Despite offering some glimpses of intrigue, Dark Phoenix is ultimately another failed attempt to bring the beloved ‘Dark Phoenix Saga’ storyline to the big screen.
The movie’s prologue introduces us to a very young Jean Grey, whose fledgling mutant powers of telepathy and telekinesis accidentally kill her parents in a car crash and is taken in by Professor X (James McAvoy). Flash forward to 1992, and Jean is hit with a cosmic force when the X-Men are out in space on a rescue mission, and she becomes a lot more powerful and sinister. While this backstory is faithful to the comics, it does nullify the events of X-Men: Apocalypse which hinted that Jean already had the power of the Phoenix Force within her.
The reason why the ‘Dark Phoenix Saga’ is so beloved in comic lore is because Jean getting corrupted by the Phoenix Force is both tragic and impactful, as we were emotionally invested in her character and have seen her as an integral part of the X-Men for so long. In this latest live-action adaptation, Sophie Turner’s Jean is not that very well known, either by the audience or by the rest of the X-Men. So, when she starts hurting people, including her fellow X-Men, the fallout within the team doesn’t feel personal. When her actions fracture the mutants into two groups – one group that thinks Jean needs to be put down and the other that wants to save her – it feels rushed and forced, particularly the confrontation between Beast (Nicholas Hoult) and the Professor.
Sophie Turner admirably plays the required shades of Grey her character demands, but it is so thinly sketched that the tragedy of her downfall doesn’t carry any weight. Barring Charles, none of the regular cast is given a chance to explore their characters further. Magneto (Michael Fassbender) gets a few badass action sequences but is ultimately wasted as is Jessica Chastain, who plays a vague alien-villain whose sole purpose is to give the X-Men someone to unite against in the final battle. To the movie’s credit, Dark Phoenix does offer some glimpses of intrigue in the first half, but flames out rather predictably into a dull, CGI-laden final arc. Part of the problem probably lies with the studio’s last-minute reshoots to differentiate it from ‘another recent superhero movie’ (most definitely Captain Marvel), which impact the movie’s latter half, as the pacing grows more and more erratic.
The X-Men franchise, which was launched in 2000, helped usher in the golden age of superhero movies. But after 12 installments spread over two decades, the franchise can only sputter and stumble toward its close in Dark Phoenix.
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I think it does seem unclear about Jean’s Phoenix powers – did she have them before they went into space (as seen in Apocalypse) or not? The way I interpreted it was that the power already existed within her, but was sort of being held back by Xavier’s mental mind blocks. When she went into space an alien force bonded with her, broke Xavier’s hold and unlocked her dark side. This gave her full access to her abilities, which in turn made her stronger.
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Exactly! In fact, during the climactic battle between Jean and Apocalypse, they actually show a glimpse of a phoenix.
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Yeah, so I kind of take it that the power is already there, but the encounter with the alien unlocks and amplifies it. However, in truth the X-Universe is consistent, so it could just be another example of one director ignoring what the previous director did, as we have seen numerous times before with these films.
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Great review; I can’t say I expected it to be anything special. But, I was hoping this dying franchise had one more trick up its sleeve and went out on a high note. Oh well.
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Sounds like it’ll just be The Fantastic Four in the MCU for us
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They should have explored a different arc. They already did the Dark Phoenix with X:Men:The Last Stand. Now with two subpar movies tackling The Dark Phoenix, they ruined one of the best X-men storylines from the comics.
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Yeah exactly. However, if Matthew Vaughn (First Class) had been given the reins completely, similar to the Russos in the MCU, we would have had a better version of the Dark Phoenix. He actually had a 4-movie roadmap, but Fox rushed it and ultimately ruined the franchise.
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I agree. First Class and Days of Future Past were good. It started to get shaky with Apocalypse.
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Summed up nicely!
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Good review! Yeah, I think this film was affected by everything that could go wrong with a movie. Not only was it a subpar and way too soon rehash of “The Dark Phoenix Saga”, I also get the feeling that they began to realize during production that the studio was about to be bought and made a last ditch effort to make it a “conclusion”. That’s also coupled with the fact that our anticipation for this film was even more hindered when we realized that Disney now owned the property and, good or bad, this film kind of just felt like leftovers before Marvel Studios takes over.
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Exactly! BTW do you have any theories for how the Fox properties will be incorporated in the MCU? I have a feeling that the Scarlet Witch, considering her history with both the Avengers and the X-Men in the comics, will play a pivotal role.
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Possibly. However, I think that they’ll encounter a new superpowered character and be shocked to realize that the character’s powers weren’t made or alien. They’ll learn that the character was born with their abilities. Then, you could eventually introduce Charles Xavier as a guy who’s been trying to keep mutants a secret and after Magneto attacks, he has to reveal to the world that not all mutants are bad and they’re not to be feared.
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Great review!
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Dark Pheonix had it’s flaws and is obviously a disappointing ending to the Fox X-Men films but it didn’t find it overly terrible and there is some enjoyment to be had. No DoFP or X2 but more satisfying than The Last Stand and…ugh…Origins.
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