I braved the blizzard of withering reviews to check out
Dark Phoenix yesterday. Despite the almost universal (but not total) condemnation for this film, I thought it was okay. I can't say it's the worst
X-Men film ever, and it's definitely not the worst comic book film ever. In many ways I thought it was an improved version of
X-Men: The Last Stand, and was a decent conclusion to the McAvoy-Lawrence-Fassbender films though not the entire 19-year
X-Men saga. Please take loads of salt here with what I'm saying, because I also thought this year's
Hellboy wasn't that bad either. And while I think
Dark Phoenix improved on aspects of
The Last Stand, I also had much lower expectations going into
Dark Phoenix than I did
The Last Stand. I'm also basing this opinion on the impressions I felt at the time I watched
The Last Stand. I haven't watched it in years and if I did, maybe I would feel differently.
There are no end credits for this film.
For
Dark Phoenix here my likes:
-I thought the film delved more into the Xavier-Jean relationship. I also liked how it spent more time focused on Jean and how she was coping with her new dark powers compared to
The Last Stand.
-Jessica Chastain.
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I've seen some criticism of her character online, but I liked her in this role. What I wish we had gotten was more screentime and also a better backstory. Also, it was never explained how Chastain's character could siphon and hold the Phoenix Force. But the first appearance of Chastain and the other aliens was quite effective, and worked better than the Skrulls in Captain Marvel. I had heard that Dark Phoenix was supposed to use the Skrulls at first, and these aliens (the D'Bari, which I didn't know at the time I watched it, are actually from the X-Men comics and do have a tie to the Phoenix story) are shapeshifters like them. I thought they felt more like the comic book Skrulls than how they were depicted in Captain Marvel. Though I don't think they worked as well the few times we got to see more of their true appearance, but I chalk that up to budget constraints. I've seen where they changed the ending because it resembled another comic book movie, which people speculate was Captain Marvel. I was watching a guy on Collider-I think-who did a nice job of showing the parallels between those films that were still in Dark Phoenix. I hadn't caught that outside of the faux Skrulls. Overall, the D'Bari were a plus for this film.
-Some production design. I liked the streamlined, sleeker look for Cerebro/room. I also thought the X-Men plane looked cool. Some people are ragging on the uniforms, but I liked them. I liked the big X across the chest. They were similar to the Grant Morrison run.
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Unfortunately the uniforms are put back in the closet before the end of the film.
-X-Men's situation.
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It was jarring at first to see them treated like heroes, almost like Avengers. It didn't feel consistent with the other X-Men films or the history of the comics. However, I can accept that after Apocalypse they became the Avengers of this universe, but I wish that had been set up better. There was a story to tell there about how maybe their newfound success and acceptance would change them, and not always for the better. It also irked me that after the big rescue at the beginning that when the X-Men came back there was already a crowd with signs waiting for them. That felt fake, and also there was a little black kid with an "X" baseball hat on, and in 1992, we know what that "X" really stood for. For the rescue, why didn't the X-Men have a ship that could fly in space? Or not have space helmets/suits already? Perhaps that was supposed to add some tension/suspense and then used for some comic relief, but it didn't make much sense to me. I did like how Xavier had an 'x' phone like the Batphone though.
-Action. There was a lot more of it than in
Apocalypse, but I can't say it was all well depicted. I'm thinking of going to see the film again to get a better sense of the action.
Spoiler (click to reveal)
I did like the "MCU" guards, a jab or nod at Disney's MCU no doubt, but wish they had been more prominent in the film, and perhaps been the junior antagonists to Chastain's aliens. I also liked the member of Magneto's Brotherhood that had the dreadlocks. I enjoyed some of his fight scenes, even if they might have been a little too CGI. Magneto's other main lieutenant, Selene (?), played by a sister, she was okay, but the film needed to do a better job showing off her powers IMO.
Dislikes:
-Budget. I've heard this film cost $200 million, after reshoots, and it wasn't on the screen. The film felt too small, and sometimes too cheap. This film, being the last one, should've had a larger scope and a more epic feel. I think that
Days of Future Past should've been the concluding film, or if they had amped up the third act of
Apocalypse, that could've provided the final epic battle this franchise deserved.
-The setting.
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There was no need to put this film in the '90s. With Apocalypse in the '80s, this film was almost 10-years later, but none of the characters had aged, and it felt like they were still acting like teens, so that was weird. The newer X-Men films have all been strange when it comes to the characters and age. Even though the X-Men films have had their alternate presidents, I do wish they had gotten at least someone who favored or could impersonate George H.W. Bush to root the film in 1992. I also don't think the Dazzler cameo worked well here. She should've been in Apocalypse, which was more time period appropriate. There needed to be music, clothing, television shows, etc. to show that this is the '90s. Captain Marvel did a better job with that, and they weren't great with it.
-Continuity.
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I was seeing online how the Dark Phoenix ignores Apocalypse, and while I wasn't thinking that while watching the film, the discrepancies I did see, it made more sense once I saw that Simon Kinberg allegedly did more of his own thing. That he wanted to redeem The Last Stand and now was in the position to tell the story of Jean becoming Dark Phoenix his own way. I wish this had been better explained going in that this film is looser tied to Apocalypse. For one, the age thing makes no sense (but hasn't for a long time), but there was also no mention that Jean manifested the Phoenix Force in Apocalypse. I don't recall even Apocalypse being mentioned.
