Name: Movie Review: Dark Phoenix
Item: Dark Phoenix
Author: @chekohler

Hey my fellow Jess Men

I recently and begrudgingly checked out the 4th instalment of the X-men films simply because I'd watched well all of the previous 10 films in the franchise to date. Dark Phoenix is the 4th instalment in the rebooted series and attempts to capture one of the comic books most epic story arcs.

X-men 3: The Last Stand of the previous franchise also attempted to end with the Dark Phoenix and if you don't already know it didn't go down too well, basically bombing the franchise and having it lay dormant for a while until they could reboot it again.

So 13 years later, we're seeing a second attempt at the story and let's see how it tastes the second time around.

What is Dark Phoenix about?

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.

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. The film is the most intense and emotional X-Men movie ever made.

It is the culmination of 20 years of X-Men movies, as the family of mutants that we’ve come to know and love must face their most devastating enemy yet -- one of their own.

Poster for Dark Phoenix - Image Source - vitalthrills.com

What I thought of Dark Phoenix

First, let me start off with the fact that I love the X-men, Wolverine is one of my all-time favourite characters along with Gambit, so I'm always hoping they do justice to the content but this was just another cardboard cut out.

A childishly predictable plot that revolves around one mutant with near-infinite powers struggles to control it and come to terms with her abilities.

"This is not Jean, Jean is still inside her!" is the amount of depth you can expect from cardboard dialogue that is there just to explain the unfolding action, half-dimensionally as if the audience was completely incapable of understanding the 'subtle complexity'.

For a movie about someone who could shape the entire reality with her mind, this movie lacked so much imagination.

Acting

Sophie Turner seems like a nice person but her acting skills are severely limited and it was evident in this movie as she takes the lead role. Shes particularly flat and she struggles to deliver her lines with any real meaning or gravity.

She just doesn't have the ability to showcase the internal struggles of the phoenix. We see the rest of the cast well sort of go through the motions and not really put anything extra into their roles, not that the script allowed for much of the support characters.

James McAvoy as Charles Xavier using Cerebro to find this movie an actual plot - Image source: slashfilm.com

Pacing

This movie is so painfully slow and it really never gets going, by the time you reach the final battle its all not worth the effort and its a confusing mess as to why they're all even fighting for forming alliances in the first place.

Gender politics

The X-men has traditionally always been about a race war, humans vs mutants and their ability to get along peacefully. But with the current political climate on gender politics, they thought the audience would gobble that up too, but it makes no sense. Surely if you're a mutant that would be your bigger worry than if female mutants get a raw deal over male mutants in the mutant community.

I also think it's well established that Charles is the leader of the X-men so how is he mansplaining or being a misogynist for well, giving orders, he created the X-men for goodness sake. I'm sure Jeniffer Lawrence believes it though, the way she enthusiastically delivered the line about "We should be called X-women"

Character development and introduction

There is none, we don't learn a single thing new about any of the characters we've seen over 4 movies now and even the new villain who should be fleshed out as to why she's a threat and her abilities doesn;t get much screen time nor a real meaty backstory for us to care about her motivations.

Jessica Chastain isn't given much to work with as Vuk which is a shame, shes a brilliant actress who could have surely brought this villain to life.

Trailer for Dark Phoenix

My rating for Dark Phoenix

I would have to say that this is by far the worst X-men movie I have ever seen. Many of the actors seem to show they are tired of playing these characters in a franchise that was always simmering but never really reached a boiling point.

This movie doesn't even seem to fit in with the universe they built and feels like a separate entity that was crudely latched on for some reason. The truth is, there is no story here, nothing worth seeing and if they never made this movie no one would miss it.

Apart from some of the action and CGI there really is nothing you could possibly enjoy. I laboured through it primarily to give my honest review.

I would have to give this movie 3 Mutants out of 10

Have your say

Holla at me in the comments! All my commenters I will now refer to as Jessie. Jessie is a good friend of mine, but Jessies got a girl, and I want to make her mine.

So have at it my Jessies! If you don't have something to comment, simply comment "I am a Jessie."

Let's connect

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Movie Review: Dark Phoenix