Dark Phoenix (Review)
Dark Phoenix is a Disappointing Ending to the X-Men Franchise
The only good news about Dark Phoenix is that Brett Ratner no longer has to live with having made the worst X-Men film of the franchise. One of the most celebrated arcs from the comic that inspired an inexplicable love and devotion for one of it’s blandest characters (who doesn’t even have a cool X-Man name) is reduced to little more than an emo girl throwing a temper tantrum. Not even the inclusion of some of my favorite mutants from these films could keep me interested in Dark Phoenix and as the film went on I found myself asking, “it’s got to be over soon, right?”
I’m not one of those pompous jackasses who has trouble suspending my disbelief when it comes to superhero movies. You won’t hear me arguing the scientific impossibilities of, say, time travel in Avengers: Endgame or getting upset over Atlantians ridding sharks in Aquaman, because it’s a slippery slope leading to you just being the guy who likes to ruin everyone’s good time. However, Dark Phoenix asks too much even of a die-hard comic fan like me. The film opens when the X-Men traveling to space in a jet (sure it’s a super cool mutant jet or something) in order save some astronauts. The thing is that somehow the young mutants seem completely immune to the vacuum and incredible temperature extremes of space. At one point they simply go so far as to tape a helmet on Nightcrawler (his hands, feet, and tail are still completely uncovered), but never take the time to simply explain this away by having Storm “create a pocket of air around them” or Jean Grey “protect them when a telekinetic shield.” It might seem trivial, but it’s just the first of many moments throughout Dark Phoenix that made me, a die-hard comic fan, wrinkle my brow and say, “wait, what!?”
The strange thing is that Dark Phoenix should have been in fairly capable hands. Producer Simon Kinberg has been with the X-Men franchise for years and apparently, even star Jennifer Lawrence said that she wouldn’t be in Dark Phoenix if he wasn’t directing. So, how could it have all gone so wrong? Well, I blame it on a lack of overall vision. The film squanders the mutants it has at its disposals. Keep in mind that many of these characters have been around since First Class and even the newest ones at least threw down with bad guys in Apocolypse. However, the fight scenes are all uncoordinated and chaotic, lacking the creative use of the character’s powers that we’ve seen in past films. Well, that is until the final battle sequence aboard a train that is actually pretty incredible. Unfortunately, it’s too little too late.
To make matters worse, Kinberg relies heavily on the hopes that you’ve seen all the recent X-Men movies just as Marvel does with the MCU. However, he takes things a bit too far. I have seen all the X-Men movies (most multiple times), and even I was lost at certain points. Take, for example, the sudden reminder that Beast (Nicholas Holt) and Mystique (Lawrence) had kind of a flirty vibe going on at one point, which is enough for them to “be in love now.” Kinberg shoe horns a lot of moments like this into the film, hoping that they will be big payoffs for the audience, but just feel cumbersome and out of place. More importantly, they throw off the pacing of the film which means the audience never really gets a chance to take in just how big of a threat the whole Phoenix element is. Compared to the past few movies in the series, Dark Phoenix just feels small and insignificant, which is an impressive feat considering it literally starts with them in space.
The biggest disservice in Dark Phoenix though is to the characters. So many of them are fan favorites from the comic books and yet I have to wonder if Kinberg has actually read any of the source material. Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan) is just as much of a tool as ever, but now he’s an idiot as well. Mystique is suddenly a holier than though character who hopes no one remembers any of her tremendous screw ups from past films. Xavier (James McAvoy) suddenly cares more about his own ego than the safety of mutants around the world. Finally, there’s Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), who turns out to be a full-on psycho who struggles with the carnage she is capable of one moment and rampaging the next (I’m talking crazy mood swings in seconds). It’s an attempt to make the characters flawed and therefore more interesting, but it just makes them dislikeable. Moreover, they make grand spectacles of their powers that seem to have very little impact on the actual fights that are going on, once more leaving me to ask myself, “Why?” The only one who is actually a stone cold badass is Magneto (Fassbender) who seems to be making up for the lack of Hugh Jackman in the film.
Like many of you, I was looking forward to Dark Phoenix. The X-Men films have had their ups and downs over the years, but for the most part, they’ve been pretty reliable. Dark Phoenix though goes venturing into the same territory as X-Men Origins: Wolverine (a movie none of us like to talk about). It’s an incredibly disappointing end to this carnation of the comic characters on the big screen. I was worried about Marvel trying to force the X-Men into the MCU now that Disney has gotten the film rights back to the characters, but I doubt anything they do will be as painfully bland and boring as Dark Phoenix. Save yourself the heartache and just skip this one. After all, there are plenty of over comic book movies in the pipeline to hit theaters soon.
