a wheelchair, becomes Professor X.

Erik, in a dark room, carves a metal helmet with technology wired into it that, he reveals, will enable him to resist telepathy - he names himself Magneto and declares that they must gather more members if they are to begin their war for mutant supremacy.

Cast

 * Mark Strong as Charles Xavier, aka Professor X, a brilliant and idealistic, if naive mutant with immense telepathic power and an ambition to protect mutants from the rest of the world.
 * Jude Law as Erik Lensherr, aka Magneto, a powerful and ruthless mutant with the ability to control metal and magnetic fields, who is obsessed with bettering mutant status.
 * Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, a young and complex but compassionate mutant with telekinetic and telepathic powers.
 * Caitlin Blackwood as a young Jean Grey
 * Idris Elba as Lucifer, a mysterious and ancient alien creature that becomes determined to rule humanity.
 * Tom Hardy as Piotr Rasputin, aka Colossus, a mutant who can transform his entire body into near-indestructible metal.
 * Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Scott Summers, aka Cyclopse, a mutant with the ability to project optic blasts from his eyes.
 * Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme, aka Mystique, a mutant who can transform herself into the physical appearance of another.
 * Jason Isaacs as Colonel William Stryker, a bitter and obsessed military scientist who discovers Lucifer and awakens him.
 * Rachel Petladwala as Storm, an aloof mutant with the ability to control the variations of the weather who serves as one of the main teachers of Xavier's School.
 * Alex Pettyfer as Warren Worthington III, a mutant with avian wings who was cast out by his father as a child.
 * Jake Gyllenhaal as James Howlett, aka Wolverine, a prisoner of Colonel Stryker, who is discovered at the end of the movie after Lucifer's defeat.
 * Sydney Wade as Annie Richardson, Jean Grey's former best friend who is killed early in the film.
 * Neil DeGrasse Tyson appears as himself as a cameo
 * Stan Lee as Dr. Simeon, who is the first victim of Lucifer

Reception
X-Men: Game of Chaos was met with widespread critical acclaim from fans, and generally positive reviews from film critics. It was hugely praised for its colourful style, musical score, the performances of Elba, Strong and Turner, as well as its action sequences and adherence to the original comics and characters. Its critical consensus reads ' Steven Spielberg delivers a spectacular story with incredible action and special effects, powerful acting and a spellbinding usage of the characters, their personalities and their powers '. Idris Elba's portrayal of Lucifer was praised for its ' terrifying, dark and malevolent exuberance ' and Sophie Turner received immediate acclaim for her portrayal of Jean Grey, with one critic remarking ' Turner brings out the vulnerability and naivety of Jean Grey, and the potential for her character that makes you want to see her next adventure with the X-Men ', and the chemistry between Mark Strong and Jude Law was also applauded by fans and critics alike. One fan of the X-Men commented that 'Mark Strong and Jude Law bring out such powerful complexity that their characters intertwine in a hypnotic and spectacular way that makes this whole film a massively fun ride '.

Its rating on Rotten Tomatoes was 93%.

Sequel
Spielberg announced the writing for a sequel to the film immediately after its release in cinemas, entitled X-Men: Prince of War.