David Pierdomenico
Honestly, Dark Phoenix has been left in a rather precarious position through no fault of its own. Its performance at the box office could be blamed on the fact that fans saw it as pointless, now with the Disney/Fox deal having gone through. But it could also be the fact that Apocalypse really wasn’t very good and didn’t deserve a follow up. Many have leapt on the band wagon to bash Dark Phoenix for its mere existence. And while this is incredibly unfair, it also doesn’t absolve the film’s many inherent issues. So let’s a take a closer look at Dark Phoenix!
New Story, New Decade
The film follows its predecessors by jumping ahead nearly 10 years from the last installment. The year is now 1992 and the X-Men are world famous, complete with legions of adoring fans. It seems that the persecution of mutants has mostly dissipated and an unofficial truce exists between them and humans. As a disaster in space unfolds, the X-Men are sent on a mission to rescue the astronauts, and while up there, Jean Grey absorbs the energy of a solar flare, which changes her dramatically.
Upon returning home, Jean feels an immense power emerging from within that she struggles to control. This power begins to bring up emotions which Xavier buried deep when she was a just a child. All the while, a race of aliens lands on Earth, determined to help Jean realize her power and use to restore their homeworld. Jean is conflicted both inside and out, as Xavier tries to help her contain the power, while the aliens attempt to utilize her power, and Magneto has an agenda all his own.
Faithful to the Comics
Compared to The Last Stand, Dark Phoenix certainly does a better job of adapting the comic book source material. When the story was adapted originally, way back in 2006, including the D’Bari alien race probably seemed too farfetched at the time. This was long before films like Thor or Guardians of the Galaxy to bridge the gap between Earth-based superheroes and the cosmic realm. And while it is refreshing to see this extra-terrestrial element represent here, it doesn’t quite fit, given the history of this series.
Up until now, we have never seen the likes of aliens in Fox’s X-Men franchise. And here, they’re just casually thrown in, and treated as almost an afterthought. We barely learn anything about them, and the closest thing we get to characterization is Jessica Chastain’s odd performance, which is reminiscent of Eddie Redmayne’s in Jupiter Ascending. It’s as if the studio knew fans were already well acquainted with the cosmic realm from the MCU, but forgot to put in the same effort here.
Underwhelming Finale
The mediocre handling of the D’Bari is but a mere symptom of Dark Phoenix’s larger problem: it has brilliant ideas, but never fully realizes or executes any of them very well. When the X-Men return from their mission in space, we see a host of fans with signs, and even action figures of them. The idea of them being celebrities is a fascinating one, but we never really get any more out of it, just that one brief scene.
The same goes for Magneto’s mutant sanctuary, Xavier’s new egotistical nature, Mystique’s new role as a mentor and teacher at the school, the origin and characterization of the D’Bari, as well as the humans turning on mutants again after Jean Grey’s actions as Phoenix. All of these subplots are worthy of more development, but absolutely none of them get it.
It really is a shame that this film will forever be known as the finale to Fox’s franchise, as it has seen much better days. Films like Days of Future Past or Logan would have served as much better endings, because both of those gave us emotional payoffs to characters we had come to know and love for almost 20 years! But, instead, Dark Phoenix must serve as our finale.
Overall, it’s not by any means the worst X-Men film. It still boasts some pretty fun and tense action scenes (particularly the ending). But it’s also a far cry from the glory days of the franchise. It’s only a matter of time before Marvel reboots this franchise into the next chapter of the MCU. And perhaps that’s all for the best. Fox has demonstrated that it no longer understands this franchise, and allowing it to finally come home to Marvel will hopefully be a glorious occasion!
