Dark Phoenix (2019) Review

     Dark Phoenix is written and directed by Simon Kinberg. The last film in the main line of Fox X-Men movies, it is the second adaptation of the "The Dark Phoenix Saga" from the comics. In it Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) develops cosmic powers as a result of an accident in outer space. When she begins to endanger her fellow X-Men, they must decide whether to turn against her or to stand by her and risk destroying everything they've built.

     At this point Dark Phoenix has a pretty terrible reputation. It is currently the lowest grossing X-Men film and the only one that did not top the box office the week of its release. It is being savaged by critics and largely ignored by audiences. It is also well known as this point that the production was plagued with problems, including multiple re-shoots and delays in the film's release. I'm not going to argue that it's a great film (or even a good one) but it's not as bad as I was lead to believe. It has a very consistent and ominous tone, aided, no doubt, by Hans Zimmer's oppressive score (sadly John Ottman is gone, along with his signature theme) and The action scenes make novel use of the mutants varied powers but are often somewhat lacking in tension, largely as a result of weak writing and poorly established stakes.

     The opening of the film shows a lot of promise. The X-Men are now operating in the public eye and with the cooperation of the U.S. Government. This feels like a natural development of the status quo set up by Days of Future Past and Apocalypse. Xavier (James McAvoy), having finally achieved his lifelong dream has become overly focused on maintaining popularity with the public. On a mission to rescue a failed NASA shuttle launch, he makes a decisions which threatens to jeopardize the X-Men's safety in order to save one of the crew. Mystique has become disillusioned with Xavier's leadership and tries to persuade Beast to leave but he convinces her to stay. But then it turns out that Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), who miraculously survived the mission unscathed, has joined with a mysterious cosmic force which protected her and that threatens to destroy the mental blocks that Xavier established to protect her. When the Phoenix is unleashed members of the team begin to reconsider if Xavier has lead them down the right path and Magneto, who is now the leader of a group of mutant refugees on Genosha, intervenes to stop Jean before something disastrous happens.

     The biggest problem with Dark Phoenix is that the character arcs are rather rushed. Charles has his over confident new outlook shattered when Jean's mental blocks break down, leaving her emotionally unstable. He blames himself for everything she does, but still insists on protecting her. (SPOILER ALERT) He is able to find some closure in the end but has still lost faith in himself and retires from the school and from public life. Many were angered at the films portrayal of Professor X, feeling that he was thrown under the bus for the sake of the plot. I agree to some extent, though I feel that the direction they took could have worked if their had been more time to explore his character and if the resolution of his arc was more satisfying. Beast has an arc that could have been interesting, turning against Xavier after discovering his responsibility for Jean's mental breakdown, but it's far too rushed to really work at all.

     The rest of the X-Men are given short shrift with Cyclops getting the most attention. He is the only X-Man, other then Xavier, who firmly believes that Jean can be saved. Storm disagrees with him, partly because of her experience with Apocalypse but stands with him and Professor X when the chips are down. Nightcrawler does really have any character development at all and is basically just along for the ride. Raven and Quicksliver, meanwhile, are conveniently written out of the film in the first act.

     Jean Grey herself is fares the best overall. The Last Stand made the mistake of focusing too much on Wolverine in a story that should have been about her. This film, at least, avoids that mistake. Jean finds herself without a clear path as she is afraid of endangering the people she cares about and also beginning to loose her trust in them while, at the same time, desperately in need of their guidance and support. Eventually she finds a mentor of sorts in the form of Jessica Chastian's mysterious villainess (whose identity I won't spoil). The main problem with Jean, and with all of the characters introduced in the previous film, is that their relationships have have really been properly established. So, for instance, when Cyclops remarks that Jean is not acting normal in the scenes where they flirt right after the opening mission, we pretty much have to take his word for it.