-Dark Phoenix.
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While the film spent more time with Jean, I don't think it spent enough time showing her relishing her darker powers like they did in The Last Stand. I recall a scene from a trailer-might be misremembering where Jean does say she likes her darker powers. In the film itself, after she first gets them, she is amped up, but you don't get a sense later that she enjoys the powers though she doesn't have a problem using them.
-Jennifer Lawrence.
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It's been long talked about how Jennifer Lawrence has wanted out of this role, and she finally gets her wish and I was happy to see her character exit. Because she spent a majority of the time criticizing Xavier and IMO being ungrateful in light of how he gave her a home, a place, and a purpose years ago. He also sacrificed, losing his ability to walk. Some of her criticisms in the film I was okay with though, that he hadn't sacrificed in a long time (I can accept that), that he was becoming seduced by the new popularity of the X-Men and his connections with the president, that he was more cavalier about using the X-Men/children to further the cause (or maybe himself). I can accept those criticisms. But to then wrap it into the now infamous line (paraphrasing) about "the women always saving the men, so maybe the team should be renamed X-Women", was grating, out of place, and didn't work for the film. However, I felt that was about doing a girl power salute. I didn't catch it at the time, but a You Tube reviewer pointed out that in this film Mystique never impersonated anyone, so we never even got to see her main power in her final appearance. Also she spends some time in her human guise, as she did in Apocalypse and it felt inorganic to how the character was established earlier on, in wanting to accept what she naturally looked like. It's unfortunate that Lawrence wasn't feeling that makeup-for whatever reason-and I wish the studio had found a better way to make the process more comfortable for her so we could get the blue Mystique more. That being said, she was blue enough for me in Dark Phoenix. Overall, I think casting Lawrence as Mystique was a mistake from jump, but also placing Mystique in such a prominent role in these new films. I think Lawrence should've been Jean Grey or Cassandra Nova. Because once Lawrence's star rose, it necessitated doing something different with Mystique than her traditional role in the comics-which I think the older X-Men movies got better. But that also gave Lawrence more power to also dictate what she would do when it came to the character, which was good and bad, good for her the actress, but perhaps not so much for the character. That being said, the newer films had envisioned a larger role for Mystique from the jump, but not sure they imagined she would develop this much, become a leader of the X-Men, and an outright hero. Also, while I've seen some online criticism of Lawrence's Mystique being too much in her human guise, I haven't seen any criticism that they were doing Beast like that too. To be fair, Beast had more of an issue with his beastly appearance than Mystique had with her blue look, but still, Nicholas Hoult got more face time than he should've. I did see one You Tuber point out that it was like this Beast was a werewolf, could control his change. Though not all werewolves do control their changes, I got his point. I chalk some of this up to the budget and they couldn't afford to have Lawrence and Hoult in blue all the time. The actor playing Nightcrawler was always blue.
-Xavier. No problem with McAvoy's acting here,
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just that the film was a lot about dumping on Charles and Charles having to admit failure and apologize (as a proxy for white men or men in general), and I felt that is more in line with the current feminist zeitgeist. That being said, if they wanted to make Charles the bad guy, just do Onslaught instead of Dark Phoenix. It would've felt fresher and created a villain almost as dangerous as the Phoenix. Jessica Chastain could've easily played Cassandra Nova or someone who is trying to manipulate Charles to manifest Onslaught side. I have no problem examining heroes and exploring their flaws, but the way it was done, and I feel is being done in a lot of the stuff I enjoy today, is that the onus is put on males and not on females far too much.
-Magneto's situation.
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I felt "Genosha" was a joke. But maybe they just didn't have the money to show it as an island. And why would the US just let Magneto and his followers stay there and not have them under guard? None of that was explained. I also felt that Magneto wasn't as powerful as we've seen him in other films, though perhaps that was because he was rusty. Still, I wasn't that impressed with the displays of his power like I have been in time's past.
-Character usage.
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The new films did a poorer job of sharing the spotlight for their cast. Jean, Scott, along with Mystique, Xavier, and Magneto got the biggest roles/screentime here. Quicksilver was strangely sidelined in the second half of the movie and didn't participate in the climatic battle. Storm got some action moments-though the FX were dicey-and I fell she didn't get to max out her powers. Once again, Storm is barely in the film. She gets a line or two here and there, but that's it. Shipp has been more underused than even Halle Berry. Nightcrawler had some cool scenes, but then one that was incongruous when he becomes a killing machine. It was cool to see to be honest, however did it really fit his character? It was like the Spider-Man killing scene in Endgame in that respect, fun in the moment, but not fitting the character. I thought more could've been done to highlight more of the X-Men, and also bring in more X-Men in the final battle. I thought The Last Stand's big battle on Alcatraz was much more epic and fitting for a concluding film.
-Climax.
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I think the final battle between Jean and Chastain's character should've been more epic. Logan killing Jean in The Last Stand was better done and more emotionally impacting.
-Legacy.
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I think the film and studio missed an opportunity to tout the legacy of this franchise, if no place else in the closing credits, to show characters, scenes, or bloopers from the run of the films. Or even to start it with the biggest X-Men cast you could find, thanking the fans for their years of support or something. I normally don't like that kind of stuff, however, here I think it would've helped add to the sense of finality. That being said, the film itself left things open for more, and ended on something of a positive note, with Xavier and Magneto friends again and a sign that the Phoenix was still out there.
