Dark Phoenix Review
PG-13: Intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action including some gunplay, disturbing images, and brief strong language
20th Century Fox, Marvel Entertainment, TSG Entertainment
Run Time: 1 Hour and 53 minutes
Release Date: June 7, 2019
Writer/Director: Simon Kinberg
Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp Jessica Chastain
This is the story of one of the X-Men’s most beloved characters, Jean Grey, as she evolves into the iconic DARK PHOENIX. During a life-threatening rescue mission in space, Jean is hit by a cosmic force that transforms her into one of the most powerful mutants of all time. Wrestling with this increasingly unstable power as well as her own personal demons, Jean spirals out of control, tearing the X-Men family apart and threatening to destroy the very fabric of our planet.
Out of all the releases this summer, Dark Phoenix was the film I was both fearful of and also dreading. The last X-Men installment, X-Men: Apocalypse, was just a bloated and constructively disjointed generic summer blockbuster that never felt like an X-Men movie. But the thing that freaked me out the most were the constant delays regarding this film. It was pushed back again and again, then went through reshoots, only to get pushed back again that, at a certain point, I just assumed this was going to suck. With all those factors setting this up for failure, it brings me the absolute pleasure to say that Dark Phoenix IS GOOD!
When it comes to the X-Men movies, screenwriter Simon Kinberg has been responsible for the best entries of the franchise... and some of the worst. He started his X-Men screenwriting career with The Last Stand, which we all can agree is a beautiful mess. Now, after 13 years and so many X-Men movies, Kinberg is finally in the director’s chair and delivers an X-Men film that actually captures the spirit of the X-Men while finally doing justice to the Jean Grey story.
He’s been influenced enough that he pulls a Jean Grey and sucks in all the talent of the X-Men directors before him and utilizes their best elements to his advantage to deliver his serviceable story. With this being his directorial debut, he takes some of the fun dynamic S*nger brought to the original series and incorporated the grit and darkness that Vaughn brought with his take.
The film starts off relatively strong as we see Jean’s origins and the events that led her into the arms of Charles Xavier. From there, the film jumps into 1992, 9 years after the events of Apocalypse. By that time, the world has accepted the X-Men as their go-to superhero group when the world needs saving. It’s similar to how the Powerpuff Girls swing into action where the person in charge calls in via phone for the heroes to save the day. When a space mission goes wrong, the President of the United States calls Xavier and has his team go into space to save some lives. But when that mission goes wrong and Jean inherits this energy, an unfortunate change of events threatens her family and the X-Men.
The film is called Dark Phoenix and it delivers on its title in every front. As the film focuses more on Jean becoming Phoenix and her arc involves her having to face her traumatic past which influences the stress of her powers, the story benefits from a more complex and developed story than the past failure. Since this is more scaled back narrative where the conflict involves one of their own, the drama built upon that is developed and executed well. At a certain point, you’re completely invested in the film.
Ever since we saw her as little Sansa Stark, Sophie Turner has proven to be a great and powerful actress who can control a screen with her presence. Here, she finally does become Jean Grey and embodies all the characteristics to make this mutant human. She depicts the notions of anxiety and schizophrenia well that it makes you emotionally resonate with her. Jean isn’t a monster, but a character you can relate to as she goes on this journey to find sanctuary and guidance when both Xavier and Erik abandon her.
I’ve never really used this relation with any of the X-Men movies, but this reminded of the X-Men animated series (the one from the ‘90s with the iconic theme song that you will hear in your head as you read this now).
The thing that really brought me into the film is something that is established early on that I appreciated, which is the abundant amount of teamwork integrated in the action sequences. An aspect about the X-Men that all of the films kind of lacked was teamwork. While most of the films focused more on the social issues that the mutants faced - which is essential to the comic’s core - it lost the factor of the team working as a unit. What I love about the action scenes is the fact that the team helps each other out and use each other’s abilities to their advantage. The beginning sees them working as a team and even the climax works on that same level. The action is often well-choreographed and features a ton of badass moments that give you chills. Structurally, the story is different. It’s not as bloated as the predecessors. It’s more distinguishable and bares the identity of an X-Men movie that plays like a long episode of the animated series, similar to what Star Trek Beyond did.
Pardon my language but, for the first time, he’s not causing any damage or destruction to the world or putting the X-Men at risk. The best character who steals the show every moment he spends on screen is Erik. Magneto is a fucking G in this, man. Not only does he have some of the best lines of dialogue, but he also has the most badass action moments that are so cool, your attraction to Fassbender might heighten more than it should. Take it from Myan. She couldn’t stop ogling him and, at a certain point, I couldn’t either. Also, Magneto knows of the repetitive cycle of X-Men movies and he makes some tongue-in-cheek meta jokes that hit. Besides that, Erik is the only character who gets a moment to reel in the pain of his emotions, which is the influence for his motives. I mean, it’s always been like this for him since First Class, but here it’s more justified because it relates to a person that he is connected to.
