Dark Phoenix
Year: 2019
Director: Simon Kinberg
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp & Sophie Turner
Runtime: 114 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 01/02/22
Director: Simon Kinberg
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp & Sophie Turner
Runtime: 114 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 01/02/22
For nineteen years the X-Men franchise had been delivering mixed quality, but ambitious and innovative superhero films. So, to see the series come to an end with Dark Phoenix was certainly a sad day as they, along with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films, were what got me into superheroes in the first place.
But due to Disney’s acquisition of Fox, the final entry was delayed multiple times, reshoots were made, and it was clear for quite some time that Dark Phoenix was not going to be the epic finale we had all hoped for, and instead was something Disney were just going to shuffle out on the quiet to just have the whole sordid affair over with.
Nine years after the X-Men saved the world from Apocalypse, mutant-kind is generally accepted with open arms by humans, provided the X-Men are there to keep a watchful eye out for any mutants that seek to breach the peace. The team, consisting of Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Hank/Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Nightcrawler (Kodi-Smit McPhee), Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and Quicksilver (Evan Peters) are led by Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) who is also the headmaster at his school for the gifted.
Following a rescue mission gone wrong, Jean absorbs a solar flare and doing so awakens her incredible powers that Charles had worked so hard to try and control throughout her childhood. Unable to control her actions, Jean flees, unable to trust anyone including herself.
Meanwhile Earth is visited by shapeshifters known as the D’Bari, led by Vuk (Jessica Chastain). The D’Bari are after the power that Jean absorbed, and offer her a place among them, or threaten to kill her and destroy Earth.
But due to Disney’s acquisition of Fox, the final entry was delayed multiple times, reshoots were made, and it was clear for quite some time that Dark Phoenix was not going to be the epic finale we had all hoped for, and instead was something Disney were just going to shuffle out on the quiet to just have the whole sordid affair over with.
Nine years after the X-Men saved the world from Apocalypse, mutant-kind is generally accepted with open arms by humans, provided the X-Men are there to keep a watchful eye out for any mutants that seek to breach the peace. The team, consisting of Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Hank/Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Nightcrawler (Kodi-Smit McPhee), Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and Quicksilver (Evan Peters) are led by Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) who is also the headmaster at his school for the gifted.
Following a rescue mission gone wrong, Jean absorbs a solar flare and doing so awakens her incredible powers that Charles had worked so hard to try and control throughout her childhood. Unable to control her actions, Jean flees, unable to trust anyone including herself.
Meanwhile Earth is visited by shapeshifters known as the D’Bari, led by Vuk (Jessica Chastain). The D’Bari are after the power that Jean absorbed, and offer her a place among them, or threaten to kill her and destroy Earth.
Dark Phoenix is a bit of a mess, and for a lot of reasons. The Dark Phoenix Saga was always going to be difficult to adapt to film because it’s one of the most beloved Marvel comic book arcs of all time, but also because it had been attempted before with X-Men: The Last Stand, and it didn’t go down too well. So, it only makes sense to get the guy who wrote The last Stand to write and direct this film...for some reason, so Simon Kinberg delivers us yet another watered down and messy adaptation of the story.
First up I need to address the elephant in the room, and an issue that has carried itself across from Apocalypse. Why is nobody getting any older?!
With this story taking place in the early nineties, characters like Charles and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) would be in their sixties and seventies respectively, almost the same age they were in the original X-Men film. However, instead they only look marginally older than they did in First Class which took place in the 1960’s when they were in their twenties and thirties. I understand actors can’t magically age up and down, but there is makeup and CGI that can do the job reasonably well.
On top of not looking the right age, there’s multiple inconsistencies regarding how old characters think each other are. Early in the film Raven refers to Jean Grey as a child, but she would be in her late twenties based on the fact that it takes place almost a decade after Apocalypse and she was supposed to be seventeen then. Raven also seems to be under the impression that she and Hank are still young, but in reality, they would both be around sixty. Nobody corrects her either, so clearly everybody is under the impression that they’re considerably younger than they actually are.
First up I need to address the elephant in the room, and an issue that has carried itself across from Apocalypse. Why is nobody getting any older?!
With this story taking place in the early nineties, characters like Charles and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) would be in their sixties and seventies respectively, almost the same age they were in the original X-Men film. However, instead they only look marginally older than they did in First Class which took place in the 1960’s when they were in their twenties and thirties. I understand actors can’t magically age up and down, but there is makeup and CGI that can do the job reasonably well.
On top of not looking the right age, there’s multiple inconsistencies regarding how old characters think each other are. Early in the film Raven refers to Jean Grey as a child, but she would be in her late twenties based on the fact that it takes place almost a decade after Apocalypse and she was supposed to be seventeen then. Raven also seems to be under the impression that she and Hank are still young, but in reality, they would both be around sixty. Nobody corrects her either, so clearly everybody is under the impression that they’re considerably younger than they actually are.
Jean’s story and her having difficulty controlling her powers, finding out she’s been lied to by Charles for most of her life, and becoming to be viewed as a villain by humanity is an engaging story, and feels in-line with the majority of good X-Men stories. Unfortunately, though the inclusion of the D’Bari kind of messes up the balance of the film. Seeing Jean go from hero to villain is interesting enough, but Kinberg evidently felt like there needed to be another villain who’s actually pulling the strings. Vuk is an awful villain with no motive and very little screen time. Chastain too delivers a wooden and career low performance in the role which only adds insult to injury and as a result the latter half of the film begins to completely fall apart.
Dark Phoenix also has surprisingly few action sequences, which for some may be an issue but personally I really enjoyed. This again is spoiled in the second half of the film where you get funnelled from one underwhelming fight to another as Kinberg had clearly run out of story but needed to provide a film that was longer than an hour. What would have been welcome is some character development for Storm or Nightcrawler, but no, they just tend to stay in the shadows for most of the film for the convenience of the plot. I also feel like McAvoy and Fassbender kind of stopped caring about the characters at this point because they deliver some relatively underwhelming performances as Charles and Magneto.
It’s sad to see the X-Men franchise end this way, obviously there was still The New Mutants left to come, but that wasn’t directly connected to the prequel or original X-Men films. After being around for so long, and being proof that superhero ensemble movies could work well before The Avengers popped up on the scene, the team goes out with a whimper and not a bang. It’s not a bad film and anybody that says so is being extremely harsh I feel, but it’s doesn’t work to the series strengths often, and it’s clear that most people involved had stopped caring about this film before it was even out of pre-production.
Dark Phoenix also has surprisingly few action sequences, which for some may be an issue but personally I really enjoyed. This again is spoiled in the second half of the film where you get funnelled from one underwhelming fight to another as Kinberg had clearly run out of story but needed to provide a film that was longer than an hour. What would have been welcome is some character development for Storm or Nightcrawler, but no, they just tend to stay in the shadows for most of the film for the convenience of the plot. I also feel like McAvoy and Fassbender kind of stopped caring about the characters at this point because they deliver some relatively underwhelming performances as Charles and Magneto.
It’s sad to see the X-Men franchise end this way, obviously there was still The New Mutants left to come, but that wasn’t directly connected to the prequel or original X-Men films. After being around for so long, and being proof that superhero ensemble movies could work well before The Avengers popped up on the scene, the team goes out with a whimper and not a bang. It’s not a bad film and anybody that says so is being extremely harsh I feel, but it’s doesn’t work to the series strengths often, and it’s clear that most people involved had stopped caring about this film before it was even out of pre-production.