I’m the kind of guy who has a number of different fandoms, with X-Men in general being one of the chiefs among them. In fact, as far as my superhero fandoms are concerned, it’s X-Men that personally stands on top pedestal. I love the comics, the animated shows, the games, and I adore the movies. Because of this, the 2019 movie titled “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” is the last thing I want to discuss as a longtime fan of the franchise. It would be one thing to discuss a flawed movie, but I find this film especially depressing to review. Even before this movie premiered, there was very little optimism, interest or excitement expressed from fans, as the negative behind the scenes issues, disagreements with the script, re-shoots, and the purchase of Fox from Disney put this film in a difficult spot. I never the less went into this movie cautiously optimistic that it could turn-out something unexpected and triumphant in the face of such negative odds ... and I’ve been in a state of denial ever sense I left the theater. Still, I feel the time has come to just come out, and talk about the movie that represents the end of an era in Superhero films. Sadly, for a curtain call to a mega franchise … this was not only disappointing, but it’s arguably the worst treatment I’ve ever seen of my favorite team of heroes in a movie.
During a rescue mission in space, Jean Grey gets exposed to an entity that’s slowly taking control over her body. Things seem mild at first, but when certain revelations of her childhood are revealed, she loses control, and our heroes pay the price. With team member getting killed off, the X-Men find themselves split in half, between those who plan to rescue Jean, and the other half aiming to kill her before she does any more harm. Meanwhile, a group of shape-shifting aliens have landed on Earth and apparently want to make it their new home. Thus, they aim to use Jeans new powers as a means to wipe-out all inhabitants, so their race can claim the planet. While 2006’s “X-Men 3: The Last Stand” featured the Dark Phoenix character, it really wasn’t an adaption of the comic series the character was named after. This film by contrast is directly trying to adapt the “Dark Phoenix” comic series, but it’s also combining story threads from the “Hero Phoenix” story arc of the comics, as well as some hold-over elements from “The Last Stand”, resulting in … well … a very messy script. To make maters worse, this was meant to be the launching pad for a new Phoenix themed movie trilogy, but mid-way through production, Disney purchased the studio, and all future films were suspended. As such, all three beginning, middle, and end stories had to be crammed into one picture ... oh boy.
I’ll go as far to say that the first 18 minutes are really good, and gave the impression of a solid X-Men movie. We begin with an effectively chilling opening flashback, in which a little Jean accidentally causes the death of her mother in a sudden car-wreck. We then see the younger Professor X adopt Jean to live at his mansion, and it’s a genuinely touching scene.
What follows is the X-Men’s rescue mission in space, which is easily my favorite sequence of the whole film. The tension is high, the effects are great, it’s also cool to see our heroes responding to a freak disaster, and using their powers to help people in need. We also see every single team member contribute to the mission, which is great, and we get a small detail I never knew I wanted to see in X-Men, but I’m overjoyed to have it … Cyclops hooks up his destructive eye-beams to a giant cannon on the X-Jet … that is awesome! Even after the mission, there’s still little details that I really loved. It’s cool to finally see our team treated like heroes by the crowds, and I love that Professor X has his own private emergency phone-line to the president … like their the Power-Puff girls. There’s also an added detail to Cerebro, in which it can allow the Professor to enter the astral-planes of someone’s mind, which is unique, and leads to some pleasing visuals. Hans Zimmer’s music score is also a solid piece of work, and even though it doesn’t sound like traditional X-Men music, it’s still a chilling music score that I’ve listened to many times on its own. I also love the detail of the younger students having a private mutant dance party in the woods … and with character Dazzler providing the entertainment. I’m just one of those comic-book geeks who easily lights-up at seeing an obscure character that I recognize from the comics being featured in a movie.
At last, I have nothing but credit to give to Sophie Turner in her leading portrayal as both Jean Grey and Phoenix.
Obviously, I already liked the actress from “Game of Thrones”, but she really was an ideal choice to portray a younger Jean. For all the problems in the script, Sophie Turner at least makes the character come to life on screen, and you can tell in each scene, she’s trying to make every single inflection as true to the spirit of the character as she possibly can. The cast in general is still great, as James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Nicholas Hoult are all committed talents, and rarely turn in bad performances in their respected roles as Professor X, Magneto and Beast.
