Stubs - Dark Phoenix

 

Dark Phoenix (aka X-Men: Dark Phoenix) (2019) starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Jessica Chastain Directed by Simon Kinberg Screenplay by Simon Kinberg Based on X-Men by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby;  "The Dark Phoenix Saga" by Chris Claremont, John Byrne. Produced by Simon Kinberg, Hutch Parker, Lauren Shuler Donner, Todd Hallowell Run time: 114 minutes. Color. USA Superheroes, Fantasy

What is the worst thing a Superhero film can be? It’s a question that Dark Phoenix succeeds in answering: boring.

A sequel to X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Dark Phoenix manages to build on that film’s failures, actually making that film look better by comparison.

This is the second time this franchise decided to tell the Dark Phoenix story based on an extended X-Men comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne, the storyline first appeared in X-Men #129 (January 1980); one of the most well-known and heavily referenced stories in mainstream American superhero comics. In the previous telling, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Jean Grey is played by Famke Janssen.

Following the release and disappointing returns on Apocalypse, Fox was said to be pressing "the reset button" on the franchise. Bryan Singer was not going to be back in the director’s chair, but they kept on screenwriter Simon Kinberg, who decided it was time to again tell the Dark Phoenix story, but reiterating that he would adapt it differently than they had in The Last Stand, if given another opportunity to do so. Kinberg was also tapped to direct, his debut.

Principal photography began on June 28, 2017, in Montreal, Quebec, under the working title Teen Spirit. James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, all returned, as did Evan Peters, an audience favorite as Quicksilver. Olivia Munn was unable to reprise her role due to scheduling conflicts with filming The Predator (2018).

Kinberg said he wanted the film to be "human" and emotional like previous X-Men films, and that he was looking to ground the "Dark Phoenix Saga" story for his adaptation "so it's not too intergalactic.” He later clarified that the film would still include alien characters as in the comic storyline, an element that was ignored for the The Last Stand adaptation, but which he felt was integral to the story.

Filming was completed on October 14, 2017 and the film was in post-production for almost a year, with Fox pushing back its release from November 2, 2018, to February 14, 2019. Even then, the film would not have its premiere until June 4, 2019.

Eight-year-old Jean Grey (Summer Fontana) can't control her powers.

The film opens in 1975. Eight-year-old Jean Grey (Summer Fontana) is in the backseat of her parents’ car and when her mother (Hannah Emily Anderson) crashes the car head-on into a truck, Jean’s telekinetic powers manifest, leaving her and Jean’s father John (Scott Shepherd) both dead. An orphan, Jean is brought by Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) to his School for Gifted Youngsters, promising to teach her to control her mutant abilities.

Rescuing the Space Shuttle.

Flash forward to 1992, during the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s first mission, the shuttle is damaged by solar flare-like energy, and the president calls upon the X-Men to save the astronauts. Charles is only too happy to help and sends a group of X-Men up to form a rescue. Included are Hank McCoy / Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Raven Darkholme / Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Ororo Munroe / Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Scott Summers / Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver (Evan Peters), and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner). While they rescue the crew, Jean is left behind and is struck by the energy. As a result, her psychic powers become amplified, but she is left unconscious. The crew returns to a hero's welcome and Jean recovers.

Hank McCoy / Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Raven Darkholme / Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence),
and Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) probe Jean's brain.

Once she’s back, Xavier reveals to the other X-Men that he suppressed Jean’s memory of causing the car crash as a child to keep the psychological trauma from making her unstable, but her enhanced power is destroying the mental blocks and she is now experiencing PTSD symptoms. This all results in her powers going out of control.

 Vuk (Jessica Chastain) makes contact with Jones (Ato Essandoh).

Meanwhile, Margaret Smith (Jessica Chastain), is hosting a dinner party with her husband. The barking dog leads Margaret to investigate, but Vuk (Jessica Chastain), the alien being, returns in her body and kills everyone at the party. Vuk makes contact with her second in command, Jones (Ato Essandoh), who also works in the FBI. Their plan is to find Jean. They need her powers to save their race and to take over Earth.

Jean has left the school and gone looking for her father, whom she is convinced is alive. Jean travels to her hometown and finds John Grey very much alive, having survived the car crash and forsaken her. She recovers her memory and realizes that her powers, uncontrollable at the time, caused the crash and killed her mother.

The X-Men arrive and, after a skirmish in which Peter Maximoff is injured, Xavier mentally freezes everyone to allow Raven to try to persuade Jean to come home. But, in a violent telekinetic episode, Jean accidentally kills Raven by forcing her back into a pitchfork.

Later, Vuk and Jones arrive and interrogate John Grey for everything he knows about Jean, even, as is alluded to, torturing him for the info.

Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) takes on the U.S. Army on the island of Genosha.

Jean flees to the island of Genosha, a mutant refuge run by Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto (Michael Fassbinder). Jean asks him for help controlling her rage, but before he can, military helicopters arrive, demanding Jean's surrender. Instead, she attacks them and Erik angrily banishes her from Genosha.

Vuk (Jessica Chastain) takes Jean to New York.

