Movie Review: X-Men Dark Phoenix (PG13 – 113 minutes)

The majority of my X-Men knowledge comes from the animated series that debuted in 1992 and covered various storylines from the comics.  One of those storylines was the Phoenix saga, that then shifted into the Dark Phoenix saga.  Essentially Jean Grey, already one of the most powerful telekinetic and telepathic mutants on the planet, interacted with an exceptionally powerful intergalactic force.  At first, she was able to control it.  However, she lost control and shifted into one of the greatest foes the X-Men have faced. 

This was somewhat covered in the audience-dividing X-Men 3: The Last Stand movie directed by Brett Ratner released in 2006.  Famke Janssen did a great job vamping her way through the movie as a Jean finally feeling herself after being held back for the previous two movies.  The rest of the movie is strange.  In any case, once the X-Men were semi-rebooted with X-Men: First Class in 2011 we got younger versions of the characters and the opportunity to revisit the most popular storylines. 

At the end of X-Men: Apocalypse (which was truly terrible), we got a glimpse of the possibility of the Phoenix as Jean began getting stronger.  Here, in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, we join the team as they are entering the 90s and finally enjoying some quality co-existing with humans. Professor X is getting chummy with the president and the X-Men are beloved heroes as they go on missions to help everyone.  A space shuttle gets into trouble with what seems to be a solar flare and the X-Men head out.  The team is being led by Mystique and Beast.  Mystique’s involvement in the team is still a giant what?!?! As that makes no sense based on the comics/animated series. Mystique was always a villain.  Just because you cast Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t mean you get to change the entire character.  In any case, Jean, Scott (Cyclops), Nightcrawler, Quicksilver, and Storm join Beast and Mystique to save the astronauts. They are successful, but not before Jean gets blasted by and/or absorbs the flare. 

Once back down on the ground, Jean starts to lose it.  Scott tries to reign her in, but the controls Professor X built into her brain to keep her insane power in check start to break down, and she realizes her father is still alive, but just wanted nothing to do with her.  Meanwhile a group of beings, who are absolutely not LIlandra and the Shi’ar, come down to get the power.  Well, things go from bad to worse as Jean realizes how she’s been manipulated by those she trusted, and just how powerful she is. 

The movie is directed by Simon Kinberg who did The Martian, Logan, and the terrible Fantastic Four reboot.  It’s far better than the previous outing, although that is not saying much.  There is actually not that much action, but what is there is well done.  This story is grim, which it is supposed to be, and its well-acted by those involved.  There are far too many extreme close-ups.  I can tell someone is emoting from four feet away, I do not need to be six inches from their nose.

• Sophie Turner steps into the lead of this movie.  Jean was just on the fringes of Days of Future Past and then got a larger bit in Apocalypse.  Here, Turner gives Jean the weight of her pain, but also does a good job reveling in the Phoenix power when it debuts. Her performance is understated, but I enjoyed it. 

• James McAvoy plays Charles Xavier yet again, and in this one, he’s become just a bit too comfortable with his celebrity status and reaping the rewards of building co-existence for mutants and humans.  McAvoy makes Prof. X a little arrogant and unwilling to accept the blame for his actions.  It’s a perfect fit, and an interesting take.

• Michael Fassbender is back as Magneto, and he’s busy building his mutant island nation of Genosha when Jean turns to him for help.  Unfortunately, she’s killed somebody he liked a whole bunch, so he’s going to want to kill her.

• Nicholas Hoult plays Beast, who seems to be able to turn his beast-ness on and off at will at this point?  he’s trying to remain the level-headed one in the group, but Mystique is trying to talk him into leaving the X-Men.

• Tye Sheridan plays Scott Summers, and honestly, I felt like this movie needed more of him. The key to keeping Phoenix under wraps is Scott – it’s always Scott. The relationship between Jean and Scott should be central, and here is swept aside a bit.

• The non-central X-Men in this story do not have much to do here.  Alexandra Shipp plays Storm, Kodi Smit-McPhee plays Nightcrawler, and Evan Peters’s returns as Quicksilver. 

• Jessica Chastain joins as a big bad who is definitely not Lilandra, and honestly, I am not entirely clear who or what she is. Apparently their race has been chasing the Phoenix force in order to rebuild their world.  Ato Essandoh plays her number 2, Jones.

• Jennifer Lawrence came back to play Mystique after complaining quite a bit about playing Mystique the last couple of times. It works a bit here because Mystique is a bit bitter. She’s still thinking mutants are better than humans and is not that interested in saving them or working with them. 

Overall, I think it was a huge benefit for me to go into this movie with very low expectations after reading some scathing reviews because I didn’t mind it nearly as much as I expected to. I enjoyed most of it, and I thought Turner did a good job.  The X-Men are always a little tough because they are not the light, fun characters that some other Marvel properties are. Things are always difficult for them because they are the allegory of the ‘other’ and how they struggle to fit into a society that hates them.  Most of their storylines are heavy and upsetting and translating them to the screen can be rough. This one is just fine.  It’s not great, but it’s certainly not terrible, and is definitely better than Apocalypse.

6 out of 10 - Entertaining enough!