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