Dark Phoenix, directed by Simon Kinberg and starring Sophie Turner as the titular Pheonix possessed Jean Grey, is the likely conclusion to Fox’s 20 year X-Men run. After being delayed twice, undergoing extensive third act reshoots, and living in the shadow of Avengers: Endgame, Dark Phoenix has an uphill battle ahead of it.
The Good Phoenix
The good news is that Dark Phoenix is better than 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, which tells a similar story. Kinberg goes with a pretty tight and intimate narrative that avoids apocalyptic proportions, much to its benefit. This makes for a smaller, intensified story with weighty stakes.
What is extremely refreshing about Dark Phoenix is that choices have real consequences. If you psychically block childhood trauma in a little girl, chances are that trauma will find a way out and people will get hurt. As well, mutants are social pariahs whose reputations are dangling by a thread at any moment. While they might be saving astronauts and inspiring children everywhere one moment, they are one bad day away from internment camps. The plot demonstrates this well which packs each Phoenix incident with tension.
And of all the X-Men movies, this one leans into the darkness of Dark Phoenix. Going light on the humor and heavy on the consequences, the plot and characters feel unrestrained in a sense. A simple extraction mission turns deadly on a dime and a beloved character ends up killed and the X-Men reputation is trashed. Longtime friendships dissolve in an instant. And all grudges can be set aside in the face of a common enemy.
What I really appreciate, is that Dark Phoenix commits to being an altered timeline. The events of Days of Future Past reset the timeline and Apocalypse only sort of held to that. But Dark Phoenix all but goes out of its way to state, “we do things differently around here.” This allows it to chart its own course and not be beholden to prequel-ness anymore.
However much I enjoyed these aspects of the film, Dark Phoenix is not without its flaws. Of which there are many.
The Dark Phoenix
Dark Phoenix feels like a movie removed from itself– like a movie doing a tight recapping of another movie. I blame the reshoots and delays. Apparently, the original ending is too similar to Captain Marvel and they rebuilt the third act from the ground up. What they created instead was like a pot of water that simmered but never quite boiled. This is another one of those moments where a better movie might be in the scraps on the cutting room floor.
As a result, the film isn’t very focused. Is it about Jean Grey’s descent into madness? Sort of. Is it about the corruptibility of immense power? Kinda. Or is it about the tarnished legacy of Charles Xavier? Maybe. While all of these plot points are paid service to, none of them are truly the central idea of the film.
And while Sophie Turner might be headlining, she only has like 15-20 lines. The characterization of Jean Grey is supremely lacking. Within the first 10 minutes, she is possessed by the Phoenix force leaving all of like five minutes for the audience to experience who Jean Grey actually is. I know she was in Apocalypse, but no one remembers that film– and it sucked. I wish we had 20 solid minutes of genuine characterization for Jean Grey so when she gets overtaken by destructive anger, we can actually mourn the descent.
When the credits rolled, I wanted more. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But Dark Phoenix doesn’t quite satisfy its own premise. While the third act is an impressive visual treat that is actually very fun to watch, it feels like it’s an extended second act. This undercuts it’s genuine intensity and brings down what would otherwise be an enjoyable scene. And then all of a sudden its the climax and the film ends. I would have gladly stayed in my seat if the film had gone on another 20 minutes. Goodness, it needed 20 more minutes to breathe and give more build-up for the third act.
The Shadow of Endgame
All-in-all, I don’t think Dark Phoenix can overcome its uphill battle. While it is genuinely an enjoyable film that would be successful any other year, the shadow of the MCU looms large. Endgame was just too damn good. And audiences may have written off Fox’s X-Men three years ago after the failure of Apocalypse.
Might it have been better to forgoe the Jean Grey-Phoenix story for a lesser known X-Men comics story? Probably (House of M anyone?). I, for one, am tired of seeing Hollywood reboot and rehash old stories instead of adapting and creating original pieces.
Should you go see Dark Phoenix? Yeah, probably. It is a fitting end to Fox’s X-Men series. Kevin Feige and Disney will be at the helm now, and any mutants we see in the future will be all new and all different. As a send-off to the franchise that essentially started the cinematic superhero phenomenon, Dark Phoenix will be in theaters Friday, June 7th.