In the early 2000s, the superhero film genre experienced a
major resurgence thanks to three films that were all based on Marvel
properties, which were also notably the first majorly successful live-action
films that the company had ever produced after most of their previous efforts
were underwhelming, to say the least. In fact, some of them were so disastrous
that they didn’t even get a proper theatrical release (i.e. the infamous 1994
adaptation of The Fantastic Four). But then there was the trio of 1998’s
Blade, Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man in 2002, and the film that
paved the way for today’s topic, X-Men,
released in 2000 and directed by Bryan Singer. Despite both Singer and several
of the film’s cast members admitting that they weren’t too familiar with the
source material going in, the original X-Men
was a solid critical and commercial success and helped the superhero genre
evolve into the powerhouse that it still is today. Thus, the cast and crew
returned for a sequel in 2003, X2: X-Men
United, which was an even bigger hit and touted by many as a superior
sequel. Not only that, but it ended on a note that teased a follow-up that
would adapt one of the most famous X-Men
storylines from the comics, The Dark
Phoenix Saga, where X-Men member Jean Grey is corrupted by the full extent
of her telepathic powers. However, as most of you know, this first adaptation
turned out to be a bit of a disaster, mainly due to Singer backing out of the
project to direct Superman Returns.
Brett Ratner was hired in his place and the film that followed, 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, received a far
more polarizing reaction from critics while being outright despised by fans for
its handling of the Dark Phoenix storyline.
This and the equally disastrous 2009 spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine effectively put the X-Men film franchise in a very rough spot for quite a few years.
It wasn’t until 2011 when the series officially saw a
comeback thanks to X-Men: First Class,
a prequel/soft reboot directed by Matthew Vaughn that featured a cast of
newcomers playing younger versions of the series’ established characters. And
despite some initial skepticism from audiences, the film was a surprise critical
and financial hit upon its release. This then paved the way for 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, which saw
Bryan Singer return to the franchise for the first time since X2 and combined the ensembles of both
the original trilogy and First Class in a loose adaptation of the popular Days of Future Past storyline from the comics. The film
also notably established a major bit of retconning by setting up an alternate
continuity that ignored the events of The Last Stand. Because of this, writer/producer
Simon Kinberg (who also wrote The Last
Stand) hoped that this would pave the way for a more faithful Dark
Phoenix adaptation in the future. And despite the generally mixed reaction
towards the next installment of the franchise, 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, plans were officially set into motion for a new
adaptation of the Dark Phoenix storyline.
Not only that, but the film would also end up serving as Kinberg’s directorial
debut after it was made clear that Apocalypse
would be Singer’s last entry in the series. Thus, here we are now with the
latest X-Men film, simply titled Dark Phoenix, and by all
accounts, this will be the final installment of the main series (not
counting the long-delayed New Mutants film that’s currently set for a
2020 release) following Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox
earlier this year. And yet, despite this, reports of some extensive production
issues, and an overall chilly reception, Dark Phoenix is ultimately
another solid entry in the franchise even though I do agree that it still isn’t
the proper Dark Phoenix Saga adaptation that it could’ve been.
It is 1992 and the relationship between humans and mutants
has started to prosper thanks to the continued heroic efforts of telepath
Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and the X-Men. However, during a mission where
the group rescues the crew of the space shuttle Endeavour, team
member/telepath Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) endures the full force of a
mysterious solar flare. Against all odds, Jean survives this event but her
telepathic abilities end up getting amplified in the process, and to make matters
worse, it also allows her to break a mental block that Charles had placed on
her when she was younger to hide her memories of a car crash that she
accidentally caused that resulted in the death of her mother. Thus, having
realized that some of her most trusted allies have been keeping secrets from
her, the more volatile aspects of Jean’s powers begin to take effect. This is
then complicated further by the arrival of an alien race known as the D’Bari,
led by the mysterious Vuk (Jessica Chastain), who seeks to harness Jean’s ‘Phoenix’
abilities for her own sinister purposes, resulting in the X-Men taking on their
most perilous mission yet as they find themselves having to face one of their
own. And if that wasn’t enough, Charles’ past efforts to ‘protect’ Jean end up causing
a major divide amongst several members of the group, with the situation only being
agitated further once the always unpredictable Erik Lehnsherr AKA Magneto
(Michael Fassbender) gets involved.