Michael Fassbender especially, as he just knocks it out of the park every time he's on screen, although the character Magneto has gotten very repetitive at this point. The returning young cast in the roles of Cyclops, Storm and Nightcrawler are likewise credible, but I wish they had more to do in the film, as I felt they kept getting pushed to the side-lines. Unfortunately, while the cast is generally still good, there is an overall sense of fatigue among them … like their ready to move on to other things. The character Quicksilver gets a noticeably smaller role, supposedly because actor Evan Peters was pursuing other interests at the time of filming. Of course, the big one to show her disinterest in the franchise is Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, who was already showing her weariness of the role in the last film. This time, she’s full-on auto pilot acting, but I really can’t blame her … especially sense the character is terribly written in this film. Actually, this brings me to my biggest issue with the whole movie … despite committed performances, every character is horribly written in this film.
Following the opening rescue sequence is a heated argument between both Professor X and Mystique, and this scene … in my view … is the figurative iceberg that sank this movie. Like, there was no saving the movie from drowning after this horrible moment. During the established rescue, the team stay longer in an effort to save one last person ... as they should, because heroes in general, whether they be firefighters or soldiers will put their lives on the line if it means rescuing one more innocent life.
Despite succeeding in rescuing everyone, Mystique putts herself on a soap box and scolds the hell out of the Professor, claiming that his ego is putting the team in danger … despite the fact that this was a volunteered rescue mission, and all members were committed to saving everyone. Still this scene is relentless at making the good Professor look like he's in the wrong, and this in-tern becomes the running theme of “Dark Phoenix”. Seriously, this movie is relentlessly putting Charles under the buss, like he's always been a character driven by his ego, and makes him look like the figurative villain of the picture … in fact he even blatantly states that he’s the villain of this story ... even though he had absolutely nothing to do with either the alien entity that’s possessing Jean, or the actual aliens manipulating her.
While Charles is at fault for keeping secrets from her past, it’s still small potatoes compared to all the alien forces that are corrupting her. Here’s where the script problems are horribly mingled, as it’s trying to combine the Phoenix backstory from “The Last Stand” movie … in which the Professor was at fault … with the comic-book Phoenix origin that involved Jean getting possessed by an alien entity … in which the Professor wasn’t at fault. These two do not work together at all, and I wish the screen writers would just pick one or the other. Heck, if it just followed the continuity of the previous movie “X-Men Apocalypse”, Jean would have already had her Phoenix powers, and they wouldn’t need any subplot involving missions in space. Seriously, what is up with this horrible lack of continuity between films?
More to the point, both the original Dark Phoenix comics and animated series highlighted the X-Men as being more united then ever before, as they try to save their friend from both herself and all the other opposing forces that would try to do her harm. This film by contrast divides our heroes, putts them against one another, and makes everyone look terrible as a result. It’s not like in “Captain America: Civil War” in which the heroes were divided because they couldn’t agree on their moral principles. “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” splits up the team, puts both sides in a bad spot, to the point where I can’t connect to either side. The Professor looks bad for suddenly having an ego problem in this film. Mystique looks bad for putting herself on the moral high-ground … even though her point of view is just as self-centered. Even Beast … the cool and loving pacifist of the team … now looks awful for teaming up with Magneto in and effort to kill Jean … one of his fellow team members … and he even instigates a fight in a public area where he knows they’ll be human casualties.
I have my own theory as to why the film took this direction … I can’t prove any of this, but still, here’s my speculation. This is the first time in the X-Men franchise that a female character is the main focus, and the studio wanted to make her a flagship figure in the vain of either Wonder Woman or Black Widow. The problem here is that both Black Widow and Wonder Woman are heroes to the core, and easy to get behind, where as Dark Phoenix is an antagonistic character, and not exactly an ideal role model.
As such, in order to make her look good … everyone else has to look worse by comparison. The obvious problem with this approach … when everyone in your film looks bad, it hurts the movie hard. I’m not even joking when I say “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” is a bruising experience that dumps pounds of drama on the characters, but sense I’m neither connected or sympathizing with anyone, it just makes the movie feel boring, lifeless, and even soulless at times. It really begs the question … why wasn’t this movie an adaption of the “Hero Phoenix Saga”. Once again, in both the comics and TV series, the space entity called Phoenix was initially a hero, and lead the team on one of their most triumphant and epic adventures. Then overtime she became the antagonistic Dark Phoenix. Had this movie just made her the hero, she could have potentially stood on the same pedestal as Wonder Woman, and the rest of the characters wouldn’t have been forced to look so bad.
