The latest X-Men cinema installment purports to deal with “false gods.” It all starts in ancient Egypt (what better place for a confrontation with false gods to begin?), with mutant pharaoh En Sabah Nur (“Apocalypse”) abusing his powers and provoking justified revolt, but being protected and entombed by followers for future revivification.

In the 1980s that vile mutant, presented as the world’s first (and least evolved?), is indeed revived (by prayers?) by virtue of an ancient ritual through which consciousness is transferred from body to body by four disciples, reminiscent of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. (What a mixture of metaphors and religions!). The refreshed and rebodied fiend seeks to destroy or at least dominate (normal?) humanity so that mutants, whom he regards as gods, may reign freely and decisively.

While all this is happening, Jewish Holocaust survivor mutant Magneto/Eric Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) is living incognito in a Polish village with his wife and daughter and has become one of the guys at the town factory. When he instinctively uses his powers to save fellow workers, he is reported and pursued. In the fracas his wife and daughter are killed. He has never forgotten that his parents were taken from him when he was a young boy; he always has the numbers tattooed to his wrist to remind him. Because he was exposed to the worst evil and hatred as a child of the Holocaust, he has always been the angriest in the mutant community, slow to forgive and quick to lash out. He immediately kills the constables responsible for the death of his current family, and then sets out to punish the non-mutant world, but not before he looks heavenward as if addressing God: “Is this what I am?”

Magneto has always been a bit of a monster, in a long tradition of television and film, particularly science fiction, that would make vengeful monsters out of Holocaust survivors. The parallels between Magneto and the evil first mutant are hard to ignore in this latest X-Men installment. Given past depictions of Erik/Magneto in this franchise, it is totally predictable that he would gravitate (literally) toward teaming up with the vengeful demigod hailing from Egypt.

Meanwhile, back at the stronghold for moderate mutants, Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters (the Marvel Comics’ Hogwarts School for mutants), Erik’s old friend and erstwhile colleague-turned-worthy-opponent, Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), trains a new generation in accepting their mutant powers and in embracing a live-and-let-live approach despite a majority in governments and nations who want to see mutants dead. Perhaps because his powers are more cerebral (and he is wheelchair bound, anyway), Charles prefers level-headed and thoughtful strategies as opposed to Erik’s impetuous and strong-arm methods.

Soon enough, Charles has to face the challenge of the Evil Egyptian and of Erik’s attraction to the First Mutant’s rhetoric. Fortunately, Charles has raised up loyal and wise disciples, like blue-lady Raven Darkholme/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) who observes: “We all need to embrace our powers even if we can’t control them.” Our civil mutants will be tested by the destruction wrought upon the school both by furious mutants and by hateful non-mutants.

Charles Xavier is joined by a new disciple from post-War Germany, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who appears to be a pious Catholic. When things get tough, this young man prays: “Hold me in the light of God. Protect me from danger. Save me by your command.”

Since the film calls itself (and its evil First Mutant)  “Apocalypse,” one assumes that some kind of theology is involved. Sure enough, that ancient first mutant declares, “I am Elohim, Ra.” Is he being arrogant? Or is the film being Gnostic -- namely, reviving an ancient anti-biblical doctrine that the God of scriptures (like certain mutants) is a mean and rigid power in contrast to the true spiritual light beyond? In this context, is Nightcrawler’s prayer a Catholic or Gnostic prayer? Are the writers inadvertently or purposely giving voice to an ancient heresy in their efforts to interpret the Marvel comic for fun and profit? They certainly revel in creating edge-of-your-seat “scriptures” for their audiences (which are to be contrasted with the “staid” Holy Scriptures of old?).

Charles tells that ‘ole First Mutant: “You’re just another false god.” Does the film accuse the first mutant of misrepresenting himself as a deity, of being a false god, or does it taunt the God of the monotheistic faiths as a magnet for the vengeful?

Even if one makes a distinction between the God of love and the God of retribution (though there is no such distinction in the Bible), the film does co-opt the resurrection narrative of Christian scriptures. Some interpret those scriptures as speaking of the anti-Christ’s illusive resurrection (Revelation 13:13). Even with its pious (Catholic?) mutant, however, the film does not seem to advocate any power beyond that of misguided and malevolent mutants, and of the moderate do-gooder mutants.

The first mutant tells Erik: “I was asleep, trapped in darkness. I am here for you now. You don’t know your own strength, but I do.” If this film has any point at all, it is that Charles does a good job of enabling mutants to come to terms with their strengths, while First Mutant is creepy and destructive. True, En Sabah Nur does apocalyptic things that appear to be good. He lifts from the Earth all the nuclear weapons -- from Russia, China, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United States, etc. But he does plan to dominate those nations, and is revealed to be, at best, a false messiah after those weapons are soon replaced by the respective countries. Are the writers being cynical or realistic?

The first mutant exploits the Holocaust (not unlike the comic book series itself), transporting Magneto to Auschwitz and telling him: “This is where your powers were born, this is where your people were slaughtered.” Is he actually ascribing Erik’s mutant powers to Auschwitz, or is he playing on Erik’s emotions as he does by mentioning his “people” and perhaps transferring Erik’s concern from the Jewish People to the mutants?  He goes on to say: “From the ashes of this world, we’ll build a better world.” Auschwitz is then reduced to ashes. Is this an act of rage that symbolizes Erik’s wish -- or the filmmakers’ wish -- to leave the Holocaust behind?

But clearly, Erik does not want to leave behind Auschwitz and its lessons, even though he has not been living a Jewish life in Poland. When Charles asks him to join the moderate mutants and to abandon the evil would-be god and mentor, to consider what his wife and daughter would have wanted, Erik replies: “They would have wanted to live.”

At one point, the evil mutant tells Erik: “You’ll find that you have the power to move the very Earth itself.” Are the writers familiar with the psalmist’s observation that when God is sovereign the earth will not be moved (Psalms 93:1)? Or are they interested in retiring the claims of all gods or any god and affirming a purely human capacity to fashion a better world, each one according to his or her powers and talents?

It is revealed that Erik has a son about whose existence he did not know, now a student at Charles’ school. Mystique tells him: “You never had the chance to save your family before, but you do now.” Indeed, in the end Erik contributes mightily to the defeat of his vengeful would-be god in a battle that uses contemporary Islamic nations as the setting.  Erik is literally the turner of tides, not because of any particular loyalties, spiritual or familial or social, but because his exposure to loss and cruelty and destruction, in his youth and in the present, lead him to question all would-be mentors or advisors.

Late in the film, Erik tells Charles: “Killing and destruction is [are!] all I’ve ever known.” “No,” says Charles, “You’ve forgotten there’s more to you, Erik. There is good.” Erik gets the last word: “Whatever good you thought you saw in me, Charles, I buried it, with my family.”

Often, the suspense in the X-Men series hinges upon the extent to which Erik can unhook himself from his Holocaust and other tragic experiences that are the result of human prejudice and hatred. It is only thus that he becomes a vehicle of humanistic betterment of the world. But then again, the film does not offer him -- or humanity -- much assurance that the good will win out. Charles preaches to the First Mutant: “You will never win because you’re alone and I am not.” Yet for most of the film the First Mutant is not alone. Evil attracts company, as does good. Don’t all the sequels prove that?

Despite some theological overtones and terminology (like “apocalypse,” “false god,” “commandment”), this movie was big on self-help and the bashing of any and all gods. All in all, it’s a rather ungodly concoction.