Director: Simon Kinberg
Actors: James
McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan
Genre:
Action / Si-Fi
Rating:
M
‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ is the seventh X-Men
film and the fourth featuring McAvoy, Fassbender, Lawrence & Hoult as
Xavier/Charles, Magneto/Erik, Mystique/Raven & Beast/Hank. It’s worth
noting that this is the second film after some of the continuity-tweaking that occurred
in “Days of Future Past’, meaning it’s also only the second X-Men film to not
feature Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Herein lies some of the problem – he’s the
spiritual heart of the X-Men films and they’re definitely on a downward
trajectory.
Most of the problem is that since this
is essentially the ‘new’ X-Men, we’ve had no time to get familiar with the new
Cyclops/Scott (Sheridan), Phoenix/Jean (Turner), Storm/Ororo (Shipp),
Nightcrawler/Kurt (Smit-McPhee) & Quicksilver/Peter (Peters). Their chemistry
and repartee is lacking, and compared to the MCU films, it’s really noticeable.
Nightcrawler should be there for some comic relief, but none is evident. They also
act out-of-character at times – Beast & Nightcrawler seeking revenge and
killing people/aliens would never happen in the comics. It’s odd, since the director
is also the writer of this film and the previous two X-Men films, so should
know the characters well enough.
While it’s essentially the same story as
‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ (also written by Kinberg), it’s at least a little
different (and different from the comics too), with Jean never really being in
control. The CGI is good, but the actual cosmic phoenix is barely seen. The 2nd
act is very slow, but there’s a but of action at the end, even if it’s rather
predictable at times. Peters, Lawrence & Chastain are all wasted and there
needed to be way more backstory to the D’Bari (why aren’t they the Shi’ar?) Some
good moments, but the sooner Marvel bring Deadpool, Fantastic Four and the
X-Men into the MCU, the better.
Overall: Left me mostly with a feeling
of emptiness.
Gav's Rating: 2.5 stars.
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