As noted in the intro, one of the biggest issues that fans
had with The Last Stand was its
handling of the Dark Phoenix storyline,
which was mainly due to it ultimately being a combination of two radically
different storylines from the comics. The other storyline that was adapted for
the film was Gifted, a six-part
miniseries that was written by none other than Joss Whedon that focused on the
introduction of a ‘mutant cure’, which meant that neither storyline got
the proper attention that it should’ve since the film had to juggle them both
at the same time. By comparison, this new film is technically a more faithful
adaptation of the Dark Phoenix arc despite only having one major
sequence that takes place in space and not including some of the storyline’s
important characters. Namely, it doesn’t feature the Hellfire Club (although
they did appear in First Class and were technically wiped out by the
time Days of Future Past rolled around) and changes the prominently
featured alien race from the Shi’ar to the D’Bari. However, a different issue then
comes into play as the film doesn’t quite give this storyline the emotional
poignancy that it could’ve had. It goes without saying that the transformation
of Jean Grey from hero to villain proves to be devastating for the X-Men,
especially her love interest Scott Summers AKA Cyclops (Tye Sheridan). But in
the film, it’s treated like your standard hero/villain conflict, and thus, is
quite lacking in terms of depth. At the very least, this film’s technical
aspects fare a lot better. Despite this only being his first directorial
effort, Simon Kinberg does a nice job with the action sequences and the whole
film is backed by a suitably intense Hans Zimmer score.
A lot has been said about how most of the main leads in this
film who have been with the franchise for quite some time now are clearly not
as enthusiastic about it as they were back then (that and a lot of jokes about
how they still look as old as they did in First Class despite that being
three films/in-universe decades ago). And yet, for what it’s worth, the
returning leads of the franchise are still just as good as they’ve always been
in these films, primarily because they continue to be the ones who get the most
character development even though it does become a detriment to others. James
McAvoy, for example, continues to shine as a more flawed Xavier compared to
Patrick Stewart’s version of the character from the original trilogy,
especially in this instance given that this whole plot is the result of his
best intentions coming back to haunt him. Then there’s Michael Fassbender, who
is still quite arguably the biggest standout of the First Class era ensemble
as the emotionally charged Magneto. Jennifer Lawrence, meanwhile, continues to
be solid as Mystique, who maintains the direction of her arc in Apocalypse by
further embracing her leadership capabilities and being more protective of the
younger members of the team. However, as some of this film’s trailers have
implicated, her role in the plot is much smaller this time around. And finally,
there’s Nicholas Hoult as Beast, who arguably gets the most prominent story arc
that he’s ever had in this series due to his growing frustrations with Charles
over his handling of Jean’s predicament and the devastating results that they
yield.
Unfortunately, the newer members of the cast who had
promising debuts in Apocalypse don’t get as much to work with this time
around even though the First Class era films have done a lot better than
the original trilogy when it comes to showing the X-Men working as a team. As
alluded to earlier, Tye Sheridan doesn’t get any opportunities to truly delve
into the emotional turmoil that Scott is going through over Jean’s actions even
though he had one of the best emotional moments in Apocalypse when he learned
about his brother Alex’s death. Alexandra Shipp also gets heavily underutilized
as Storm, a fact that Shipp herself has openly acknowledged in recent
interviews. Heck, we don’t even get a lot of fan-favorite Quicksilver (Evan
Peters) this time around, which means that there’s sadly no new standout
running sequence set to music like in the previous two films. At the very
least, Sophie Turner does manage to do a solid job handling Jean’s
psychological dilemma even if this film’s writing doesn’t exactly match her dedication
to the role. But then we come to this film’s main antagonists, the D’Bari, who are,
unfortunately, some of the weakest villains in the franchise’s history. Jessica
Chastain does her best with what she’s given as their leader Vuk, but without
much explanation of their backstory or their plans, they’re just a bunch of
nameless thugs for the X-Men to fight. I will say, however, that the finale,
where the X-Men fight the D’Bari on a train, is a solidly done action sequence,
which is saying something considering that this was the biggest aspect of the
film’s extensive reshoots due to the original ending supposedly being too similar
to the likes of Captain Marvel and Captain America: Civil War.
At the time of this review’s publication, Dark Phoenix currently stands as the
worst-received installment of the X-Men film
franchise; yes, even more so than The
Last Stand and X-Men Origins:
Wolverine. And with a lackluster turn at the box-office (to the point where
it will apparently be out of most theaters very soon), it’s clear that most
audiences are just waiting for the series’ inevitable reboot into the Marvel
Cinematic Universe. But is it really that
bad? Well, not really. It’s competently made from a technical standpoint and
everyone in it does a good job with the material that they’re given. However,
while it’s far from being the disaster that many are saying it is, it’s still a
sign that the X-Men franchise is running
on fumes at this point. While it may technically be a more faithful adaptation
of the Dark Phoenix Saga when
compared to X-Men: The Last Stand, it
never truly has the chance to delve into the psychological and emotional
aspects of its storyline. In other words, as it is presented in this film, the
conflict of Jean Grey going rogue has about as much urgency to it as Thor:
The Dark World. With all this in mind, if this is truly meant to be the
last installment of the X-Men film franchise as we’ve known it since the
start of the new millennium, then I will openly admit that it’s probably for
the best. And while I may be in the minority when it comes to liking this
franchise, I do look forward to seeing how Kevin Feige and his team will incorporate
these iconic characters into the MCU.
Rating: 4/5
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