Dark Phoenix - Review: The X-Men Franchise Staggers and Stumbles to the Finish Line
Release date (US): June 7th, 2019
Starring: Sophie Turner, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Evan Peters, Nicholas Hoult, Jennifer Lawrence, Kodi Smit-McPhee
Starring: Sophie Turner, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Evan Peters, Nicholas Hoult, Jennifer Lawrence, Kodi Smit-McPhee
**DISCLAIMER**: This is a subjective, opinionated article that does not have, nor should have any effect on your opinion. As such, my opinion is entitled to change over time and whatever is written here at this point in time may not and should not be held to me in the future. You are not meant to agree with me 100 percent of the time, because the nature of subjectivity is we see everything differently. If there is something you happen to disagree with, I absolutely respect your point of view if you will respect mine. Please keep this in mind.
The Review
So this is it.
After almost twenty years with a dozen films set in this universe, the X-Men saga from Twentieth Century Fox (save Deadpool) has come to a close. We have seen an era that has produced such icons as Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Patrick Stewart AND James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, and Ian McKellen AND Michael Fassbender as Magneto. We have seen amazing films, like X-Men and X-Men: Days of Future Past, and we have seen some that have been massive disappointments, like X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Apocalypse. And, in my opinion, we have seen not only the best comic book movie of all time, but my favorite piece of cinema of all time: Logan.
It really hurts me to say that this illustrious franchise had to end on this note. Because Dark Phoenix, despite some clear bright spots, is one of the worst X-Men movies made in the past twenty years.
Let me reiterate by saying that it is ONE of the worst. It is not THE worst, as some other critics are saying. I believe I would rather watch Dark Phoenix over X-Men: Origins Wolverine and maybe even X-Men: The Last Stand. The film is better in quality and narrative than both of those films. But in terms of pure quality, it is not good.
The cast from the prequel series of X-Men movies all return, including McAvoy as Professor Xavier, Fassbender as Magneto, Nicholas Hoult as Beast/Hank McCoy, and Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique/Raven. Additionally, the new cast from X-Men: Apocalypse return, including Sophie Turner as Jena Grey, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler, Evan Peters as Quicksilver, and Alexandra Shipp as Storm.
And while each cast member does the absolute best that they can with the script and the story, none of them can salvage what turned out to be an awful-at-worst and mediocre -at-best script. Simon Kinberg, who directed this film and wrote many previous X-Men films, clearly did not have a clear vision or handle on the script or the story, and as a result, some of the lines spoken in the movie are downright cringe-worthy.
In particular, James McAvoy's Charles Xavier went a different direction than he had in the previous films. That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing; in X-Men: Days of Future Past, we saw Charles go through a drug addiction and depression, which were extremely new for a character that was the leader of the entire X-Men team. But that was not out of character either; he had gone through so much to get him to that point. In this film, Charles acts bruteishly arrogant and self-centered, and puts his students in harm's way for no apparent reason besides inflating his ego, which was extremely inflated to begin the movie. It was so odd to see Charles act in such a selfish, narcissistic way - something that had never been set up before, or even remotely hinted at.
Fassbender's Magneto is barely given any screen time in the movie, and while he is great as usual when he is onscreen, it almost seemed like Erik Lensherr was an afterthought, thrown into the movie at the last second to please the fans. Other supporting members like Lawrence's Mystique, Sheridan's Cyclops, Peters' Quicksilver, and Shipp's Storm, to name a few, were utterly forgettable. Interestingly, I felt that the most dynamic and realistic performance was given by Nicholas Hoult as Beast. While the character took a very abrupt, sudden, and arguably out-of-character turn as the Beast, I thought that the way Hoult played the character almost convinced me for a moment that this was the right decision to take the character.
But the film, as indicated by the title, hinges on Jean Grey. And while Sophie Turner wasn't necessarily the worst in X-Men: Apocalypse, she wasn't the greatest either. And it's much of the same in this film; she's not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but absolutely nothing screams "lead" about her performance. It's hardly subtle, she sounds like she's trying to say her lines while holding her breath at the same time, and her acting resorts to a mix of crying and screaming when she's trying to express high emotion.
Speaking of characters, though, Jean is not alone in her pursuit to destroy the X-Men. Jessica Chastain plays a character that I will not reveal here, since the marketing has been careful to hide her true identity from us. But then again, and this is no major spoiler, what you see in the trailers is basically the same amount of character development her character gets: none. Her character seemingly comes out of nowhere and almost entirely born out of coincidence, that every moment she's onscreen you are left wondering why she's even in the movie. It's hard for me to even say that Chastain, who is a world-class actress, even gave a good performance. It's not her fault; the script did her ZERO favors, but she was easily the worst part of the entire film.
The opening act is arguably the best part of the movie. The X-Men open on a mission, where they first encounter the Phoenix Force and everything goes downhill (for the X-Men and the audience) from there. But the opening fifteen to twenty minutes is enjoyable. The X-Men do get to show off their powers, each and every one of them, in interesting ways that we haven't seen before on the big screen.
