Like the last few Bryan Singer adaptations of X-Men, Dark Phoenix did not follow the original story lines built in the comics and I for the life of me cannot understand why and how the masses are shocked.
HEY, RELAX.
Dark Phoenix was not great, or good to be honest, it was okay. However, it was not deserving of the extremely low ratings it received its first week in the box office. The movie had a simple, easy to follow story line and quite frankly it had infinitely less plot holes then Endgame. Don’t deny the truth.
Maybe my lack of hostility towards the film stems from the fact that I entered the theater after reading several terrible reviews and expected it to be way worse than it was. Or maybe it stems from the fact that I was already expecting to be disappointed because many films and tv shows (Endgame and Game of Thrones) have already disappointed me this year. Either way I knew three things were definitely going on my way to my seat. First, all X-Men (especially Cyclops and Storm) would be extremely underutilized. Second, similar to the last two films Magneto, Mystique, Beast and Professor X have lived for decades and will not age a single day. (I need some of whatever they’re on.) Lastly, I watched The Last Stand and much like everyone else i was not impressed.
ALMOST IS NEVER ENOUGH
Getting into what actually surprised me, I will start with the utter disrespect and lack of humanity for Professor X. His character attributes, character development, and respect for him as the founder of the school and the X-Men were missing in action. I’m not going to give any spoilers in this review but there was one scene involving Professor X and the so-called ‘Dark Phoenix’ that made me sick to my stomach. As villainous as he is, Magneto would never.
Every single on of the action scenes were predictable and anti-climactic. Just as quickly as they began, they ended. In every scene of the movie I would get excited because i just knew an awesome mutant fight scene was about to erupt and somehow that excitement was always cut short. I just needed more from the action scenes.
Hate to say it but The Last Stand did a much better job at portraying Jean’s transformation into Phoenix. Don’t get me wrong, Dark Phoenix was much better as a film but it was unclear what was causing Jean to transform. Was it the power she was exposed to, her emotions, or did she have a split personality? It was as if she was experiencing a combination of all three. Is that the answer? The world may never know. In The Last Stand at least it was made clear that Jean’s split personality was causing her to act rashly. The writing for Jean’s character was extremely inconsistent, as if they assigned a different writer for Jean per act.
The new species introduced in this film were completely overpowered and I have an extremely large pile of questions. How can one species be able to shape shift, hold a healing factor, be bulletproof (but only for smaller bullets), and have super strength? It looks like a lot but that’s honestly just one of my questions. I don’t even think I named all of their abilities. It was ridiculous.
COULD’VE – SHOULD’VE – WOULD’VE
Redeeming qualities for this film start and end with Michael Fassbender. Just kidding. He had 3 lines. CGI and special effects get 10 stars. The cast is full of extremely talented actors and actresses. I truly believe they did the best with what they were given. Honestly, the film wasn’t that bad. As I mentioned earlier, the story line is simple and if we spent some time cleaning up the plot holes and fixing some irregularities with the characters we could’ve had a hit on our hands.
I wish the X-Men series created by FOX could have gone out with a bang but that’s just not what we were given. I’d say we got the sound sparklers make on the Fourth of July when children run around with them, not the cricket noises the rest of the critics heard. I hope Marvel takes their time and gives the X-Men fans exactly what they’ve been waiting for. Maybe they’ll find the new Hugh Jackman. Or they’ll probably use their de-aging tech because everyone is so picky.
Love, Love, Love,
fandomwithjaz