Let’s shift our attention to the alien villains for a second, because my gosh … talk about the most uninspired, generic, and forgettable alien villains I’ve ever seen. Jessica Chastain is wasted talent, as she’s given the thankless role as the incredibly boring alien leader named Vuk.
Compared to the comics, the X-Men battled a race of aliens called the Brood, who were awesome, but also very unique. They were insect like, had menacing designs, could take over host bodies like puppets, and had vessels made out of living creatures up-ducted from other planets ... why couldn't we have seen those? The aliens featured in this movie are just run of the mil shapeshifters who stay in boring human form the whole time ... what a waist, as well as a complete lack of imagination. Actually, this ties into another problem, as this movie is terrified to do anything big or exciting with its premise. Granted, the filmmakers wanted to make a smaller scale movie after the mixed reception of “X-Men Apocalypse”, and besides, movies like “Logan” and “Deadpool” proved you can go far on a very small scale.
The problem is that “Dark Phoenix” is one of the largest and most epic comic-book sagas ever, and is the last thing that should be small scale. Seriously, if the filmmakers wanted something with more simplicity, they shouldn’t have tried adapting a source material that demands something larger. I don’t even want to mention Magneto’s island sanctuary called Genosha, which in the comics was depicted as a mighty metropolis, but in this movie, it looks like a used set-piece from “The Walking Dead” show. Even the X-Men uniforms look really cheap in this film. The previous “X-Men Apocalypse” featured the best-looking costumes of any X-Men movie, giving each character a distinct look and appeal, while this movie gives everyone generic matching suits ... it’s ridiculous. The action scenes in of themselves are competently shot, especially for a first time director, but there’s nothing too memorable either, and some of it feels repetitive. For example, this is the second time we see Jean loose control in a suburban environment, and while it leads to an entertaining fight, it's still stuff we've seen before.
So, now we come to the third act, in which the two divided teams of mutant’s battle over what should be done about Jean. Unlike “Captain America: Civil War”, which set it’s super-powered brawl in an abandoned airport, this battle takes place in the public streets of New York, and sure enough … there are a lot of human casualties and wide-spread destruction as a result. The irony here is that our titular Dark Phoenix causes far less death and destruction than anyone else during this final battle.
No joke, she wipes out the alien villains, and destroys their leader, but doesn’t inflict any real harm on our characters or cause any massive damage … unlike all our other heroes and anti-heroes who have all kinds of property damage, casualties, and blood on their hands during this final battle. Having said all that, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the climactic train chase sequence. As far as super-powered action set-pieces go, this train battle is a lot of fun watch, and makes for one of the biggest entertainment highlights of the movie by far. It’s got great energy, the layout is cool, and there’s a wide array of everyone’s powers on display. Unfortunately, they’re still things I find myself picking at during this climax. Chief among them being that the aliens remain in their boring human-disguises the whole time. It would have been so cool to see our heroes battling enemies with unique alien designs, as well as easy to tell them apart during all the chaotic fighting. Also, this is now the final battle in the whole X-Men franchise … so why aren’t they in their costumes for this event?
In the end, the disposable villains are all disposed of, Jean is presumed dead, Xavier is kicked off the school grounds, his property name replaced with Jeans, Beast takes over the school … even though he actively tried to kill two fellow team-members during the climax … and we get a cringe ending with Magneto and the Professor playing Chess at a coffee shop. Congratulations movie, you gave us an epilogue that was even less fulfilling then the lackluster send-off we got in “The Last Stand”. In the end, this was a very disappointing and forgettable installment in this awesome franchise … and a pitiful send-off to the series as a whole.
It also highlighted the growing disinterest audiences had for this series, as it was the lowest grossing film in the whole franchise, and it even failed to be top grossing movie of its weekend release … which was a first for the X-Men. Still, I couldn’t help but savor the experience, as it will be the last time I see my favorite cast members in these roles. There are even select merits to single out, including Sophie Turner’s dynamic portrayal of Jean Grey, the exciting train fight finale, and some small but genuine emotional highlights, which were all just enough to keep the film from being a complete waste of time. Unfortunately, this is sadly still bottom of the barrel for my favorite superhero franchise, with it’s all around messy script, harsh treatment of its iconic heroes, lack of focus on proper character drama, and disposable execution of one of the comic’s greatest story arcs. While I can just barley pull some value from the experience, it’s unfortunately just an unremarkable superhero film, and a depressing send-off to a mighty series of films.
Thanks for
reading my review of the 2019 Comic-Book movie “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” …
and continue to enjoy whichever movies you Love!
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