A X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019) Review
First I’d like to say that I adore the X-Men, actually more than The Avengers, at least when it comes to the comics. They have some of the greatest comics in history, Phoenix Force, Age of Apocalypse, these are comics I love, and the movies hurt.
The movie starts out with a young Jean Grey (Summer Fontana) learning of her powers, killing her parents, and being visited by Charles Xavier (James McAvoy). Later in life they go to space to save some astronauts from a solar flare which is really the Phoenix Force and it takes over Jean Grey (Sophie Turner). After she freaks out and kills Mystique/Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) she tries to hide with Magneto/Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender). After he refuses to help her Vuk (Jessica Chastain) helps her and tries to take the Phoenix Force for herself. The whole movie ends with Jean Grey and Phoenix Force taking Vuk to space and basically imploding.
See how that plot rundown felt “bleh”? yeah? you aren’t missing anything. This movie did nothing spectacular. The CGI looked good enough and so did the makeup. But McAvoy and Fassbender carried the movie acting wise, Sophie Turner did alright as Jean Grey but it was nothing to write home about. And the girl that played Storm, Alexandra Shipp, pretty sure she had so little lines because of that terrible accent. All her brain had to go to focusing on that instead of focusing on her delivery. And Scott Shepherd just called in all his lines as Dr. John Grey.
The problem with Fox’s X-Men movies is that they all felt rushed. End Game had over 44 hours over every MCU movie to just set up the thought of Thanos. These X-Men movies just cover the biggest comics ever in an hour, no time to shine or grow for anyone.
You expect me to believe that Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) just decided to become a League of Assassins level tough because he saw a no name security guard die, no, that’s not how character progression works. And Jean Grey overcomes the Phoenix Force because of some flash backs, no, not how this character works, maybe put her in the very first movie and have a constant struggle with it and than I’d believe you.
This is suppose to be the last X-Men movie and I hope that’s true. I’m tired of having my favorite comics crapped on because they just want to cover them in one movie instead of long term development.
Overall, X-Men: Dark Phoenix gets a 3/10. I liked the CGI and McAvoy and Fassbender did a great job as Xavier and Magneto as always but that’s where the good times end. Don’t waste your money on this one, wait till it’s playing on TV for free.
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