Following the events of X-Men: Apocalypse, it seems that Charles Xavier’s dream of human and mutant co-existance has been achieved. The X-Men have been elevated to rockstar level status, and are now revered by all as the heroes they always wished to be. When a space mission goes awry, Xavier receives a personal call from the President requesting assistance and the X-Men are dispatched to offer aid. When the rescue mission begins to fail, the alien “cosmic force” makes it way into Jean, which is when all hell begins to break loose. The mental safe guards that Charles had previously put in Jean’s mind begin to breakdown and Jean goes on the run in search of answers and clarity. The X-Men attempt to stop her and bring her home, but they are quickly over-powered by the newly renamed “Phoenix”. When one of their own falls to Jean’s new powers, the remaining X-Men begin to take sides with differing opinions on how to stop her. Since it was 100% spoiled in all of the trailers leading up to the release of the film, I am just going to say it: Mystique dies. Her death causes everyone to start taking sides when going after Jean. Oh, and did I mention that there are super generic shape-shifting aliens in this movie that want to control Jean’s enhanced power? The X-Men must attempt to stop and/or save Jean from the aliens by the end of the third act of the film. 

 

 

Dark Phoenix features returning players James McAvoy (Professor X), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), and Nicholas Hoult (Beast), who continue their roles that originated in First Class. The veteran X-Men actors are once again joined by Sophie Turner (Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix), Evan Peters (Quicksilver), Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler), and Alexandra Shipp (Storm). Jessica Chastain (Interstellar) joins the cast as the alien Vuk. 

 

Before getting into the bad, it is important to say that there are glimpses of good in the movie. The opening sequence of the film is pure X-Men gold. The X-Men comics have a history of sending the X-Men into space, and the “Phoenix/Dark Phoenix Saga” absolutely ties into those specific space-faring moments. X3: The Last Stand attempted to do the “Dark Phoenix Saga”, but ignored all of the fun sci-fi elements. When it was announced that this new film would be heavily relying on the source material for inspiration, it sure seemed like we would be getting a more cosmic film. We get to see a quick mission to space, (complete with Grant Morrison style X-Men uniforms) leading to Jean’s transformation into one of the X-Men’s greatest foes. This part is handled beautifully and was truly exciting to see on the big screen. There are also a handful of great action moments for our heroes, including some truly badass sequences for Storm who didn’t get to do a whole lot in the previous film. I also loved the cameo from a specific singing mutant who had previously never graced the silver screen, and this was a very nice touch for the fans. 

 

With the exception of this quick jaunt into space and a few select scenes, the rest of the film a pretty awful in terms of storytelling. The creative team behind the film ignores the fact that Jean manifested the Phoenix in order to stop Apocalypse in the previous film, most of the X-Men act completely out of character, and the entire film feels ultimately disappointing across the board. Simon Kinsberg (Director and Writer) was also the co-writer behind X3: The Last Stand, and this film feels like a second attempt to prove that the concepts from X3 would work without interference from other parties. Overall, the film feels like a rehash in many ways (the Jean and Charles scenes in particular), with the added layer of an alien race that was completely forgettable and disappointing. Jessica Chastain’s character had been kept a closely guarded secret, and many hoped that the would end up being Lilandra of the Shi’ar Empire (a critical character in the X-Men comics and this particular story). In reality, she is an alien named Vuk who is from a race called the D’Bari. Even for those of us who are huge Marvel fans, this was a big head scratcher. After doing some research, the D’Bari are the aliens from the planet that Jean consumes in a fiery blaze when she goes full Dark Phoenix. They are only named and appear in a single panel in the entire “Dark Phoenix Saga”. So Vuk and her remaining friends are all that are left from their race, as their planet was previously wiped out by the “cosmic force” before heading to Earth, and now they want to control that power themselves. Aside from the alien threat, there are two moments in particular that are straight up horrible. The first comes from Cyclops who at one point literally says, “if you lay a finger on her, I will FUCKING kill you”. The second is from Nightcrawler, who ends up going on a teleporting alien-killing murder spree. These alien characters are so generic in fact, that the X-Men have no problem killing all of them off in order to get to Jean. They are only aliens and not humans or mutants, so it’s ok…right? 

 

From a marketing standpoint, Fox also completely failed audiences by revealing the one emotional moment in the film in the trailer. Mystique’s death could have been a very impactful moment for this iteration of the X-Men, but it comes and goes quickly without emotional resonance because someone in marketing decided to give it away completely before the film was even released. Fox has shared spoilers in trailers before, but this was a huge blunder. 

 

 

Lastly, I don’t believe the actors are at fault for the failure of this film. The devil is in the details, and this story was just a complete and total mess. We have seen some amazing performances from each the actors and actresses in the past, but you can only do so much with a script and story like this. I would have preferred for the “First Class” saga to have wrapped up with Apocalypse instead of this emotionless final product. 

 

Dark Phoenix lacks the heart or excitement of the source material, and instead provides us with a final product that feels more like a phoned in X-Men movie than anything else. The fact that the creative team had the opportunity to reshoot the final act of the film and we still got this incredibly dissatisfying ending says a lot as well. I loved First Class. I loved Days of Futures Past. X-Men: Apocalypse had some big problems but it was still a better movie that this. I didn’t think that I would hate an X-Men movie…and then Dark Phoenix came out. I went in with extremely low expectations and was hoping to be surprised, but I honestly was pretty miserable sitting through this film. My personal recommendation is to wait for a home video release on this one. It is truly unfortunate that Fox’s X-Men franchise fails to go out with a bang, but instead the final go around ends with a sad whimper.

 

Rating [1.5/5]

ComicsOnline gives Dark Phoenix 1.5 out of 5 missed opportunities. 

 

 

 

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