James Reviews: 'Dark Phoenix'

Set nine years after the events of X-Men: Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix follows Charles Xavier and his students as they work with the U.S. government to help protect its citizens. After returning from a rescue mission in space, Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) starts to exhibit strange and uncontrollable powers. During the mission, she was hit by a mysterious cosmic force, and now a group of extraterrestrials have landed on Earth, hoping to use her newfound abilities for their own gain.

The X-Men franchise has had a unique history since the very first movie graced cinemas in July of 2000. Some have been good superhero fun, others were drab and convoluted stories, and some have made it to legendary comic book movie status. For a lot of fans, Apocalypse stained the legacy that was set up by X-Men: Days of Future Past, and with Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox, it was only a matter of time before the company would have to release their final film before reverting the rights back to Marvel.

A lot of speculation regarding the reshoots and release date delays has turned it into one of the most infamous productions of Fox's Marvel movies since 2015’s Fantastic Four. Between reshoots, constant pushbacks, and a revelation that the movie was intended to be a two-parter, it seemed that the swan song of the franchise was in deep trouble. Now that it’s out in the world, it ends the core series on a disastrously low note. Unless you go by chronology.

The newer X-Men actors, such as Sophie Turner and Tye Sheridan, feel much more comfortable here in their respective roles of Jean Grey and Scott Summers/Cyclops. In Apocalypse, they felt like background characters, only meant to serve as filler while the rest of the characters go through actual development. Their relationship is what holds this movie together. As the entity takes its toll on Jean Grey, Scott is the only one to stick by her side.

On the topic of relationships, throughout the movie, there’s a growing divide between Charles Xavier/Professor X (James McAvoy) and Mystique/Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), with Raven thinking he’s only there for the publicity. However, Charles sees himself as the public image of the X-Men, and that being on good terms with the press and politicians is what will keep them from being discriminated against. It's a theme that's been around for most, if not the entire franchise, and it was nice to see that the storyline went through some progression as the movies went on.

The music stands out as one of the more memorable superhero soundtracks, giving haunting pieces in a movie devoid of bright spots. The aliens and moments in space have a haunting aura about them, Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is accompanied by a booming orchestra.

In spite of what's good about the movie, there's nowhere near enough to undo all the bad. There was a time when Jennifer Lawrence's portrayal of Mystique a.k.a. Raven was one of the best things about this prequel series, but in this one, it's glaringly obvious that she's phoning it in and wants out. Even looking at the makeup for her character between Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix, it's evident that just about everybody else was done with it too.

Raven is overreactive, petty, self-centered, and delivers one of the most blatantly awful attempts at "female empowerment" in recent memory (which is really saying something in this day and age):

"The women are always saving the men around here, you might wanna think about changing the name to X-Women."

Keep in mind, this is right after the rescue mission where both male and female members of the team worked together to save the astronauts, while Raven just sat back and ordered everyone around.

That being said, I can't put the blame entirely on Lawrence. Simon Kinberg's script is so devoid of any characterization that you'd swear the previous three movies never happened. Heck, the movie itself tends to forget about events that happened moments prior. What's even more baffling is that - outside of 2013's The Wolverine - Kinberg has served as either a writer or a producer for the franchise since The Last Stand, he's had more hands-on experience with the IP than Hugh Jackman.

You'd think that for his directorial debut, and for being with the franchise for as long as he has, you'd think he would have learned a trick or two and delivered a quality movie. Instead, we get an uninspired, derivative superhero blockbuster with flat cinematography, boring fight sequences, and bland CGI.

Speaking of bland, let's discuss the villains in this movie. They're shape-shifting aliens from another world, and it's obvious that they are meant to be Skrulls. However, because the Skrulls were portrayed to be benevolent in Captain Marvel - which was initially supposed to come out a month prior to this movie before Dark Phoenix got pushed from February to June - they couldn't be bad guys in the new one. However, this movie is not part of the MCU canon, so it makes no sense to change them.

Instead, they are now a race of alines who were briefly mentioned at the start of the Dark Phoenix comic storyline, that were wiped out due to the cosmic force. Jessica Chastains' talent is wasted here as Vuk, the leader of said group. She delivers all her lines in the same soft-spoken cadence, showing no emotion and delivering generic bad guy jargon.

In a movie that's clearly not putting its best foot forward, it shouldn't be surprising that the plot is weaker than a twig. It's very barebones, the same type of superheroes versus a cosmic threat story with no originality, coupled with characters didn’t feel like they were given proper time to develop. Any and all pre-existing characters have become shells of themselves, one-note stand-ins that are only meant to serve as potential canon fodder. Even Quicksilver (Evan Peters) can't save this movie, being denied a time-slowing down sequence set to music, similar to the ones featured in both Days of Future Past and Apocalypse.

If Dark Phoenix came out when it was supposed to, it probably would have redeemed the X-Men franchise and closed it out with a bang. It supposedly was going to be a two-parter, with Jean Grey battling Skrull ships in space and would feature appearances of Rogue, Jubilee, Psylocke, the Mastermind, Sunfire, Mimic, the Hellfire Club, and Lilandra.

Unfortunately, one can’t judge a movie based on what was going on behind the scenes, only what ends up on the screen. What did end up in the final cut was a mess of a superhero movie and a whimper of a finale to the main X-Men movie series that started 19 years prior.

Rating: 3/10 - Bad