Dark Phoenix Review (SPOILER WARNING)

[gagzus 15,849]

EDIT: I’ve booked my next screen for tomorrow, so i’ll probably do a second watch review in this thread afterwards.

 

Ok, I just got back home from my screening of X-Men: Dark Phoenix and thought I would do a review of the movie for you guys for anyone interested. Be warned there’s spoilers ahead involving key plot points, dialogue, scenes etc. Also be warned this will be a long read.  

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Lets start on a positive note, the film isn’t even remotely as bad as Marvel fanboys have been trying to say it would be, is it the best X-Men movie ever? I’m my opinion no, X2 still stands as that but to me (my opinion of course) it stands up as the second or third best in the franchise, but maybe I’m biased due to my love of Jean Grey/The Phoenix Saga and female superheroes in general.

Sophie Turner’s acting is amazing and makes the movie what it is for me, she’s probably the best actor amongst everyone in this movie, and I hope Kevin Feige will being her back to play Jean in a more cohesive version of the X-Men in the MCU. She’s amazing at portraying Jean’s conflict when the Phoenix Force “possesses” her, and yes you’ll be pleased to know the Phoenix Force IS a cosmic force in this version unlike The Last Stand and they seem to ignore the hint towards the Phoenix being a part of Jean from Apocalypse (thank god). Dazzler also appears in a cameo FYI but she’s not played by either Gaga or TayTay I’m afraid haha

A let down however is that Jean doesn’t fully become Phoenix until literally the last 10 minutes of the movie when she battles “Smith” (Jessica Chastain’s character) for the possession of the Phoenix Force ending with Jean disintergrating Smith and transforming into a fully cosmic being aka The Phoenix Force, it’s also the only time in the movie the Phoenix sprite is used as for most of the movie the cosmic force is shown almost as a watery cloud of energy. I did like the fact they made the force be made up of cosmic fire surrounded by pink kinetic energy as a homage to Marvel Girl’s Power colour from the comics. 

Sadly however, other than Jean there’s little character development for basically almost anyone else, although Storm fans will be pleased to see we finally see her being a bit bad ass in the train battle sequence towards the last 30 minutes of the movie. Magneto isn’t the same and feels out of place, Charles is vilified a lot in this film for his choices to block bad memories out of Jean’s psyche and Raven comes for his ego after the space rescue mission. Jennifer Lawrence’s part lasts legit about 5 minutes of screen time when she ultimately dies at the end of the first act of the movie, there’s also a lot more blood and violence in this X-Men movie than most which I personally like because it’s more realistic and it’s also not out of place.

The story isn’t really even remotely based on the Claremont comic version of the saga but there’s some minor details such as the space rescue mission from a The Animated Series and the Phoenix being a cosmic force of life and death in the universe that are throwbacks for fans from the 90s cartoon I guess, the film also to me feels like 3 films spliced into one as the first act after the space rescue mission could’ve been a film about Jean receiving the Phoenix powers and using them for good, then the middle act would be another film where the powers start to become debatably dark before the final act would be a third film where Jean becomes Dark Phoenix and then ultimately sacrifices herself to save mankind. 

In the film the alien enemies are referred to only once by name as D’Bari in a subtitle on one scene, the aliens are barely ever shown physically only for a few seconds, and putting together their powers with the original ending before reshoots it was obvious they were going to be the Skrulls but Disney got their first with Captain Marvel sadly. They’re not the Shi’ar as many of us would’ve hoped and Chastain’s character isn’t Lilandra I’m afraid. 

The action is actually fairly minimal until the last 1/3 of the movie, with Eric coming to kill Jean and her tapping into her potential by destroying his helmet and forcing Charles to walk, Jean finally tapping into the Phoenix Force fully dosintergrating enemies and “evolving” as she states in the end monologue into a cosmic force was a good sequence of events for me and the Phoenix sprite being shown momentarily in the last few seconds in the sky above Paris after Xavier and Eric play a chess game together, hinting that Jean still is there but as a force instead, is a good ending. However had Disney not bought Fox I would’ve liked the original ending where Phoenix faces off against an alien invasion and Jean is an all powerful mutant instead of a force.

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I’ll probably go see the movie again next week when I have time to grasp my head around what I don’t remember much of a bit better. But I’d give it a solid 3.5/5 would’ve been a 4 had their been more action and the original ending (I’m also mad they took out the scene teased in Entertainment Weekly last year where she’s floating in the shuttle wreckage transforming into Phoenix). 

If you’re a comic book purest and MCU stan I wouldn’t recommend this for you, but if you’ve liked the X-Men movies and want to see their last hurrah I recommend it, for nostalgia purposes mostly and if you’re a Sophie Turner/Jean Grey stan you’ll love it, but not if you’re a Comic JG version purest stan however. 

The Best Things: Sophie Turner, Female Representaiton, Ethical conflict, the last 20 minutes could easily be out of an MCU movie version

The Worst Things: The Shoe Horning of calling Jean- Phoenix in a scene is cringe, Lack of character development outside of Jean, Scott/Jean relationship underdeveloped and the aftermath of her “ascension” into cosmic force is handled poorly and rushed.

If anyone else has seen it feel free to discuss because I can’t remember everything off the top of my head  

[River 116,384]

Does it feels rushed? or like they just gave up and wanted to finish it off and say bye to this universe?

[gagzus 15,849]

2 minutes ago, River said:

Does it feels rushed? or like they just gave up and wanted to finish it off and say bye to this universe?

