As a kid, I loved the Saturday morning X-Men cartoon. I would look forward to it week to week, which prompted me to purchase some of their comics as well. I bring this up to demonstrate an appreciation and perhaps a bias I have towards the X-Men franchise even when a film is clearly flawed. DARK PHOENIX is definitely not the worst X-Men movie (that honor belongs to X-MEN: LAST STAND and perhaps even X-MEN: APOCALYPSE). However, it isn’t that far off. Despite the many, MANY problems in DARK PHOENIX, I still managed to have a little fun with the characters that I have loved since my childhood.
DARK PHOENIX opens with the world actually loving the X-Men. A struggle mutants have never had any success at. Kids wearing their shirts and painting their face that resembles their favorite mutant is definitely a new phase that has never been seen in the nine films prior (I’m including Wolverine). In fact, that struggle of acceptance has been a focal point throughout the X-Men storyline. But this also is a nice way to show how unstable and fleeting that relationship is when even one mutant goes awry.
The President of the United States has a direct line to Professor X (the always wonderful James McAvoy) and has asked the X-Men team to help save a U.S. space shuttle from being destroyed by some foreign glob of mass drifting in space that is never fully explained. During the rescue mission, the entity becomes a part of Jean Grey (Game of Thrones’ Sophia Turner) making the already powerful mutant even more powerful. As Jean develops these incredible powers, a corruptions begins to turn her into the Dark Phoenix. The family relationship of the X-Men team takes a hard hit as they struggle to agree how to handle the splinter of one of their own.
DARK PHOENIX definitely feels like an afterthought movie. There are a lot of factors that don’t help this matter. Firstly, while the film was still in production, Disney bought the rights of the franchise from Fox. Secondly, the film went through massive reshoots because reportedly the ending was too similar to another recent superhero film (I’m very curious to know more details about that). This pushed DARK PHOENIX to open a full year later. Then just from a character standpoint, the new players: Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Alexandra Shipp as Storm, and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler are simply less compelling from their previous incarnations. Even Sophia Turner, who has an admirable performance, simply hasn’t had enough screen time previously to now be accepted as the lead in such an established franchise.
In 2000, utilizing an incredible cast, the first X-MEN movie came on to the scene and ushered in a new way to tell the superhero storyline on the big screen. X2: X-MEN UNITED upped the ante by deepening the characters with a meaningful almost allegorical story. X-MEN: THE LAST STAND was a disappointing follow up to say the least. Then in 2011, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS came on the scene introducing a young version of the characters and once again lifted the standard to impressive heights. X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST miraculously combined both eras of X-Men storylines with all the actors reprising their roles and somehow even erased the mess that was THE LAST STAND. After 2016’s X-MEN: APOCALYPE was such a letdown, my expectations for DARK PHOENIX were lowered considerably. Knowing that another line of young cast members were taking a more prominent role was disheartening. So I guess to put it kindly, I was surprised that DARK PHOENIX wasn’t completely terrible and still managed somewhat prominent roles for some of my favorite returning characters.
However, some of my favorite characters did not feel completely true to themselves. I like the idea that Professor X has some very disagreeable choices, but his reactions didn’t always feel genuine to who we know him as. Raven/Mystique seemed a little too good without the edge we’ve known from her and it didn’t help that Jennifer Lawrence seemed ready to be done with the character. Nicholas Hoult as Beast is great, but it’s not until Michael Fassbender as Magneto returns that the film is rushed with an energy that you quickly realize was missing for the first half of the film. Magneto and Professor X have always had one of the most interesting relationships in the entire comic book universe and actors Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy perfectly embody the heart and soul of these films. Their level of talent lifts the films to a degree to watch simply for their scenes.
I almost forgot. DARK PHOENIX actually has a villain in the form of an alien species who is after the entity inside Dark Phoenix. But they are so poorly fleshed out in who they actually are and what they are trying to achieve that they are completely unmemorable. Poor Jessica Chastain is walking around with so little knowledge of her character as the leader of this species that the note must have simply been, “play like you are a lifeless robot,” stripping her down of all personality and makeup. Even her hoards of minions do nothing more than run at people.
As I write this review, I clearly was not impressed. But I can’t help apologizing for it because of certain moments or scenes. When the whole team is fighting, it’s exciting! The final fight on the train has some really neat hero moments and I never tire of seeing Fassbender’s Magneto and McAvoy’s Professor X on screen together, which wasn’t nearly enough. The other great character is Evan Peters as Quicksilver. He has stolen scenes in previous films and does the same here once again. However, Peters’ Quicksilver is inexplicably left out of the final battle in favor for a bunch of more boring mutants. Ugh! I think I finally convinced myself to drop another half star.