     Once again Magneto has retired to find a life of peace only to seek after vengeance when someone he cares about is killed and once again (SPOILER ALERT) he eventually sees reason and let's go of his need for vengeance. It's not nearly as contrived or as counterintuitive as it was in Apocalypse but it's not given enough time to develop naturally and feels played out at this point. The same could be said for the franchise as a whole. In one scene, Charles confronts Erik and tries to persuade him to spare Jean's life prompting Erik to say, "You're always sorry Charles and there's always a speech but nobody cares anymore." That statement could very well sum up the current state of this franchise.


Score: 6/10

X-Men: Apocalypse Revisited

     When I reviewed X-Men: Apocalypse back in 2016, my overall impression of the film was that it was "more uneven and disappointing than bad." Over time, my estimation of the film has eroded even more. As I mention in my original review, the only character to get much development is Magneto and his initial arc is really contrived and redundant. Erik doesn't really need more motivation to assert the superiority (as he sees it) of mutantkind. Indeed by the end of Days of Future Past, he appears just as devoted to this cause as ever. It really makes no sense that he would go into hiding and try to live a normal life, as he does in this film. After his family is killed by the superstitious villagers he basically becomes consumed with hatred and, after meeting Apocalypse, sets out to destroy humankind once and for all. The second arc he goes through, being redeemed by Charles and the X-Men, who remind him of who he is (or something), is even more rushed and unconvincing. This is really my core issue with the movie. The series has always been driven by character growth, and this installment is severely lacking in that department.

     It also plays a little like an X-Men greatest hits album. There is another Quicksilver rescue scene that attempts to top the one from Days of Future Past but it ultimately feels less exciting and creative and is, overall, lacking in tension. Once again we deal, briefly, with Wolverine and the Weapon-X program and it is incredibly intrusive and only serves to delay the development of the plot. They even recreate, word for word, the conversation between Charles and Erik at the end of the original X-Men. We also revisit Auschwitz in a scene that is so miscalculated and insensitive to Jewish history that I'm honestly surprised it made the final cut. Portraying Magneto as a holocaust survivor was a good way to emphasize the civil rights allegory and was one of the original movie's better ideas, but having Magneto destroy the remains of Auschwitz in a fit of rage seems to me to a gross appropriation of a powerful cultural symbol for a cheap emotional moment.

     In summary I no longer think that X-Men: Apocalypse works as a film and especially not as a sequel to Days of Future Past. It has some good moments and is certainly better then The Last Stand, but it's a mediocre piece of work overall.

Score: 6/10

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) Review

     X-Men: Days of Future Past was released on May 23rd, 2014. It is directed by Brian Singer and written by Simon Kinberg from a story by Kinberg, Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman. A loose adaptation of the "Days of Future Past" story-line from Uncanny X-Men #141–142, it sees Hugh Jackman's Wolverine sent back in time from a post-apocalyptic future to warn a young Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr about an impending threat that will lead to destruction both of humans and mutants.

     After more then ten years, Brian Singer finally returned to the X-Men franchise with Days of Future Past. As such it is a return to the franchise's roots with its combination of social commentary, slick action, and soap opera storytelling. Uniting the casts of the original films with those of First Class, this film attempts to streamline the continuity which was derailed by The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and First Class all of which contained contradictory origins for various characters. It is only partially successful in this. X-Men Origins is essentially ignored and implicitly retconned, getting rid of the discrepancies that existed between that film's depiction of countless characters, including Xavier, Sabretooth, and Emma Frost. The conflicts between First Class and the Singer films remain, but this film, at least, makes things easier for future installments by creating an alternate timeline.

     Days of Future Past is easily my favorite film in the franchise other then X2. This is largely because of my fondness for the first two films. This film, while mainly functioning as a sequel to First Class, is also a send-off for the original cast and it's great to see to see them together one last time. I also love that Xavier is really the central character here. In the first few films he was a mentor figure for Wolverine and the other X-Men but here the roles are reversed, and Logan has to be a mentor for him.