Vuk manages to track down Jean and explain to her that the cosmic force Jean absorbed had wiped out the D'Bari planet, consuming everything in its path until it was drawn to Jean. She offers to help Jean learn to use the force safely. Vuk takes her to New York City.

Meanwhile, Hank blames Xavier for Raven’s death and leaves the school and goes to Genosha and meets with Erik. They both loved Raven and both want revenge on Jean for killing her. With his faction of mutants in tow, Hank and Erik head to New York City to kill Jean.

Learning of Erik's plan, Kurt Wagner teleports the X-Men, including Xavier, to New York to save her.

While the two factions battle, Erik confronts Jean and Vuk, but is defeated by Jean’s amplified powers. Xavier convinces Jean to read his memories, helping her former personality resurface. Remorseful, she attempts to let Vuk take the Phoenix Force from her, but Scott Summers stops her when Vuk reveals the D'Baris’ intent to use the force to conquer Earth.

Government troops arrive and manage to subdue both mutant factions, but Vuk escapes.

Freed, the mutants await the arrival of the D'Bari on the train.

The mutants are confined on a train and are in transit when Vuk and her D'Bari forces attack, overpowering the soldiers while the mutants are freed. The mutants get released and Charles and Scott convince Hank, Erik, and his allies that Jean is not beyond help, and they unite to fend off the D'Bari attackers before and after Vuk arrives.

Charles and Jean confer within his mind and she forgives him, saving the mutants from the ensuing train wreck and disintegrating the remaining D'Bari. Vuk again attempts to drain the force from Jean, who flies them into space to unleash all of her power and kill Vuk. Jean is then transformed into a phoenix-shaped being of energy.

Xavier's school is renamed the "Jean Grey School for Gifted Youngsters" and Charles apparently retires as dean and Hank takes his place.

The Phoenix is up there somewhere.

Meanwhile, in Paris, Charles is surprised at a sidewalk café by Erik, who invites him to a game of chess. As the camera pans up, you can see an image of The Phoenix in the sky.

There is a lot that this film leaves out. Four of us watched the film at the same time and none of us remember them actually naming the aliens as D’Bari; I found that on Wikipedia. Nor are the D’Bari really expanded on. Their backstory gets only a sentence or two at best about their planet getting destroyed by the same force that Vuk wants to control to rule the Earth. Does that thought line even make any sense? Obviously, if they could have controlled the force, their planet wouldn’t have been destroyed.

 Pete White from The Venture Bros. and Vuk  (Jessica Chastain)

As with Apocalypse in the film before, the D’Bari are not developed and their sudden appearance on the scene seems to be almost an afterthought to a film that is ostensibly about Jean Grey coming to terms with her past and her destiny. The D’Bari are an alien force that humans cannot deal with as they are, almost stereotypically, immune to being harmed by human weapons. But they’re sort of a one-dimensional character, led by Vuk, whose appearance reminded me of Pete White from The Venture Bros. animated series.

And the film is subtle, something that is not good for a Superhero film. That bit at the end, where we see The Phoenix in the sky, is so subtle that you might have missed the significance of the red shape in the sky when they panned up.

But the biggest problem with the film is that it is boring. Not enough happens to hold the interest of the viewer. That means something is definitely wrong with the execution.

There were some critics that liked the film, but overall, it had a Rotten Tomato rating of only 22%. Reviews at the time were, for the most part, scathing. As an example, Kurt Loder, writing in Reason magazine, wrote, “There are several things wrong with Dark Phoenix. I'm tempted to say everything is wrong with it, except that the picture is largely in focus and the credits appear to be correctly spelled. Other than that, though..."

The acting isn’t necessarily bad, but most this timeline’s actors seem to pale next to the first iteration’s. Sophie Turner and Tye Sheridan play Jean and Scott respectively, but they don’t have the gravitas or chemistry that Famke Janssen and James Marsden had with the same roles. The same can be said for McAvoy as Xavier.

Jennifer Lawrence seems to have professionally outgrown the character of Raven / Mystique, but she still seems to give it her all.

Jessica Chastain, Vuk / Margaret Smith, is usually better than she is here. One must blame the material, but Vuk is not a very interesting villain.

Fan favorite, Evan Peters as Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver, gets short shrift and seems to disappear after the first space rescue mission. Too bad, as he really has a way with the character that others in the cast don’t.

And, of course, the biggest missing piece is Hugh Jackman as Logan / Wolverine. Jackman had nothing to do with the film, which, while good for him, is not for the film. He brings so much to the role that he would have made the film better just by being in it.

The special effects are good, but not enough to make the film worthwhile watching.

Overall, Dark Phoenix is an example of what happens when a franchise goes on for too long. Having to repeat a storyline is a sure sign that the creative well has run dry. When Disney/Marvel reboots the franchise, and you know they will, I hope they do a better job with writing and casting. I’d like to say that we’re finally in a place to move on, but the creatives at Disney/Fox/Marvel weren’t through with X-Men and we still have a spin-off, The New Mutants (2020), to live through. Did anyone ask for more?