- [Jean] You think you can fix me?
- Jean, you are not broken.
- [Clint] Although not the train wreck
some may have feared, given its mostly lackluster trailers,
"Dark Phoenix" nevertheless brings the long-running
X-Men franchise to a close
in a messy and muddled fashion.
- Stop!
- [Reviewer] The film is marginally better
than the previous telling of the Phoenix Saga,
"X-Men: The Last Stand," and it's certainly better
than the bloated and excessive "X-Men: Apocalypse,"
but "Dark Phoenix" is still a disappointing finale
for this nearly 20-year-old series,
as Disney assumes ownership of the X-Men characters
from Fox going forward.
Ostensibly Jean Grey's movie,
"Dark Phoenix" struggles to give Jean any true personality
or identity outside of her superpowers.
The events of "Apocalypse" that seemed to trigger
the awakening of her Phoenix powers
are simply ignored here in favor of a celestial force
that inhabits her during a rescue mission in space.
While that may be more comics-accurate
than what happened in "The Last Stand"
and what was hinted at in "Apocalypse,"
her newfound godlike powers serve only as a Macguffin
for the villains to pursue
and an excuse for the heroes to splinter apart
in melodramatic fashion.
The Phoenix Force itself is left unexplored
and hazily defined, essentially the outer-space equivalent
of a killer shark on the prowl
or a demon looking for a soul to possess.
- [Character] Look out!
- [Reviewer] Sophie Turner plays the three shades of Grey
that Jean is given here, scared, sobbing, and seething,
as best she can.
But the script blazes through her tragic arc,
never quite letting the audience truly connect with her.
The story becomes about Jean trying to find her agency
amidst two older mentors, James McAvoy's Charles Xavier,
and Jessica Chastain's sinister alien.
But her journey is rushed
and her characterization thinly sketched.
The tragedy of Jean's plight never quite carries
as much weight as it should,
and thus neither does any of the damage,
in lives or relationships,
that she and her fellow X-Men endure as a result.
Jennifer Lawrence's steely Mystique has her causal function
to play in the story,
one that sets Nicolas Hoult's vengeful Beast in motion
as his loyalties are put to the test.
Michael Fassbender's world-weary Magneto
has seemingly found his corner of the world
to live in peace before he's dragged back into the fray,
where he gets a few badass action moments
to strut his stuff, even as his worldview flip-flops
throughout the movie.
But all three characters, perhaps like the franchise itself,
are just plain over it all.
They want to move on.
And the character they're all equally most frustrated with
is the endlessly pontificating Xavier.
Professor X's hubris has been the Achilles' heel
of his younger incarnation,
and "Dark Phoenix" sees him fairly demonized
for his past actions, but largely for the same reasons
previously explored in "The Last Stand."
Still, James McAvoy sells it all with a pained sincerity
as Xavier reckons with a dilemma somewhat of his own making.
- You're always sorry, Charles.
And there's always a speech.
But nobody cares anymore.
- [Reviewer] The first half of the movie is the best
and most consistent part,
but the film's highly publicized reshoots,
reportedly to differentiate it
from another recent superhero movie,
almost certainly "Captain Marvel,"
clearly impacted "Dark Phoenix"'s latter half,
as the pacing grows erratic,
and some of the logic behind certain plot
and character moments are lost.
One of the film's biggest missed opportunities
is its handling of the villains.
An alien race out to attain a cosmic weapon
is hardly a novel idea,
as "Captain Marvel" most recently depicted,
but "Dark Phoenix" never gives Chastain's character
or any of her acolytes any dimension or personality.
As with Oscar Isaac in "Apocalypse,"
"Dark Phoenix" wastes a talented actor
in an underwritten role,
with Chastain delivering a flat performance
as a one-dimensional superpowered baddie.
"Dark Phoenix" simply brushes aside
who and what these aliens are.
Humans have made first contact with extraterrestrials,
and no one even mentions that.
And it never explores them
beyond being the other who need to be feared,
which is a truly odd and negative message
for an X-Men movie to say.
"Dark Phoenix" is ultimately yet another fumbled take
on the classic sage from Marvel Comics.
Add to it a jarringly uneven latter half,
and some underdeveloped cosmic villains,
and "Dark Phoenix" is fortunate
to have not fully ended the X-Men's
current big-screen run on completely down note.
While the MCU may prove better suited
to give so many of these beloved mutant characters
the rich dimension and care they deserve,
the property itself deservedly needs a good long rest
before the X-Men inevitably return to the big screen.
- [Magneto] I've seen evil, and I'm looking at it now.
- [Reviewer] For more movie reviews,
check out what we thought of
"Godzilla: King of the Monsters" and "Brightburn,"
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