     This film also continues to explore the relationship between Charles and Erik in a really compelling way. At the beginning of the film Xavier has given up on his dream of peaceful coexistence between human and mutant-kind. In First Class his beliefs were shown to be somewhat naive and we see the natural consequence of that here when he loses most of his students to Vietnam and does not have Raven or Moira MacTaggert to fall back on, so he falls into depression and drug addiction (cleverly symbolized by his use of the drug that suppresses his powers). It's only when he communicates with his future self that he is able to face the future with some measure of hope, albeit a more realistic one.

     Magneto meanwhile, in finding out about the apocalyptic future caused by a human scientist's attempt to build a robot capable of defeating them, becomes more convinced of his viewpoint (that mutants should dominate mankind) then ever. Rogue, once again, is caught between the two men. Since the end of First Class she has separated from Erik, who has been imprisoned, and began trying to protect her mutant brothers and sisters from the U.S. Government and particularly scientist Bolivar Trask, who has cruelly experimented on them to create his sentinels. When Magneto learns that her powers are what leads Trask to perfecting his program, he tries to kill her. Unlike Erik, Rogue is not so assured in her beliefs as to be able to commit such unthinkable acts, but she is obsessed with getting revenge on Trask. In the end, Charles helps her to see a better way and she spares his life. This is the moment that he really becomes the Professor from the first three movies, a man capable of inspiring others through his conviction and sheer force of personality.

     I also enjoy the way Days of Future Past plays with historical events. Magneto was imprisoned because he was implicated in the JFK assassination but, as we learn, he was actually trying to save the President (who was also a mutant!) by using his powers to defect the bullet. Richard Nixon, meanwhile, is shown to be the one who approves the sentinel program. First Class reimagined a historical event (the Cuban missile crisis) as a central part of its plot and it's great to see this film continue that trend.

     It is far from a perfect film and continues to suffer from continuity problems. The time-travel logic is confusing in many ways. For one thing, how do Kitty Pryde's phasing powers allow her to send other mutants through time? For another how does Wolverine remember anything from this time, as he hasn't yet got his adamantium claws and had his memories erased through the Weapon X program? Another problem is the idea that Mystique is the key to the sentinel program. We are told that, because of Mystique's shape shifting powers, Trask is able to program his sentinels to adapt mutant powers but Rogue's powers allow her to change her appearance, not to take other mutant powers. The Rogue Cut does alleviate this problem to some degree by revealing that Rogue, who can assume other mutant powers, was also experimented on, but the central premise, that Raven was the "key" to perfecting the sentinels, is still confusing.

     John Ottman returns to do the score for Days of Future Past and it's a welcome one. He provides another stirring score and gives the film a greater emotional connection to the earlier ones. With the exception of some questionable green-screen here and there the film has solid visual effects and once again Singer delivers some great action scenes. The breakout from the Pentagon, where we see Quicksilver save everyone in slow motion, is of course a standout, as is the sentinel attack that closes the film, which features some of the most creative use of superpowers I have seen in an action setpiece. The new additions to the cast are great especially Evan Peters as Quicksilver. Peter Dinklage also does a fine job as Bolivar Trask.

     X-Men: Days of Future Past is both a great political thriller and a clever science fiction film. It succeeds both in continuing the story that began with X-Men: First Class and as a heartfelt epilogue for the original cast. It's one of the best X-Men films and one of my favorite superhero movies of the past decade.


Score: 9/10

Saturday Evening Cartoons: How to Train Your Dragon (2010) Review/Retrospective

     I did not see a movie in theaters until I was 16 years old. This may come as a surprise to some who view me as a lifelong geek and movie buff. Others, who have followed this blog since the beginning may know better. In any case the first movie I saw in theaters was How to Train Your Dragon. Because of this it holds a special place in my heart.

     My heart stirred when Hiccup first put his hand on Toothless' snout. I marveled watching Hiccup and Astrid riding Toothless among the clouds accompanied by John Powell's stirring score. I thrilled as he and his viking friends arrived in the nick of time to save the rest of the villagers from the Red Death. I have the same relationship with these scenes as many, who saw Star Wars in the theater in 1977, have with the binary sunset or the battle of Yavin. This is not to suggest that How to Train Your Dragon is on the same level (culturally or artistically) as Star Wars it just has a similar significance for me personally.

