Skip to main content

X-Men Dark Phoenix -- a review


Coming nineteen years after the first X-Men movie, X-Men: Dark Phoenix wraps up the superhero team saga without any mention of Hugh Jackman’s Logan/Wolverine (Jackman retired from playing the character after 2017’s Logan) in a more toned down adventure that, at times, seemed derivative of past (and better) X-Men movies. It’s the far-flung future of 1992 and the X-Men are called to rescue the crew of the space shuttle, which has come under attack from a strange cloud of energy from outer space while in orbit above Earth.

Jean Grey’s (Sophie Turner) already considerable physic powers receive a major boost when she’s exposed to the otherworldly energy. And not only is she more powerful, but she can also see through a lie that Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) had created within her mind as a child in order to “protect” her. This incites Jean to become very cranky, which is not a good fit for a person who’s now armed with the powers of a god. Vuk (Jessica Chastain), the leader of an alien race hiding out on earth, is real eager to meet with Jean, and it’s not to get an autograph.



The reason XMDP takes place in 1992 is because it’s following the timeline set down by the previous three X-Men films: First Class (the 1960s), Days Of Future Past (the 1970s), and Apocalypse (the 1980s). Yet there’s no explanation for why everybody still looks as young as they were twenty or thirty years ago (do mutants age slower?). Jennifer Lawrence, who reportedly was initially reluctant to do this flick, phones in her performance as Mystique--and even her mutant make up looks like it really didn’t want to be here. And the movie itself feels very half-hearted at times, as if it’s just tediously going through the motions by treading over familiar story beats that were better played in other superhero movies.



However, having said that, I still enjoyed it. While it’s not in the same league as the better X-Men films, XMDP still manages to be an entertaining superhero romp with some good performances, such as the wonderfully creepy vibe that Jessica Chastain gives as the unearthly Vuk, and the endearingly sympathetic performance from Sophie Turner as Jean. The toned-down story line of XMDP is also a welcome change of pace from the universe-threatening, cast-of-thousands climaxes of some recent overwrought superhero films (such as Avengers: Endgame). As a result of this, XMDP has a leaner, more focused story. Yes, XMDP has its problems, but I think it’s still far from being the worst of the series--for me, that “achievement” goes to X-Men: Last Stand, which badly bungled the Dark Phoenix story line the first time out.


This film was originally meant to be the start of a new trilogy featuring the younger cast of X-Men, but thanks to re-shoots, the ending has been changed to reflect the end of an era. It’s also pretty obvious that Disney gobbling up Twentieth Century Fox (the studio that originally made XMDP) played a big part in bringing a close to this almost twenty year old cinematic saga. But I take no comfort in knowing that the X-Men are now in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After watching with disgust how Marvel turned the spectacular Spider-Man into nothing more than Iron Man Jr. in their films, I find myself dreading what will happen to the distinctive X-Men once they’re placed on the assembly line of the Merry Marvel movie factory. --SF











Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Explorer From Another World

It’s Friday night during the summer in Beutter county, an idyllic farming community in Indiana, and the good folks are settling in for what should be another humdinger of an evening. Until their plans are shattered by the arrival of an Explorer From Another World! This turns out to be an alien (Gemma Sterling) who starts savagely killing people from the moment it disembarks from its flying saucer. Local kids Eddie (Colin McCorquodale), Marybeth (Sage Marchand) and Culpepper (Nolan Gay) are planning on seeing a movie, but it looks like they’ll be battling for the very survival of the human race instead! Explorer From Another World is a wonderfully done throwback to the B-movies of the 1950s and 1960s. Ably directed by Woody Edwards (who gives himself a small cameo as Hank in the sheriff’s jail cell), the film is forty five minutes long, but manages to tell its torrid but funny story very effectively in the time allotted. And the short running time tracks when you...
Post a Comment
Read more

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice -- a review

Despite coming out thirty six years after the first film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice , once again directed by Tim Burton, wound up being vastly entertaining, adding lots of pleasant surprises, like the use of stop-motion animation. The sequel takes place within the same real-life time frame, with Lydia Deetz, played with wry humor by Winona Ryder, now the host of a ghost hunting show. She’s also the mother of Astrid, a teenager played by Jenna Ortega. They live with Delia Deetz (the always great Catherine O'Hara), Lydia’s step-mother and Astrid’s step-grandmother. After the death of Charles--Delia’s husband and Lydia’s father--during a bird-watching accident involving sharks, the Deetz ladies must go back up to the creepy house in Winter River, Connecticut for his funeral. This is the same place where Lydia first encountered Beetlejuice all those years ago, and she is understandably reluctant to even mention his name, lest she accidentally calls forth Beet...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Top Five of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is returning (finally!) on the 17th of July with an all-new third season. To celebrate the return what has become my favorite of the new Star Trek shows on Paramount+, I decided to create a list of my top five episodes from the first two seasons. Memento Mori After several episodes of hinting at their presence, Memento Mori is the first big confrontation between the Federation and the Gorn. First introduced in the TOS episode Arena , with a memorable fight between Captain Kirk and a slow moving, green-skinned humanoid lizard, the Gorn have popped up in the episode The Time Trap of ST: The Animated Series , and in the In A Mirror, Darkly Part Two episode of ST: Enterprise (using really bad CGI that wasn’t much of an improvement over the Gorn suit used in Arena ). We never actually see the Gorn in Memento Mori , except for their ships, which look like angry claws ripping their way through space. This is a wise move, because not showing the...
Post a Comment
Read more