Not really to me it doesn’t, however the ending after Jean fully ascends into a cosmic force is kinda bad imo. Xavier leaves the school to live in Paris away from everyone after being vilified becoming friends with Eric fully which is weird, they rename the school in Jean’s honour and Hank becomes the new headmaster which to me is unnecessary.

[River 116,384]

1 minute ago, gagzus said:

Not really to me it doesn’t, however the ending after Jean fully ascends into a cosmic force is kinda bad imo. Xavier leaves the school to live in Paris away from everyone after being vilified becoming friends with Eric fully which is weird, they rename the school in Jean’s honour and Hank becomes the new headmaster which to me is unnecessary.

reminds of me GOT ending

[gagzus 15,849]

4 minutes ago, River said:

reminds of me GOT ending

I’m still only on season 6 but I heard about it being a mess 💀 oh I also remembered actually the beginning after Jean’s childhood trauma flashback I did feel the space mission was rushed which is weird since they could’ve added an extra 30 mins footage easily to make it not feel like that. I also didn’t like that they did what they did in TLS when they describe Phoenix as being “desire, joy and rage” she legit is only shown with desire and joy after the PF goes into her for like a scene or two, then everything is sadness and rage 💀😩

[River 116,384]

3 minutes ago, gagzus said:

I’m still only on season 6 but I heard about it being a mess 💀 oh I also remembered actually the beginning after Jean’s childhood trauma flashback I did feel the space mission was rushed which is weird since they could’ve added an extra 30 mins footage easily to make it not feel like that. I also didn’t like that they did what they did in TLS when they describe Phoenix as being “desire, joy and rage” she legit is only shown with desire and joy after the PF goes into her for like a scene or two, then everything is sadness and rage 💀😩

I think I'm gonna pass, this FC saga was pretty messy... it's sad because I like Jean, but Fox handled them bad.

Also Bryan Singer and Zack Snyder needs to stop doing comics movies, their feels are pretty similar, heavy CGI with boom bang slow motion hair.. I really don't like their direction..

[OBEY 57,109]

I didnt read cuz I want to see the movie but is it the same story as in the 3rd x men movie from the old trilogy?

[gagzus 15,849]

3 minutes ago, OBEY said:

I didnt read cuz I want to see the movie but is it the same story as in the 3rd x men movie from the old trilogy?

Not really, there’s minor (emphasis on MINOR) similarities but not really, it’s based more around the original idea for X3 when Bryan Singer was still the director 

[Miel 15,009]

Good to hear that the development around Jean/Phoenix is generally decent, if not good. Shame to hear that mos tof everything else surrounding it is... well, not as good. How was Chastain as "Smith"? She's a great actress, and good promo has really made me intrigued with her portrayal.

I've been a little tepid regarding this movie, only because of recent (legitimate, not angry fanboy) critiques, and also what happened with Godzilla: King of the Monsters (highly anticipated sci-fi/monster movie with incredible marketing, that ultimately, while fun, was a waste of an ensemble cast with a bad script... sound dangerously familiar?). And this is coming from a lifelong Godzilla fan.

I'll still watch, though.

[gagzus 15,849]

1 hour ago, Miel said:

Good to hear that the development around Jean/Phoenix is generally decent, if not good. Shame to hear that mos tof everything else surrounding it is... well, not as good. How was Chastain as "Smith"? She's a great actress, and good promo has really made me intrigued with her portrayal.

I've been a little tepid regarding this movie, only because of recent (legitimate, not angry fanboy) critiques, and also what happened with Godzilla: King of the Monsters (highly anticipated sci-fi/monster movie with incredible marketing, that ultimately, while fun, was a waste of an ensemble cast with a bad script... sound dangerously familiar?). And this is coming from a lifelong Godzilla fan.

I'll still watch, though.

She was well... alright, she did the best with what she was given, her scenes with Sophie were pretty good but her battle scenes weren’t amazing imo. Her bar scene and scene in the Hellfire Club (yes there’s a place that is meant to be that clearly imo, so I think there’s a reason she lowkey looks like Emma Frost) manipulating Jean are pretty good like when she shows Jean the Phoenix Force destroying planets and then creating life.

[goldonline 4]

I was so excited to see this because I love the Dark Phoenix storyline, but reviews in the press have been absolutely awful. 

[Miel 15,009]

36 minutes ago, gagzus said:

She was well... alright, she did the best with what she was given, her scenes with Sophie were pretty good but her battle scenes weren’t amazing imo. Her bar scene and scene in the Hellfire Club (yes there’s a place that is meant to be that clearly imo, so I think there’s a reason she lowkey looks like Emma Frost) manipulating Jean are pretty good like when she shows Jean the Phoenix Force destroying planets and then creating life.

Interesting. I was wondering if it was intentional whether or not they designed Chastain's character to be almost like Frost. Interesting to see the return of the Hellfire Club, too, after First Class.

[gagzus 15,849]

10 hours ago, Miel said:

Interesting. I was wondering if it was intentional whether or not they designed Chastain's character to be almost like Frost. Interesting to see the return of the Hellfire Club, too, after First Class.

I think it probably was but in the movie she’s just a normal woman who gets impersonated and killed called Margret. The building is meant to be a reference to the Hellfire Club and so are the people except Selene is an Acolyte not a member of the Hellfire Club and her part isn’t big either she only really has 2-3 scenes. An introduction on Genosha, fighting Xavier and Kurt and then the final battle

[Magneto 13,429]

So they've learned nothing from Apocalypse and the young X-Men still feel super flat and one dimensional. It's actually worse in this one. There's barely any character development, not enough good action scenes and the dialogue was terrible.

Can't wait for a proper MCU reboot