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The X-Men make their last stand in an ill-fated adaptation that never quite decides what it wants to be when it grows up.
All credit where it’s due: long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe imprisoned Tony Stark in a cave, Lauren Shuler Donner and Fox were building their own world based on Marvel Comics. Even more than that, when X-Men dropped in 2000 it also began the era of the modern superhero film. So after 19 years, DARK PHOENIX ends the saga not so much with a bang but a shrug.
Following the events of X-Men: Apocalypse, the X-Men have achieved some modicum of fame and public trust. Professor X (James McAvoy) even has a bat phone to the President. On a mission in space, the team barely escapes with their lives before Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) is imbued with a cosmic force that unlocks her psychic abilities. Powerful and afraid, it’s a race between a mysterious alien (Jessica Chastain) and her friends to stop Jean before she does more harm than good.
Set in 1992, long time fans will undoubtedly connect the film and its lineup with the X-Men animated series that started that year. Yet where that series was an almost slavish adaptation of the source material – which included a version of Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s comic arc – writer/director Simon Kinberg (in his directorial debut) crafts his finale around a disintegrating family.
This is where it is strongest. In her handful of scenes, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) questions the ethics of Xavier’s mission and is violently proven correct. As Magneto (Michael Fassbender) has moved on with a hippie mutant commune, it seems that the future they were fighting for has arrived.
Yet Kinberg, who also wrote the last attempt to bring this story to life in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), isn’t batting his A-game. The entire arc featuring Chastain plays out like a sub-plot, adding an extra villain for some reason – because apparently a limitless cosmic power wasn’t threat enough for the X-Men. It all culminates in a fight sequence that feel less like a finale than it does a second act dust-up.
Very few of the “First Class” are left at this stage in the game, and those that are left are wasted. Turner, having just come of the final season of Game of Thrones, is sometimes a commanding figure but is consistently portrayed as a victim by Kinberg’s script. Tye Sheridan is a presence so beige that you may forget he’s in the movie, even when he’s on screen. Even the dude with mutant dreadlocks gets more memorable moments than Quicksilver (Evan Peters), who is promptly forgotten after a brief intro.
Mired by endless delays, rewrites, and reshoots, the lacklustre finale was plagued by production woes. So, it’s no surprise that much of DARK PHOENIX feels like several films stitched together. With the franchise now in the hands of Disney and the MCU, the future remains unclear. Yet regardless of the less than impressive outing, it’s still worth remembering that the X-Men were responsible for some of the best superhero cinema, and will be again.
2019 | US | DIR: Simon Kinberg | WRITER: Simon Kinberg | CAST: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Shipp | DISTRIBUTOR: 20th Century Fox (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 114 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 5 June 2019 (AUS)