And for what it's worth, the special effects are decent, if not good. They're worthy of a comic book, big-budget, superhero film of the modern era, and really do hold up well. There are some especially good effects with Jean and her Phoenix Force that I thought were unique. There really was never a moment where I doubted that anything was real in the context of the movie. Everything looked sharp, clean, and had the X-Men feel.
But to be quite honest, that's about all the positive I can give this movie. Because everything else, save for one scene that takes place in the second act, is mediocre or terrible.
While the action and the excitement towards the beginning of the film were well done and laid the groundwork for an exciting movie, the movie meanders and wanders through the next hour or so of the film. Simon Kinberg said they reshot the entire third act of the movie, and you can tell that towards the end of the second act, the filmmakers were scrambling to connect the dots and get to the the final action set piece.
And while the final action scene was decent in terms of visuals and showing off mutant powers, there were absolutely zero stakes or emotion attached. You felt almost zero weight when characters make decisions or crucial choices that would hurt or cause you to cheer in a good movie. I didn't care about any of these characters when the final act came because the film had not given me any good reason to care.
The second act wanders, as does Jean, rather aimlessly as it tries to find its footing and figure out where it wants to go. Essentially, an entire hour of the movie is Jean going from place to place where everyone is afraid of her, and in the end she does something "evil" and is forced to flee. Writing it out makes it sound worse than it actually is, granted, but not by much. It's very, very poorly paced, and again there is little excitement besides seeing some X-Men characters you liked in better movies.
There is another action scene that also takes place in the second act of the movie, and unlike the opening scene, and even the final train sequence, this is one of the worst pieces of action that I've seen in a comic book movie in the past few years. The motivations for the characters are completely forced and hardly make any sense. And if you think hard about what the characters are trying to accomplish (no major spoilers), they're essentially trying to cross street. Granted, great movies can make simple premises like this good and investing because of the characters that are involved. Captain America: Civil War essentially had the heroes fighting over a helicopter in an airport, but that wasn't the point because you cared about what happened to the characters and who they were. In this movie you simply don't.
And come the credits, as the film attempts to wrap up the entire X-Men saga in a little bow, you realize just how far the franchise has fallen from the likes of X-Men: Days of Future Past just five years ago. The references and callbacks to the previous films don't add any emotional ties to the characters your'e watching, but rather make you long for the characters of previous films even more.
In Conclusion: If Dark Phoenix had come out at the same time as X-Men: The Last Stand, I would have had a hard time distinguishing the two. Both are sloppy, have subplots that never get addressed or resolved, and frankly are poorly written. But both have a great cast, some redeeming moments, and some decent action. And while I would call Dark Phoenix the better movie, I honestly can't say it's by much. Simon Kinberg, who wrote the Last Stand as well, makes the same mistakes he made all those years ago in this film that shows that Fox simply hasn't learned from their failures.
After almost twenty years with a dozen films set in this universe, the X-Men saga from Twentieth Century Fox (save Deadpool) has come to a close. We have seen an era that has produced such icons as Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Patrick Stewart AND James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, and Ian McKellen AND Michael Fassbender as Magneto. We have seen amazing films, like X-Men and X-Men: Days of Future Past, and we have seen some that have been massive disappointments, like X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Apocalypse. And, in my opinion, we have seen not only the best comic book movie of all time, but my favorite piece of cinema of all time: Logan.
It really hurts me to say that this illustrious franchise had to end on this note. Because Dark Phoenix, despite some clear bright spots, is one of the worst X-Men movies made in the past twenty years.
Let me reiterate by saying that it is ONE of the worst. It is not THE worst, as some other critics are saying. I believe I would rather watch Dark Phoenix over X-Men: Origins Wolverine and maybe even X-Men: The Last Stand. The film is better in quality and narrative than both of those films. But in terms of pure quality, it is not good.
The cast from the prequel series of X-Men movies all return, including McAvoy as Professor Xavier, Fassbender as Magneto, Nicholas Hoult as Beast/Hank McCoy, and Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique/Raven. Additionally, the new cast from X-Men: Apocalypse return, including Sophie Turner as Jena Grey, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler, Evan Peters as Quicksilver, and Alexandra Shipp as Storm.
And while each cast member does the absolute best that they can with the script and the story, none of them can salvage what turned out to be an awful-at-worst and mediocre -at-best script. Simon Kinberg, who directed this film and wrote many previous X-Men films, clearly did not have a clear vision or handle on the script or the story, and as a result, some of the lines spoken in the movie are downright cringe-worthy.
In particular, James McAvoy's Charles Xavier went a different direction than he had in the previous films. That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing; in X-Men: Days of Future Past, we saw Charles go through a drug addiction and depression, which were extremely new for a character that was the leader of the entire X-Men team. But that was not out of character either; he had gone through so much to get him to that point. In this film, Charles acts bruteishly arrogant and self-centered, and puts his students in harm's way for no apparent reason besides inflating his ego, which was extremely inflated to begin the movie. It was so odd to see Charles act in such a selfish, narcissistic way - something that had never been set up before, or even remotely hinted at.
