Can we be honest? Dark Phoenix is not as good as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it also isn’t as bad as the majority of the DC Extended Universe with the exception of Wonder Woman and Justice League (I haven’t seen Shazam, but whatever). If you watched the entire X-Men franchise in one sitting, you would empathize with the script or continuity supervisor, who gave up ages ago and either quit or is just collecting a paycheck while weeping and rocking his or herself in the corner. The quality has been in rapid decline for some time even for those of us who lowered our expectations with a few bright spots. I just think that everyone is piling on because it is over, and a reboot is on the horizon as the X-Men rejoin Marvel and leave 21stCentury Fox. Save your derision for X-Men: Apocalypse or most of the Wolverine films with the exception of Logan.
I actually had fun watching Dark Phoenix because I was led to expect it to be the worst movie of the year (hi, Glass)! I went after work on a weekday, had a huge bucket of real butter popcorn that I brought from another theater, paid a reasonable ticket price and read a great book while waiting. These conditions were optimal! I unofficially was comparing it with X-Men: The Last Stand, which may not be a masterpiece, but had its moments.
After X-Men: First Class, there has not been enough consistent character development of most of the younger characters, which rests on the laurels of the first three movies’ foundation of relationships instead of establishing them during the prequels. Unfortunately by doing this, it invites comparison between the younger and older cast. The first half of Dark Phoenix is weak because sorry, guys, the majority of the younger cast is not as good at acting in this franchise as the older cast, and the film relies on these young ones to carry the first half of the movie. Famke Janssen and Rebecca Romijin may have started their careers as models, but they served their characters convincingly and felt considerably dangerous. Janssen’s performance as Jean Grey and Phoenix made me believe that she would happily destroy the world without ever losing who she really was whereas this version was the sci fi version of a possession story in which Jean was more of a victim and easily swerved, which I never bought because she can read minds so it is dumb. I wish there was a way to make her vulnerable yet a solid character. The film may have been aiming to deal with issues of childhood trauma, PTSD, child abuse and neglect, but the writers weren’t able to stick the landing and weren’t able to make the destruction tantalizing in its temptation of power. The closest that it comes to matching the chilling sense of Jean’s newfound power in X-Men: The Last Stand wreaking havoc is a slightly goofy, but psychologically disturbing and mean spirited anti-Christ moment. If you can’t wow us with destruction, let her use her relationship and powers to twist the knife.
Even though they play different versions of the same characters, I don’t care how many Oscars and Emmys they won respectively, and I usually enjoy their work more, but Jennifer Lawrence has never been good as Mystique, and Sophie Turner does not do her character justice. They’re not the only ones. If you had to choose between Alan Cumming and Kodi Smit-McPhee, who would you prefer to watch? James Marsden and Tye Sheridan? No contest though Sheridan had one brief line when I completely bought him as Scott, and he surpassed his predecessor. Nicholas Hoult as Beast acts better with more hours in the makeup chair than without, but he is no Kelsey Grammer, which feels like a weird thing to write. The exceptions are Alexandra Shipp as Storm and Evan Peters, who is the best Quicksilver to date and has the added advantage of having no older counterpart to compare him to. They aren’t given much to do so it isn’t like we can enjoy them. Also I’m not even sure if Shipp is great, but anyone is better than Oscar winner Halle Berry, who shines in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, but was a dreadful Storm.
Dark Phoenix is weak on writing, stronger during the actions scenes, but the story is a slow burn that begins to payoff in sci-fi dividends by the second half when we have mutant on mutant violence then mutants versus aliens. Each action sequence raised the stakes to an unbelievable and enjoyable crescendo except for the final battle royale between the two most powerful of each team, which feels like blue screen on blue screen violence at worst. Also am I reading too much lesbian subtext in the conflict and read the text as trying to return Jean to heterosexuality? Ignore me.
So what makes Dark Phoenix worth seeing in spite of all my complaints? The clothes that all the characters wear. Movies really need to start letting the audience know where we can buy Jean’s trench coats, cardigans and crewneck long sleeve t-shirts and Storm’s asymmetrical drapey jackets. All those women looked fierce. James McAvoy does his best to single-handedly carry the larger themes behind the X-Men franchise, but apparently X-Men is done with lofty goals and really didn’t have their heart in it. The real MVP was Michael Fassbender! He has never been hotter.
Let’s stop for a moment and appreciate Fassbender’s unwavering dedication to his craft and excellence in not one, but two dreadful prequel franchises: Alien and X-Men. He acts as if he is genuinely doing it for the art, not the paycheck. He does not ever take his foot off the gas no matter how stupid they make Magneto in every movie. You never see a gleam in his eye that reveals that he thinks that this is dumb. If you’re a Fassbender fan, imagine if Frank was a functional rock star making an album in the boonies that evoke Freetown Christiania in Denmark then you have Magneto in Dark Phoenix. His basic vibe is, “I’m not judgmental like Xavier, but I’m also not as merciful.” Even when he is losing, he looks like he is winning. The wildest part of the first sequence is the idea of what Magneto is doing versus what he is best known for. There was so much dissonance, and it provided some sorely lacking tension missing in the first half. Maybe I’m cheesy, but I loved the ending and felt it was earned considering the actions that he took throughout the second half of the movie though it was a complete ripoff of the end of another franchise’s final film. Dark Phoenix wore it better. This prequel finally showed us how Xavier and Erik could find common ground whereas the prior prequel movies were too eager to get them together just to break them up so Erik could wreak havoc. The friendship seemed contrived, shaky and gossamer thin before this film, but in this installment, Erik and Xavier have moved closer to meet in the center. In that respect, this film is more satisfying than X-Men: First Class.
As long as you don’t pay crazy prices for the movie ticket, you can enjoy Dark Phoenix. At home, you may just abandon the whole thing because the first half is fairly dull so either fast forward until you see Magneto then resume playing or just multitask and be prepared to temporarily stop until the end. It is far from the worst film of the franchise. It is a’right.