      The story is a spin on the classic boy-and-his-dog scenario with our protagonist, Hiccup, befriending a dragon which changes his life (and the life of his village) forever. One thing that I really like about this film, and that I didn't appreciate back in 2010, is how nuanced the relationship between Hiccup and his father, Stoic, is. Usually, in these kinds of stories where the protagonist is a misunderstood outsider, the father is a one-dimensional tyrant who tries to "make-a-man" out of his son or some such nonsense (in E.T., probably the definitive boy-and-his-pet film, the father is entirely absent). Here, though Stoic wishes that Hiccup was more like him, he accepts the fact that he is different. It's Hiccup himself, longing for a sense of status (or at least belonging) in Berk, who struggles to come to terms with lack of physical strength. Stoic encourages him to accept his own limitations and not to put himself, and the other villagers, in danger.

      After finding and befriending Toothless, Hiccup begins to accept that he has his own gifts (mainly his creative mind) and to accept who he is. These skills allow him to do well with dragon training and Stoic is, of course, surprised to hear this but also delighted. When he discovers that Hiccup has actually befriended a dragon and is secretly keeping it as a pet, he flips out and chains Toothless up, hoping to use him to locate and destroy the local dragon nest. Given the context this is actually a completely understandable reaction. After all, Stoic has spent his whole life protecting Berk from dragons and his son has a habit of recklessly endangering the village.

     This is also partly Hiccup's fault. He has, up to this point, hidden the truth about Toothless from his father. He can't exactly be blamed for this, it is not an easy thing to reveal given its earth shattering implications for the Berkians but, if he had revealed in a more subdued setting, it is possible that Stoic might have listened to reason. Hiccup lacks the fortitude and the wherewithal to do this. This leads me to another point, that the film does not try to belittle Stoic's overtly masculine personality. Indeed, during the climax, as he and Gobber bravely set out to fight the Red Death, it is even celebrated. Similarly, Hiccup lacks physical strength but his real flaw is his lack of courage and conviction. A flaw he finally overcomes in the end.

     For all my talk about Hiccup and Stoic, the heart of the film is Hiccup's bonding with Toothless and this film really shines in it's production, particularly the animation and score, which make Hiccup's journey all that much more emotionally resonant. I did not see How to Train Your Dragon in 3D but I wish I had. The animation is a sight to behold. Sweeping Icelandic, vistas, majestic dragons soaring through cloudy skies and over mighty ocean, the city of Berk itself hanging over the ocean like something out of Dr. Seuss, all of this is brought to life beautifully by the animation team. The smaller details too are not overlooked. Facial features are expressive and movement fluid. The character design is consistently quirky and cartoonish, befitting the whimsical tone of the film. John Powell's score is absolutely magnificent. Dominated by stirring percussives supported by a rich mixture of strings, choir and brass, it is densely orchestrated score, driven by leitmotif and filled with sweeping romantic moments. It's Celtic, vaguely medieval, flavor fit the world of the film perfectly.

     The voice cast is rock solid. Jay Baruchal is perfectly cast as the awkward, eccentric Hiccup. Gerald Butler too, seems a natural fit for Stoic the Vast, with all of his exaggerated masculine features. America Ferrera does a fine job as Astrid, the all-business girl with something to prove who turns out to be pretty understanding once Hiccup gets to know her. Craig Ferguson provides most of the films comic relief as Gobber, the blacksmith who Hiccup is apprenticed to and who also trains the young vikings. The cast is rounded out by Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jonah Hill, T.J. Miller and Kristen Wiig who are also well cast as Hiccup and Astrid's colorful classmates.

     How to Train Your Dragon will always hold special place in my heart. Most people (I suppose) have fond memories of going to a movie for the first time. I can't think of a film that is much more conducive to that experience then this one.

Score: 9/10