It’s been 8 years since First Class was released and, if you’re a veteran that stuck around since then, you’re going through the motions and some of the cast is really phoning it in. We already know Jennifer Lawrence wasn’t even interested in returning after her awful performance in Apocalypse, so it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that her same inattentive performance makes a return here. For this being an Academy Award Winning actress, it’s annoying how transparent it is that she doesn’t give a shit about her appearance. You could already tell from the less-detailed makeup that she wasn’t onboard, but she’s not alone this time around. Nicholas Hoult is unfortunately phoning it in as well. I found him completely flat throughout, where some of the scenes he shares with Charles are really cheesy because of how straightforward he delivers his dialogue without much emotion. So, the J. Law effect really rubbed off on him.
Why does the series feel the need to time jump in each installment when their characters never seem to age at all… like, ever. Nobody ever seems to have grey hairs or show any sign of aging. Hell, this could’ve taken place a few years after Apocalypse rather than nine years, because they don’t incorporate much significance to the period at all. The film takes place in 1992 and it could’ve been 1985 for all that matters, since it doesn’t show any form of ‘90s memorabilia to signify when the film takes place besides the time stamp. The best thing to do is to ignore it and that’s it.
As a finale to the series, the film incorporates elements from other superhero movies that are... um... weird in the most obvious ways that it’s distracting. There are moments that are reminiscent of infamous scenes taken from The Dark Knight Rises, Logan, and also The Last Stand, but better, of course.
It really beats elements of predictability where you know what character is going to eat it because of a line of dialogue or change of motivation due to age. It’s literally obvious who dies and Kinberg’s script doesn’t make it subtle, but once that character (whomever it may be) passes, the drama, the conflict, the movie itself, becomes far better.
I love how whenever Jean Grey uses her powers, her makeup becomes stronger. I’m not going to nitpick on Grey’s makeup or anything, but part of me didn’t know that Phoenix’s powers were besides being invincible… which I guess also means flawless. She literally has the ability to glow, but when she uses her powers and causes destruction, her face takes NO DAMAGE. Even early on when the solar energy fuses with her body, she doesn’t even have a speck of dirt on her face. Whenever she uses her powers she just gets orange cracks on her face.
Ever since Fox and Disney had their Quicksilver dispute regarding Days of Future Past and Avengers: Age of Ultron, it sucks to see how much restriction to fan service this series has. Now that Disney got the last laugh through the acquisition of Fox, their meddling and control kind of fucked this movie over from delivering service that fits more in this film than the MCU. Here’s the funny thing about Dark Phoenix that I wasn’t expecting: so one of the reasons why the film had to undergo reshoots was because the film its climax was way too similar to Captain Marvel’s and it shows. Both movies feature the titular character undergoing the same story arc, which is learning how to embrace their power. What makes this stronger is how it never emphasizes Jean’s gender and how it’s more of a psychological story arc than one that hamfists an obvious feminist message in your face. Jean’s arc is genuine and Kinberg treats it as so. I kind of find it funny that even though its finale is different than Captain Marvel, the set piece is similar to the other major release of this week which is The Secret Life of Pets 2 for that also has a climax which takes place on a train. Like what’s up with trains this week? Was the demographic at the test screenings were people who were like this?
Let’s go ahead and get this controversial moment over with: I didn’t like Endgame. I found it average at best, and if I didn’t have any movie theater etiquette I would’ve been glancing at my phone counting down the seconds until it ended.
That being said, Dark Phoenix gave me something I haven’t seen in a Marvel movie in a long time: pure, unadulterated moodiness and angst. And I liked it. It felt great not being forced to laugh at a punchline or zinger every other scene (sorry, MCU, but someone has to say it). Deadpool’s films are excused from this narrative because his character is a parody and his humor makes sense.
Dark Phoenix has flaws. It’s not an excellent film and it’s not the best X-Men installment. The time jump is an issue that can easily be ignored. It’s lazy, but it’s not the end of the world. Some of the acting falls flat (looking at you, Jennifer Lawrence, who also delivers the corniest line in the film). Jessica Chastain’s villainous role is forgettable to the point where I’ve yet to hear anyone talk about it. It even went completely unmentioned by Rendy in his take. While similar in tone, and in its ending, it’s not a masterpiece like The Dark Knight, which is entirely fine since that still remains untouched as the best superhero film to date.
But god damn it, this is a SUPERHERO movie. The story sets itself up rather simply and it’s not annoyingly convoluted. The action sequences are phenomenal and I did find myself getting chills a few times throughout. At a certain point, I had to remind myself that this is only rated PG-13 because they stretched that rating as far as the MPAA would let them. Jean Grey’s story makes sense from an emotional standpoint and it’s developed well. Overall, it’s a moody rollercoaster with the best superhero fights I’ve seen in 2019 and that’s enough for me.
It’s not like anyone was expecting this to be a contender for Best Picture at the Oscars. As long as you don’t need a hot A-lister in spandex dropping silly one-liners to appreciate a superhero film, you’ll be able to enjoy Dark Phoenix for what it is.
Sidenote: Michael Fassbender had me swooning half the time. He gives a great performance, of course, but that black shirt… oh, it fit him so well. Damn you, Fassbender.
Dark Phoenix has a number of flaws that you have to force yourself to overlook, but the mature handling of the Jean Grey story mixed with well-choreographed and fun action sequences makes this X-Men finale a decent chapter to close out on.
This final installment rules… and that’s the tea.
Rating: 3.5/5 | 76%
