Review:
*Originally written June 6th, 2019*
The X-Men films have always existed in a strange place. They kick-started the whole superhero boom in 2000's before dropping in quality for a few years, coming back and making some of the best films of the genre, then taking a huge step back with the generic Apocalypse. For me I've always liked this series more the MCU, for the most part. Logan is by far better than anything Disney has produced, while the series also never hit the lows of their films like Thor 2 or Avengers 2.
As much as I like X-Men, I had absolutely no faith in this. I was expecting it to be a complete disaster, as did most people. After some appalling trailers and well publicised problems behind the scenes (Seemingly the entire third act was scrapped and refilmed). Then there's the problem with Disney's acquisition of Fox, meaning all these characters will be entering the MCU within the next couple of years, with Disney looking to recast everyone and scrap thing continuity, aside from Deadpool.
This meant that now this entry wasn't just another film in the series, it also had the responsibility of being the culmination of nearly 20 years of X-Men films , to give this broken timelined series a satisfying ending and make way for a reboot under the new Disney overlords. It was also rumoured that the reshoots were to give the series a more definitive ending. Which just turned out to be nonsense, as this ends with clear intentions of continuing these adventures, while the cast know it's not going to happen. It's deeply unsatisfying.
Dark Phoenix itself has a lot going on. I also have to bring up the fact X-Men is completely dropped from the title, what is that about? This tries to retell the story told by the much hated The Last Stand, but without Wolverine and lots of other elements that honestly made that a marginally better film. For all of Last Stand's faults, it at least delivered some genuine emotion in the form of Wolverine having to kill Jean Grey in its finale. There is just nothing here even close to that in terms of satisfaction or emotion.
This is probably due to its truly awful script. With characters spouting lines that feel like something from an era of superhero films we've truly moved on from. Characters do and say things that feel nothing like what we've seen from them in previous films. It is absolutely insane how quickly characters go from 1 to 10 in terms of extremeness with next to no motivation at all, then just change their minds so quickly after. It's baffling.
Aside from a couple of surprising performances, everyone just seems tired and not happy to be there. Jennifer Lawrence just looks like she doesn't want to be there at all, calling out her lines without the slightest hint of enthusiasm. It's no surprise that what happens with her character doesn't solicit any kind of emotion from the audience. Nicholas Hoult is also just completely one note and also bored. James McAvoy's performance is so inconsistent here, his character actually gets some interesting exploration, but some of his line deliveries are questionable at the very least. I was sad his hilarious and widely mocked "I don't know what to do" line from the first trailer was removed.
Michael Fassbender continues to be the best thing about this prequel franchise, being gravitas and emotion to the role that makes everyone else pale in comparison. It would have helped to have in it more, as he doesn't even appear until around half way through the film. He deserves better than this.
The two surprising performances are from Sophie Turner and Jessica Chastain, one for the better and one for the worst. Turner's less than charismatic performance in the previous films was easily one of the weakest parts, but here, she seems to have actually grown a lot as an actress, delivering a far more convincing accent and performance as she actually holds some of her scenes together quite well, despite the script.
Then there's Jessica Chastain as the villain. She is one of the most talented actresses of this generation, so I was actually very intrigued at what they might do with her. It turned out to be nothing. She plays the leader of the boring and badly designed group of aliens looking to harvest Grey's power for their own use. You've got an actress of Chastain's calibre and you get her to play such a bland, uninvolving villain that feels completely wasted. Again, another reason this feels like a superhero film from a different era, these films are slowly getting better with villains and this was a huge step back.
In terms of the good, as bad as some of the acting and the script is, it's still very watchable and quite entertaining in stretches. It even runs at a reasonable length of just around 1 hour 50, which is a whole half hour shorter than the previous film. It's definitely a welcome comedown, considering the last superhero film released was the draining 3 hour epic Endgame.
Some of the action is genuinely creative and fun too. There's actually very little action in the whole thing, but the final set-piece on a train makes great use of all these characters mixing their powers up and combining them to take out these forgettable villains. While I was worried about how some of special effects might turn out, it's actually a very nice looking film with some gorgeous moments here and there. It's a hell of an improvement on the ugly third act of Apocalypse where everything is just ugly brown sludge.
5/10 Dans
Dark Phoenix is out now in cinemas in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
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