Fassbender's Magneto is barely given any screen time in the movie, and while he is great as usual when he is onscreen, it almost seemed like Erik Lensherr was an afterthought, thrown into the movie at the last second to please the fans. Other supporting members like Lawrence's Mystique, Sheridan's Cyclops, Peters' Quicksilver, and Shipp's Storm, to name a few, were utterly forgettable. Interestingly, I felt that the most dynamic and realistic performance was given by Nicholas Hoult as Beast. While the character took a very abrupt, sudden, and arguably out-of-character turn as the Beast, I thought that the way Hoult played the character almost convinced me for a moment that this was the right decision to take the character.
But the film, as indicated by the title, hinges on Jean Grey. And while Sophie Turner wasn't necessarily the worst in X-Men: Apocalypse, she wasn't the greatest either. And it's much of the same in this film; she's not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but absolutely nothing screams "lead" about her performance. It's hardly subtle, she sounds like she's trying to say her lines while holding her breath at the same time, and her acting resorts to a mix of crying and screaming when she's trying to express high emotion.
Speaking of characters, though, Jean is not alone in her pursuit to destroy the X-Men. Jessica Chastain plays a character that I will not reveal here, since the marketing has been careful to hide her true identity from us. But then again, and this is no major spoiler, what you see in the trailers is basically the same amount of character development her character gets: none. Her character seemingly comes out of nowhere and almost entirely born out of coincidence, that every moment she's onscreen you are left wondering why she's even in the movie. It's hard for me to even say that Chastain, who is a world-class actress, even gave a good performance. It's not her fault; the script did her ZERO favors, but she was easily the worst part of the entire film.
The opening act is arguably the best part of the movie. The X-Men open on a mission, where they first encounter the Phoenix Force and everything goes downhill (for the X-Men and the audience) from there. But the opening fifteen to twenty minutes is enjoyable. The X-Men do get to show off their powers, each and every one of them, in interesting ways that we haven't seen before on the big screen.
And for what it's worth, the special effects are decent, if not good. They're worthy of a comic book, big-budget, superhero film of the modern era, and really do hold up well. There are some especially good effects with Jean and her Phoenix Force that I thought were unique. There really was never a moment where I doubted that anything was real in the context of the movie. Everything looked sharp, clean, and had the X-Men feel.
But to be quite honest, that's about all the positive I can give this movie. Because everything else, save for one scene that takes place in the second act, is mediocre or terrible.
While the action and the excitement towards the beginning of the film were well done and laid the groundwork for an exciting movie, the movie meanders and wanders through the next hour or so of the film. Simon Kinberg said they reshot the entire third act of the movie, and you can tell that towards the end of the second act, the filmmakers were scrambling to connect the dots and get to the the final action set piece.
And while the final action scene was decent in terms of visuals and showing off mutant powers, there were absolutely zero stakes or emotion attached. You felt almost zero weight when characters make decisions or crucial choices that would hurt or cause you to cheer in a good movie. I didn't care about any of these characters when the final act came because the film had not given me any good reason to care.
The second act wanders, as does Jean, rather aimlessly as it tries to find its footing and figure out where it wants to go. Essentially, an entire hour of the movie is Jean going from place to place where everyone is afraid of her, and in the end she does something "evil" and is forced to flee. Writing it out makes it sound worse than it actually is, granted, but not by much. It's very, very poorly paced, and again there is little excitement besides seeing some X-Men characters you liked in better movies.
There is another action scene that also takes place in the second act of the movie, and unlike the opening scene, and even the final train sequence, this is one of the worst pieces of action that I've seen in a comic book movie in the past few years. The motivations for the characters are completely forced and hardly make any sense. And if you think hard about what the characters are trying to accomplish (no major spoilers), they're essentially trying to cross street. Granted, great movies can make simple premises like this good and investing because of the characters that are involved. Captain America: Civil War essentially had the heroes fighting over a helicopter in an airport, but that wasn't the point because you cared about what happened to the characters and who they were. In this movie you simply don't.
And come the credits, as the film attempts to wrap up the entire X-Men saga in a little bow, you realize just how far the franchise has fallen from the likes of X-Men: Days of Future Past just five years ago. The references and callbacks to the previous films don't add any emotional ties to the characters your'e watching, but rather make you long for the characters of previous films even more.
In Conclusion: If Dark Phoenix had come out at the same time as X-Men: The Last Stand, I would have had a hard time distinguishing the two. Both are sloppy, have subplots that never get addressed or resolved, and frankly are poorly written. But both have a great cast, some redeeming moments, and some decent action. And while I would call Dark Phoenix the better movie, I honestly can't say it's by much. Simon Kinberg, who wrote the Last Stand as well, makes the same mistakes he made all those years ago in this film that shows that Fox simply hasn't learned from their failures.
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