DARK PHOENIX:
FINAL X-MEN MOVIE GOES OUT ON A HUGELY DISAPPOINTING NOTE!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: * ½ out of 4
20TH CENTURY FOX AND MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT
Jean Grey, Charles Xavier, Nightcrawler, Cyclops, Mystique, Magneto, Beast, Storm, Quicksilver, and Vuk in Dark Phoenix
The long-running X-Men film series based on the Marvel comic of the same name comes to a close in Dark Phoenix, the twelfth overall installment of the franchise and a direct follow-up to 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse. The film’s story is based on the Dark Phoenix Saga by Chris Claremont and Josh Byrne which was previously adapted to the screen in 2006’s X-Men 3: The Last Stand with very mixed results.
However, since the events of The Last Stand were erased during X-Men: Days of Future Past, there were talks of doing a second adaptation of the Dark Phoenix Saga that’s more faithful to the source material than last time. The development of Dark Phoenix is quite astounding, much like the yet-to-be-released The New Mutants which is set to conclude the entire X-Men franchise next year, the film has gone through several reshoots and frequent delays and release reschedules.
The marks the first of the main X-Men films since 2011’s X-Men: First Class not to be directed by Bryan Singer but instead Simon Kinberg (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Sherlock Holmes (2009), The Martian) who worked as a producer on every single installment of the series starting with The Last Stand including the Deadpool and Wolverine films in his directorial debut. Given that he’s had plenty of experience working on X-Men films clearly Dark Phoenix will be the satisfying finale that will cap off nineteen years of X-Men movies…nope.
Dark Phoenix is an unfortunate misfire lacking most of the fun and bold storytelling of previous installments and when you really think about it there is NO reason for this movie to exist outside of Kinberg and Fox trying to win the fans back that they pissed off with The Last Stand. It’s just a crappy (or crappier) remake of The Last Stand that’s even stupider but not in a fun way.
This needed to be the Endgame of X-Men movies, close out and celebrate the nineteen years of making these films. But as is, it’s just a dumb, boring visual reminder that this series should have ended one film prior.
After a space shuttle gets critically damaged by a solar flare, the X-Men respond to a distress signal being sent from the shuttle. During their rescue mission, Jean Grey (Sophie Turner-Game of Thrones, The Thirteenth Tale, Barely Lethal) gets struck by a mysterious cosmic force making her not only infinitely more powerful but far more unstable than she already was.
Battling the entity within her, Jean unleashes her powers in ways she can’t image nor contain thus transforming her into the all-powerful Phoenix. However, when she starts spiraling out of control and hurts the ones she loves most and the arrival of a mysterious woman known as Vuk (Jessica Chastain-Zero Dark Thirty, The Martian, Molly’s Game), Charles Xavier/Professor X (James McAvoy-Rory O’Shea Was Here, Atonement, Split/Glass), Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender-Prometheus/Alien: Covenant, Frank, Steve Jobs), Raven Darkhölme/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence-The Hunger Games franchise, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle), Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult-Warm Bodies, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Favourite), Scott Summers/Cyclops (Tye Sheridan-The Tree of Life, Mud, Ready Player One), Ororo Munroe/Storm (Alexandra Shipp-Straight Outta Compton, Love, Simon, Shaft (2019)), Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee-Let Me In, ParaNorman, Alpha), and Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver (Evan Peters-Kick-Ass, American Horror Story, American Animals) must find a way to stop the Phoenix’s wrath and save not only Jean but the entire planet from devastation.
Overall, Dark Phoenix is the kind of superhero movie made for those who think the X-Men franchise couldn’t possibly stoop any lower than X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Don’t get me wrong it’s a horrible movie, but TO ITS CREDIT, it felt like there was more of a reason for it to exist than this dull, uninspired soft-remake of the third movie.
The movie itself doesn’t get me angry, if it was just another installment of the series it would just be a bad installment, it’s the fact that this is supposed to be the finale that gets me so upset. Why? Because NOTHING F*CKING HAPPENS! Other than a retread of The Last Stand and a climax on a train with aliens (yes, aliens from another planet!), there is so little to the imagination with this movie, even as entertaining trash it fails in that regard which is what I give The Last Stand and Apocalypse a free pass for as dumb as they are I can at least have fun watching those movies.
This is not a fun installment of the series and even the worst of the X-Men films at least had some exciting and cool moments. Most of the action is a compilation of things we’ve already seen in the other movies and a completely idiotic fight sequence involving Jean turning enemies to dust through the Force or some kind of Matrix effect, it’s so unexciting and at the screening I went to most of the theater was dead silence, not a good sign with the only standout moment being one cool scene involving Magneto killing one of the villains inside a train, besides that nothing.
Trying to fit this in the already overcomplicated and convoluted X-Men film timeline is quite a chore. Every time I try to connect it to the rest of the series it feels like my head is about to explode, Scanners style.
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| Scanners head explosion (c) MGM |
The acting for the most part is fine after all it’s the same cast from the previous three films but two who have shown less effort compared to last time are Jennifer Lawrence and Sophie Turner. Nothing against Lawrence, I think she’s one of the best actresses working today and even when she’s in a bad movie she’s giving it her all, but here her performance as Mystique feels very wooden and soulless compared to the other films, almost like she read her dialogue and shot her scenes in only a few days.
Sophie Turner as Jean is very hit or miss to me personally, she portrays the character okay but at times her delivery feels very robotic and as if she was reading off the script whenever she was on-screen. Maybe I’m just overthinking this.
Dark Phoenix is a dull, uninspired mess that fails to deliver the ending this long-running superhero movie franchise deserves. Instead, we get a lifeless retread of the other films with no real direction or purpose in existing, you’re better off sticking with Logan as the true finale and after this review I am disregarding this movie as an X-Men finale, Dark Phoenix, Welcome to Die! *Smashes print of Dark Phoenix with a hammer*
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