Harry Situation Reviews: Dark Phoenix

It is said in Greek mythology a phoenix is a fire bird that, upon its death, it is reborn from its ashes. Too bad all this movie does is burn.

Dark Phoenix (or X-Men: Dark Phoenix) is the final film in the X-Men film franchise made by Marvel and 20th Century Fox. Majority of the cast members return: James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Alexandra Shipp as Storm, Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler, and Evan Peters as Quicksilver. Sorry, no Hugh Jackman & Wolverine in this movie.

The film is written and directed by Simon Kinberg, making this is first directorial debut. He’s been known to have worked on a lot of previous X-Men films, and he’s also cowritten the god-awful Fan4stic movie. That might explain a lot.

Based off the popular “The Dark Phoenix Saga” comics, often regarded as one of the best X-Men stories ever written, a rescue mission by the X-Men results in one of their members, Jeam Grey, getting hit by some cosmic force, which apts up her abilities but makes her highly unstable. On the run, the X-Men try to help her while Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants try to take her down; meanwhile, a third party led by Jessica Chastain seek to use Jean for their own means.

This is not the first time “The Dark Phoenix Saga” has been adapted to the big screen. They (sorta) did that with X-Men: The Last Stand. Many critics and audiences were not pleased by how that film turned out, but I didn’t mind it so much. Honestly, I would rather watch that movie over this one any day.

Its pacing is all over the place. Characters are placed in random places with no real reason to be there and the action that does happen is not all that engaging. When you’re sitting in the theater watching this, you’re bored out of your mind. When the characters are talking, it’s not very entertaining. It’s bland and dull because the writing really isn’t that good. Also, this movie lacked any sense of humor. There were very little jokes thrown in this movie.

But what really annoyed me the most were the villains in this movie. It’s not Magneto this time. No, the villains are this alien race that are led by Jessica Chastain, and for the entirety of the movie, we the audience are never given an explanation of who they are. We no nothing about them. We’re never given a reason to care about them, or to learn more about them. As I understand, these aliens were part of the “Dark Phoenix” story of comics. But why did they really have to be in this movie? They didn’t really serve any purpose other than to be the bad guys, and to say that ‘hey, aliens exist in the X-Men movie universe’.

If there’s any saving graces in this movie it is that the ensemble cast does an amazing job. I do like seeing all these actors reprise their previous roles and they’re still great. The ones who give the best performances include Sophie Turner, James McAvoy, and Michael Fassbender. McAvoy and Fassbender rarely deliver a bad performance in any movie they’re in, no matter how bad they get. But Sophie Turner, she was excellent. To see her struggle with this power her character has, and to see her go through a whole flood of emotions, Sophie Turner was the best thing in this movie. The acting, overall, was really good.

Unfortunately, that’s all I can really say. This movie is a mess from start to finish. I think one of the big issues is that there’s nothing of interest that really happens throughout the movie. All that build up and nothing is paid off. This was meant to be the final X-Men film before Disney and Fox merged. For a finale, it was as lackluster as the Game of Thrones finale.

Positives:

-Good performances

-Turner, McAvoy, and Fassbender

Negatives:

-Messy pacing

-Lame action

-Villains

-Bland and boring

-Disappointing finale for a franchise

Final Grade: D

People call this the worst of the X-Men films. It’s bad but I don’t think there’s anything that can top X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I mean giving Wolverine CGI claws and removing Deadpool’s mouth are clear ways to be place at the bottom of the barrel.

So those are my thoughts of Dark Phoenix. Have you seen it? What were your thoughts? Which X-Men movie did you think was the best & the worst? Please be kind, leave a like and comment, and check out more reviews here on Prose!

Best Quote:

Ororo Monroe: “Sometimes, you want to believe that people are something that they are not. By the time you realize who they are, it’s too late.”

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