Dark Phoenix review – a weak finale to a waining franchise
“The overall outcome doesn’t gel very well and makes us happy that Disney went in for the kill.”
If you’re wondering why it’s taken so long for us lot at ScreenHeads to get a review on the final film in the X-Men franchise out here on the web…well, you’ve seen it right? Who wants to write about Dark Phoenix?
Okay, maybe that was a tad harsh, but seriously, if you weren’t disappointed by this final outing, then you have iron loyalty to mutant kind. Yes, Dark Phoenix brings the X-Men 3 storyline some new life, whilst also bringing about the end of Fox’s hold over the universe that introduced us to Wolverine, Professor X and Vinnie Jones trying to act in a superhero film.
Although this final X-Men film from Fox holds amazing performances from the cast, a new spin on our mutant characters, immense special effects and the grounds for a truly exciting story, the overall outcome doesn’t gel very well and makes us happy that Disney went in for the kill. This is mainly down to a meaningless villain, zero character development and a plot that just feels like it is looping around and around.
Dark Phoenix, like X-Men 3: The Last Stand, borrows from the popular comic book storyline The Dark Phoenix Saga, and does bring with it some of the points that made the storyline so popular: cosmic elements, a hero turned villain in the form of Jean Grey (portrayed by saving grace Sophie Turner) and a hell of a lot of havoc! We watch over the course of almost two hours as Grey’s inner darkness breaks free after a rescue mission in space with her fellow X-Men goes wrong and leaves her being hit by a solar flair of energy. This leads her friends (and foes) to band together and stop her before she causes any harm…Oh, and Jessica Chastain’s boring alien villain just wants Jean’s powers for her own so she does some trickery stuff. Yawn.
The film is directed by Simon Kinsberg – a familiar name for those who have been keeping track of these X-Men movies; he has been a writer on these films since during the Patrick Stewart days. With his directorial debut, Kinsberg set out to produce a film based on Jean Grey’s alter ego that deserved to be on our screens unlike last time….and it looks like he may go for a hatrick if he gets a chance.
As mentioned, Sophie Turner kills it. She is by far the best performer in the film and plays the damaged young Jean well. Watching her feel alienated by those she loves, be warped by Chastain’s Vuk and exact utter evil on people feels cool and natural in some way. Turner isn’t alone in the category of darn good performances to be fair. In her limited screen time, Jennifer Lawrence portrays Raven/Mystique/the blue woman from every one of these films pretty well. If only her characters fate wasn’t ruined in the trailers; her sudden death would have made us appreciate the character even more than usual.
The other top performers have to be Tye Sheridan, James McAvoy and Nicholas Hoult returning as Scott Summers/Cyclops, Professor Charles Xavier and Hank McCoy/Beast respectively. Sheridan plays his character’s affection for Grey very well, being split between his loyalties to his team and the one he loves. McAvoy’s Xavier has become embezzled in his fame since his efforts to make mutants accepted have had a positive outcome. We actually get to see Professor X come off as a bit of a dickhead. He is more interested in having the president on speed dial than keeping the children in his care safe. It’s interesting to have this take on the usually wise, bald Englishman. Hoult’s Beast has a lot of time to shine in this film. His grief and lapses in judgement make us feel for him and also fear him properly for the first time in this franchise.
In short, every acceptable performance in this film is done through a character that finds him or herself flawed in some manner during the runtime. We see humanity and something we can relate to – it reminds us that superhero characters can and should be wrong sometimes, in order for us to respond to them.
Characters such as Evan Peters’ Quicksilver, Michael Fassbender’s Magneto, Kodi Smit-McPhee’s Nightcrawler and Alexandra Shipp’s Storm unfortunately don’t get that much to do. Not enough to be interesting at least. We can see Magneto’s turn against Grey and the X-Men from a mile off as usual and so…yeah, for once this character feels useless.
The film’s villain, in the form of Jessica Chastain, felt like such a waste. For such a gifted actress we didn’t get a fun or interesting villain. Even the big bad of the piece deserves some kind of development, and she doesn’t get it. She stagnates extremely quickly. Characters such as Beast and Professor X at least get to get some kind of development, of course also the title character, but apart from that…that’s it. Everyone else sings at the say key throughout the piece.
More (surprisingly) good points about this lackluster flick is the film’s special effects. One thing you can’t ever knock this franchise for is the use of SFX – with characters so central around different types of superpowers, they need to be top notch, and they are here.
Probably my favourite thing about the film is the direction Kinsberg was headed with the X-Men universe. Yes, the story itself is awful, but the tone of it is different from any other film in the series. Mutants are accepted. The X-Men are hailed as heroes. Wolverine doesn’t make a single appearance, even from archive footage. This is different from anything we’ve seen with these characters. It’s a whole new animal. Had the script done more than have a solid foundation to build on, maybe this tower of cards that is Dark Phoenix would have stood a chance against any wind of critics that came it’s way.
All in all, I expected more. Seeings as the film was pushed back TWICE, it left everyone working on this film with enough time to fix ANYTHING wrong with it. Unfortunately, this is what we are left with for a finale to the X-Men film series from Fox. If you ever want to look back on the *cough cough* fond memories of this film franchise, just stick to watching X-Men, X-Men 2, X-Men: First Class and X:Men: Days Of Future Past. Oh, and all of the Wolverine-centred films. Just…give this one a wide birth…and X-Men 3….basically any film where you hear the word ‘phoenix’.
From this writer, the film gets a poor 4.9/10.
Dark Phoenix is expected to be released digital download, DVD and all Blu-ray formats in September.