Bringing a film franchise to an end is never an easy task. Doing it adequately in the shadow of a massive corporate merger only complicates things further. As the last stand of the series that really kick-started the superhero film genre, Dark Phoenix wasn’t as bad as the negativity surrounding it would suggest…but it’s not good either.
This was Simon Kinberg’s second attempt at telling the “Dark Phoenix Saga” after the ill-fated and widely loathed X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006, but it wasn’t much of an improvement this time out. He had full creative control this go-round, as both writer and director, so everyone who pinned the blame solely on Brett Ratner for X3 owes him an apology. Why 20th Century Fox thought it was a good idea to go back to the well with Kinberg is a head-scratcher. Days of Future Past was fairly good but both Apocalypse and the reboot of Fantastic Four were not, with the former being markedly better than the latter. He had shown time and time again that he’s simply not adept at telling these stories and if that resume wasn’t reason enough to keep him from helming this project, keep in mind this would be his first time in the director’s chair for a full-length feature…and it showed. Unfortunately, for the longtime fans of the X-Men film series and comics, and really the entire moviegoing public, Dark Phoenix is a meandering and aimless conclusion for the majority of the runtime.
Kinberg’s script is kind of a disaster right out of the box. Professor X is a completely different person when we see him here but there’s no explanation for the character progression, at least during that point in the movie, which makes the resolution dissatisfying. Anyhow, the X-Men franchise has always felt far more grounded compared to its Marvel Cinematic Universe counterparts but the blatant disregard for astrophysics, in this case, is egregious. The space mission is no secret (it’s given away in the trailer) but it’s not taken seriously…like, not even a little bit. They go in completely unprepared with no space suits, no astronaut training, no spaceship, and a loosely thought out plan at the behest of Xavier but it’s out of character for the squad and the larger franchise. Considering how incredibly difficult space travel actually is and even within the fictional universe that exists here, all the X-Men should have died on that mission. So, the suspension of disbelief was obliterated within the first 20-minutes. That’s just the tip of the phoenix shaped iceberg with this screenplay.
All things considered, Sophie Turner was actually pretty good as Jean Grey. She did what she could but was only just introduced in the previous film (Apocalypse) so there wasn’t time for audiences to really have any emotional connection with her and the entire story lacks gravity as a result. I would argue that she’s still not even the main character in this movie. Michael Fassbender has done a good job with Magneto over the years and the same should be said about James McAvoy’s portrayal of Professor X. This was no exception but the way Kinberg went about including them didn’t do the actors or the characters justice. In essence, this whole new X-franchise focused on Magneto and Xavier in the way the original trilogy was focused on Wolverine. Moving into this story without taking the time or the care to shift the narrative to the proper characters left things in a weird state of limbo. Additionally, just like X3, Kinberg felt the need to just throw new mutants into fairly sizeable roles, when there is already a cast in place that’s being overlooked and underutilized. Adding Jessica Chastain brought some star power but she was wasted as Vuk, leader of the D’Bari alien race. The Easter Egg mentality doesn’t get you very far when nothing else is working. Those with roots in the source material are minimal and some are just there for the fight scenes…like Dreadlocks guy aka Ariki (you’ll see).
From a personal standpoint, the inclusion (or increase) of Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) being Cyclops was a nice addition that earned the movie a few extra bonus points from me but happened way too late in the game and wasn’t enough to save the movie from its own mistakes. His romance with Jean is the central element in the saga and it’s basically not even there at all. The chemistry between the two is lacking but that’s not the actors’ faults. Looking back at the cast, it’s really McAvoy, Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), and Nicholas Hoult (Beast) who have the longest tenure but the story being told shouldn’t be about them. Again, this harkens back to, not only, the decision to rush this particular story into theaters but, once there, not even giving room to breathe. The “Dark Phoenix Saga” is a big deal in the comics, like the “Infinity Gauntlet” story, in that it’s an important arc that needs at least a couple of films to tell in its entirety. For the second time in two attempts, it was rushed through with little consideration. Remember how Jean went full Phoenix mode at the end of Apocalypse? That has no bearing on this story at all. I’m sure we’d all rather forget that movie but continuity went right out the window.
The visuals were well done, once again, and watching Jean go into rage mode on people is easily the most entertaining part but that wasn’t the problem with X3 either. Thankfully, the original music by Hans Zimmer is amazing, obviously, and it does its best to carry the weakest parts of the film…but there are just so many it’s overwhelming. In a long-running franchise with plenty of costumes, these were easily the cheapest and worst looking of the bunch. Considering the leather suits from the 2000s era are less than 10-years away in the storyline, these Dickies-style jumpsuits by Daniel Orlandi looked like they were recycled from First Class with little thought or effort. Unfortunately, it wasn’t difficult to see that many of those involved in this project suffered from major senioritis.
With everything going on behind the scenes this movie didn’t really stand a chance. The aggressive ad campaign, including a bizarre back-to-back trailer that ran before Avengers: Endgame, screamed desperation. In fact, those tandem trailers got audibly booed in theaters before both Endgame and Godzilla. Those of us who are morbidly curious had to see this trainwreck for ourselves and contributed to the estimated $14-million opening night box office. Word of mouth is going to bury this movie and they’ll be lucky to recoup the estimated $200-million production budget. As I left the theater, all I could think was: at least my expectations were low and at least it’s over. Hopefully, this team and these characters get a much-deserved break before being folded back into the MCU.
Recommendation: Unless you fall anywhere in the moderate-to-diehard range as an X-Men fan, don’t waste your time or money on this. This wasn’t fun for me to write but it wasn’t fun to watch either.