X-Men: Dark Phoenix – Mr T’s take
An appropriate finale to nearly twenty years of Fox’s take on mutant adventures on the big screen. This X-Men: Dark Phoenix review is brought to you by AboutFlick’s Mr T.
Director: Simon Kinberg
Summer of 2019 is turning out to be the season of finales. Goodbyes. Completion of story arcs. Avengers. Gotham. Game Of Thrones. Veep. And now X-Men: Dark Phoenix pretty much serves as the conclusion to the X-Men prequel series that started with First Class in 2011. This is the second time we see the Dark Phoenix saga play out on the silver screen after The Last Stand in 2006. The two couldn’t have been more different if they tried. Without revealing spoilers, here’s a brief premise of what you will see. In the movie, Jean encounters a cosmic force which transforms her into one of the most powerful mutants in the universe. Battling her inner demons, she tears apart the X-Men family and threatens to destroy the world. Saying this out loud now actually reminds me of The Umbrella Academy if I’m being honest. Now let’s get back to the review.
X-Men veterans including James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Evan Peters reprise their roles and like other movies in the franchise, they are the heart and soul of the story. Jessica Chastain essays a role pivotal to the story, which I will not get into since this is a spoiler free review. While definitely not her best role, she lights up the screen every time she’s on it and so I’m not complaining. Sophie Turner is a huge let down for me, her dialogue delivery and expressions will make you feel as if she’s still playing Sansa Stark from Game Of Thrones. So yeah, not a huge fan.
Now we all remember 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse. It was a complete mess. The plot was muddled, action sequences were horribly choreographed, and the entire movie felt like a soap opera. I’m disappointed to say that X-Men: Dark Phoenix fails to learn from that film and repeats the same mistakes. It’s the same plot rehashed again.
When a larger than life force attacks, all the heroes band together to save the universe. Avengers: Endgame did it a month back on a much grander scale. However, I do have to praise writer-director Simon Kinberg for doing a nice job in trimming down the plot and things leaving out things like the Hellfire Club and the Shi’ar Empire. They would’ve made the story even more incoherent.
For the X-Men fans out there, this movie is Fox’s way of saying thank you for sticking with the beloved mutants for almost twenty years. Considering Disney’s purchase of Fox, this might be the last time we see these characters on the big screen played by the same actors we have come to know and love over the years. Hence, although not the best X-Men movie out there, as a comics fan and fellow geek, I will say go out there and watch this movie on the big screen.
Rating: My rating for X-Men: Dark Phoenix is 2.5/5.
Who is this film for: X-Men fans will love this movie. Also check out X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Logan (2017), The Gifted (2017) and Legion (2017).