The complete dismantling of the X-Men series finally came full circle with this mess of a movie.
Dark Phoenix was the last movie made by FOX in the X-Men film series before handing over the entire MARVEL universe to Disney. Hopefully, for the better.
I came to this movie completely open-minded and ignoring all the bad reviews I saw online, and for once, the online trolls were right. Glad I didn’t spend any of my hard-earned dollars on this disaster of a movie in the theaters.
X-Men First Class (2010) and X-Men Days of Future Past (2013) were fucking fantastic — Love those two movies—X-Men Apocalypse (2015j, was not up to the standard set by the previous two installments. Still, it was an enjoyable and entertaining movie.
The first 15 minutes of Dark Phoenix were promising. The car crash sequence was nicely shot — I was all in, but then, the script falls apart. The whole thing is 114 minutes too long.
Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) accidentally absorbing this cosmic energy and gaining ” Phoenix Power” was far-fetched and ridiculous. Turner’s Jean Grey came off as dry and lacking any excitement. She was pretty good in X-Men Apocalypse, so I suspect the screenplay is the culprit here. Famke Janssen’s portrayal of Dr. Grey provided the blueprint on how this character should be approached.
The rest of the supporting cast was uninspiring. Storm now has a British accent? Cyclops was forgettable. Jessica Chastain, who is always great in everything she does, seemed uninterested in playing this dual character. Jennifer Lawrence (Raven) also seemed disinterested.
Michael Fassbender (Magneto) and James McAvoy (Charles Xavier) are pure magic together. Their storyline is super compelling. Hank/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) was great. The climactic action sequences at the end of the movie were pretty impressive. Everything else was poorly conceived.
We go from X-Men First Class set in 1962, and then we come to Dark phoenix set in 1992, and both Magneto and Professor Xavier look like they have not aged at all. It feels like filmmakers do not give a damn about simple little things that we fans take seriously.
Both Days of Future Past and Apocalypse attempted to reset the convoluted X-Men timeline. However, there were still a bunch of holes and discrepancies — Now Disney is in the unique position to fix the series or start over with a complete reboot of the series. Maybe James Mangold (Logan, 2017) should be seriously considered to take the reigns of future X-Men movies.
All in all, Dark Phoenix is worth watching at least once. The final scene between Magneto and Professor Xavier was a sweet send-off to twenty years of X-Men movies.
Two out of Five popcorn Bags 🍿🍿
Dark Phoenix (2019j.
Rod Rioja 