★★
Jean Grey begins to develop incredible powers that corrupt and turn her into a Dark Phoenix. Now the X-Men will have to decide if the life of a team member is worth more than all of humanity.
Classification: 12A
The cinematic legacy of the X-Men has been crucial in shaping the current landscape of action blockbuster filmmaking, their first appearance nineteen years ago in the original X-Men was the spark that ignited the still ever strong superhero film boom. While our tastes and interests in superheroes have changed with various reboots and crossovers, the X-Men have still been there pushing the ideas of the genre forward in new ways with its triumphs and failures. Recent business decisions on part of twentieth Century Fox and Disney have brought an end to that legacy as X-Men: Dark Phoenix serves as a retrofitted finale for characters we have known for years.
Initially, director/writer Simon Kinberg uses the film as an opportunity to really probe the consequences of Charles Xavier’s actions in creating the X-Men. The superhero team is seen to be adored by the public with a direct line to the United States government but as Xavier’s closest advisors warn that the continued success of the team is not creating equality but a subservient state. As long as the mutants behave they won’t be hurt, that their value is in them saving humans not being who they are. The idea that Xavier has caused more damage to the mutant community especially with Jean Grey’s destructive spiral being the catalyst for anti-mutant sentiment to resurge is an interesting idea considering the futures we have seen for the X-Men in Days of Future Past and Logan.
Unfortunately, these ideas are squandered by poor scriptwriting and underdeveloped characters. The focal point of the plot is the character of Jean Grey and her relationship with Charles Xavier and while the film’s best moments are when it's clearly focused on that, it's the rest that falters. Many characters are aimless in the story, with some just being clearly forgotten by Kinberg. Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique and Michael Fassbender’s Magneto are clearly just there because of their star power and their role in the story is extremely thin at best. Hoult and Sheridan are allowed their moments but they are so brief most of the time it feels these actors are just standing around waiting for their insignificant dialogue.
The largest headache of the film is Jessica Chastain and her character’s subplot which takes any proper character drama in X-Men: Dark Phoenix and turns it into ridiculous science fiction garbage. The energy force that infects Jean is being pursued by an alien race that can take the form of humans, these creatures provide no real substance for the story beyond pointless exposition and cannon fodder for fight scenes. Their inclusion in the story distracts from Jean’s actions being about mutant’s role in society and makes the third act of the film horrendously unbearable. Therein lies the problem with most of the conflicts of the film is that they feel pointless and serve the story is the most uninteresting way.
Most of X-Men: Dark Phoenix is carried by James McAvoy’s performance as Charles Xavier but its not enough to have the film escape its predictable mediocrity. For a series and characters that have spent years using their stories as a commentary for our society, Kinberg has nothing to say with his script or his direction. Even Xavier’s storyline is squandered because of the focus on the action and science fiction in the climax of the film. It has its moments but it is a shame that this will be the last time we see the X-Men until their inevitable reboot and the potential of many of the younger iterations of the characters are never fully realised.
Director: #SimonKinberg
Cast: #JamesMcAvoy, #MichaelFassbender, #JenniferLawrence, #NicholasHoult, #SophieTurner, #TyeSheridan, #AlexandraShipp, #KodiSmitMcPhee, #JessicaChastain
Release Date: June 5th 2019
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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