X-Men: Dark Phoenix

• Marketed internationally and released on home media as X-Men: Dark Phoenix
• Written and Directed by Simon Kinberg
• June 4, 2019 (TCL Chinese Theatre) / June 7, 2019 (US)
• Based on X-Men created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and The Dark Phoenix Saga by Chris Claremont and John Byrne

Jean, struggling with mental illness, has her abilities increased by a cosmic force putting her in the crosshairs of those who want to kill or control such power.

The Dark Phoenix storyline is a comics classic star spanning bit of superhero space opera with long-lasting reverberations in the pages of Marvel. In comparison to the previous attempt at the Dark Phoenix story (Last Stand), this includes in the beginning much more of the storyline than the first attempt did before devolving into its own thing.

An appropriate adaption of the story probably would’ve required at least two films. It’s been a few years since I’ve read ANY of it but as I recall the X-Men have a few adventures with a very powerful Jean Grey (Sophie Turner). The Phoenix Force within her consumes a few planets and an alien empire comes to stop it, and the climax involves the X-Men in a battle on the moon. Getting all that (just the world destroying) would’ve taken two significant films and this movie was clearly meant to cap off the series based on the ending scenes we do get. Part of my issue stems from seeing the Phoenix Force image in Apocalypse BEFORE it possessed her.

They do include aliens here who in the original storyline were affected by the Phoenix Force become so generic that the connection for the initiated both in the original storyline and any of its expansions is nearly impossible to see. Jessica Chastain is their leader Vuk/Margaret Smith whose name in this movie is so well hidden that reportedly even Chastain did not know it until after the movie was released.

Even the species name of D’Bari is impossible to discern as is their power. They are referenced in extraneous media as shapeshifters but I really thought they took over the bodies like in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Their motivations get barely mentioned causing them to come off as evil aliens looking to do evil alien things.

You could be excused for believing Jean got a radiation dose before becoming more powerful. Some of what I mention here I found outside of the movie when checking spellings and whatnot. Radiation causing/increasing power is very comic book, but the script has problems communicating anything and everything making you feel it can’t decide what’s going on with her power. 

This also brings into question what timeline Dark Phoenix occurs in. Future Past changed the timeline largely undoing events in Last Stand. The most notable was Scott’s death (he lives through this) as well as Jean’s (there Famke Janssen) meaning certain characters should have some plot armor. Not Jean based on the ending. So what is going on with the timeline here! Did writer/director Simon Kinberg even pay attention to the other movies?

While bickering over the dangers of the last mission and the students getting put in harms way, Kinberg has Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) for some reason take a dig at Charles (James McAvoy) by saying that the women are always saving everybody and the team should be called the X-Women and not the X-Men. Really?

Not Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) or Storm (Alexandra Shipp), both of whom had in the comics lead the team, but it is Raven initially rallying the troops with speeches or barking orders. It is also clear that Lawrence wanted out because her character gets offed in an implausible (for the character) way and early on. Being able to mold and shift her body should at the minimum allow her to survive wounds as well as Wolverine might.

Charles does the same thing here that he did in the original X-Men movies and that is suppress Jeans true power level. I can’t really blame him for doing it given what she has demonstrated to be capable of in both timelines. They go out of there way to have people get angry with him like he was completely unreasonable to limit the powers of someone that was god-like. Seems like he was looking out for humanity.

Kinberg also makes the X-Men celebrities adored by the public which neuters the racism allegory of the source along with the fear and bigotry motifs that have largely driven the series. Magneto (Michael Fassbender) has been handed a small island for a mutant community despite everything else he has done. Some things are foundational and this dumps them all.

I praise the film’s willingness to make the characters casually powerful. They use their abilities to do the mundane (when applicable) but also are able to let it rip like the near gods they are. Magneto and Jean can hand out massive levels of destruction. Yet often Dark Phoenix is cool sequence over advancing the plot or building characters. This is a movie more interested in spectacle than it is in explaining itself or being character driven. Bryan Singer’s directing presence is sorely missed in this special effects extravaganza.

Sophie Turner’s Jean is the center of it all and Turner’s acting cannot carry it. She was simply the most notable young redhead at the time have starred in the most popular show of the era. She has almost no nuance. She’s not conflicted. She’s whiny. Whatever made her a big deal in Game of Thrones does not translate well here. Or maybe that is what made her a big deal in Game of Thrones but it doesn’t work here. 

Jessica Chastain does fine giving weight to her villain but she’s a poorly defined villain. As limited as the appearance of multiple X-Men characters are here perhaps they should’ve thought to give her some more screen time. The alien force is just cannon fodder to fight and not a threat for you understand even if you don’t agree.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix had the potential to be something special even if it wasn’t 100% faithful but between Sophie Turner’s weak performance and a story that doesn’t make sense in connection to the lore of the series it’s just dumb.