Review 512: X-Men: Dark Phoenix
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is a dispirited and lacklustre excuse of a superhero movie and a sorry attempt to readapt on of the most iconic X-Men storylines to the big screen.Based on the X-Men storyline, The Dark Phoenix Saga by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, Set a decade after the events of X-Men: Apocalypse, the X-Men are hailed as national heroes and are going on increasingly risky missions. When a solar flare hits them during a rescue mission in space, Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) begins to loose control of her abilities and unleashes a mysterious force known as the Phoenix.
Despite being more faithful to the original comic storyline than The Last Stand, the whole affair feels rushed and small in scale which just doesn't work when you're trying to adapt (or in this case readapt) one of the famous extended X-Men storylines to the big screen and ends feeling like a cumbersomely plotted slog that's lacking in the scope and ambition required.
The cosmic side of the Phoenix force is barely touched upon
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is a film that made me yearn for the days of Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, James Marsden and Famke Jassen.
Writer/Director Simon Kinberg's direction is abysmally and stunningly amateurish. This is one of those films where it's so apprent this was directed by a first time director as he tries to emulate Bryan Singer's sense of naturalism and failing miserably.
The cinematography is bland/flat, the production design is the costumes are cheap, the action scenes are dull and devoid of tension.
The score by Hans Zimmer is particularly excruciatingly boring and lacks the thematic bombast of composer John Ottman. I read an interview with Zimmer saying that he intended to retire from scoring Superhero films after working on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It probably would’ve been better if it had stayed that way.
The acting ranges from sub-par to dramatically inert.
The big problem is that Professor X is a terrible protagonist, leader and teacher of the X-Men at this point. Everything that happens in this film is built off of his mistakes and it just makes him look an irresponsible parent to his children. But even that falls a little flat when we consider that he
Michael Fassbender is at his most uneven in this film as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto, at times looking like he's trying make do with the material he has at other times looking throughly disinterested.
I can't bring myself to care for Mystique who exists solely to die. I can only assume this was because Jennifer Lawrence was tired of sitting in Make Up chairs. Lawrence, herself, appears board with the film in the little screentime she has.
Evan Peters is criminally wasted playing Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver who only appears in the first act of the film and then disappearing after the X-Men's first fight scene with Jean.
Sophie Turner does what she can playing Jean Grey and conveying her sense of anxiety of trying to contain the Phoenix force but they’re squandered on a character we bearly know or have any emotional connection to and
Her villainous presence is nullified because many of the awful things that happen because of her are the result of her choices, which might be the point but doesn’t give the film much emotional weight. It’s not really her choice to embrace the Phoenix Force, it’s not as if she makes a choice that will have consequences for the rest of her life, the Force is more thrust upon her and even when she uses the Phoenix Force to wreck havoc, it’s kind of unclear how much of it is actually her making those choices and how much isn’t.
Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tye Sheridan and Alexandra Shipp remain underdeveloped as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler, Scott Summers/Cyclops and Ororo Munroe/Storm respectively.
There's barely a reason to care for them by this point because they're so thin and lack the charisma of Alan Cumming, James Marsden and Halle Berry.
The exceptionally talented Jessica Chastain is also wasted playing the villainess Vuk, a member of the D’Bari race. Not only has her character got a fundamentally stupid name but she along with the rest of the D'Bari are extremely underdeveloped and underwhelming villains. They seem to have no interesting powers or character traits other than shapeshifting making them come off as discount Skrulls.
On top of that, their primary motivation for what they want with the Phoenix force shifts around a lot. At first it seems that they want the Phoenix force to rebuild their homeworld which is fine and completely understandable but then it spontaneously changes to destroying it for no good reason. Possibly a catalyst of the films reshoots.
Vuk is obviously meant to the devil on Jean's shoulder egging her on to embrace her dark side but ultimately she's reduced to doing little else than delivering expositional monologues
X-Men: Dark Phoenix flames out, 0.5/5.
The Anonymous Critic.
The big problem is that Professor X is a terrible protagonist, leader and teacher of the X-Men at this point. Everything that happens in this film is built off of his mistakes and it just makes him look an irresponsible parent to his children. But even that falls a little flat when we consider that he
Michael Fassbender is at his most uneven in this film as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto, at times looking like he's trying make do with the material he has at other times looking throughly disinterested.
I can't bring myself to care for Mystique who exists solely to die. I can only assume this was because Jennifer Lawrence was tired of sitting in Make Up chairs. Lawrence, herself, appears board with the film in the little screentime she has.
Evan Peters is criminally wasted playing Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver who only appears in the first act of the film and then disappearing after the X-Men's first fight scene with Jean.
Sophie Turner does what she can playing Jean Grey and conveying her sense of anxiety of trying to contain the Phoenix force but they’re squandered on a character we bearly know or have any emotional connection to and
Her villainous presence is nullified because many of the awful things that happen because of her are the result of her choices, which might be the point but doesn’t give the film much emotional weight. It’s not really her choice to embrace the Phoenix Force, it’s not as if she makes a choice that will have consequences for the rest of her life, the Force is more thrust upon her and even when she uses the Phoenix Force to wreck havoc, it’s kind of unclear how much of it is actually her making those choices and how much isn’t.
Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tye Sheridan and Alexandra Shipp remain underdeveloped as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler, Scott Summers/Cyclops and Ororo Munroe/Storm respectively.
There's barely a reason to care for them by this point because they're so thin and lack the charisma of Alan Cumming, James Marsden and Halle Berry.
The exceptionally talented Jessica Chastain is also wasted playing the villainess Vuk, a member of the D’Bari race. Not only has her character got a fundamentally stupid name but she along with the rest of the D'Bari are extremely underdeveloped and underwhelming villains. They seem to have no interesting powers or character traits other than shapeshifting making them come off as discount Skrulls.
On top of that, their primary motivation for what they want with the Phoenix force shifts around a lot. At first it seems that they want the Phoenix force to rebuild their homeworld which is fine and completely understandable but then it spontaneously changes to destroying it for no good reason. Possibly a catalyst of the films reshoots.
Vuk is obviously meant to the devil on Jean's shoulder egging her on to embrace her dark side but ultimately she's reduced to doing little else than delivering expositional monologues
X-Men: Dark Phoenix flames out, 0.5/5.
The Anonymous Critic.
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