Movie Review: Dark Phoenix

chekohler (70)in #movie • 6 years ago

Hey my fellow Jess Men

I recently and begrudgingly checked out the 4th instalment of the X-men films simply because I'd watched well all of the previous 10 films in the franchise to date. Dark Phoenix is the 4th instalment in the rebooted series and attempts to capture one of the comic books most epic story arcs.

X-men 3: The Last Stand of the previous franchise also attempted to end with the Dark Phoenix and if you don't already know it didn't go down too well, basically bombing the franchise and having it lay dormant for a while until they could reboot it again.

So 13 years later, we're seeing a second attempt at the story and let's see how it tastes the second time around.

What is Dark Phoenix about?

This is the story of one of the X-Men’s most beloved characters, Jean Grey, as she evolves into the iconic DARK PHOENIX. During a life-threatening rescue mission in space, Jean is hit by a cosmic force that transforms her into one of the most powerful mutants of all.

Wrestling with this increasingly unstable power as well as her own personal demons, Jean spirals out of control, tearing the X-Men family apart and threatening to destroy the very fabric of our planet. The film is the most intense and emotional X-Men movie ever made.

It is the culmination of 20 years of X-Men movies, as the family of mutants that we’ve come to know and love must face their most devastating enemy yet -- one of their own.

Poster for Dark Phoenix - Image Source - vitalthrills.com

What I thought of Dark Phoenix

First, let me start off with the fact that I love the X-men, Wolverine is one of my all-time favourite characters along with Gambit, so I'm always hoping they do justice to the content but this was just another cardboard cut out.

A childishly predictable plot that revolves around one mutant with near-infinite powers struggles to control it and come to terms with her abilities.

"This is not Jean, Jean is still inside her!" is the amount of depth you can expect from cardboard dialogue that is there just to explain the unfolding action, half-dimensionally as if the audience was completely incapable of understanding the 'subtle complexity'.

For a movie about someone who could shape the entire reality with her mind, this movie lacked so much imagination.

Acting

Sophie Turner seems like a nice person but her acting skills are severely limited and it was evident in this movie as she takes the lead role. Shes particularly flat and she struggles to deliver her lines with any real meaning or gravity.

She just doesn't have the ability to showcase the internal struggles of the phoenix. We see the rest of the cast well sort of go through the motions and not really put anything extra into their roles, not that the script allowed for much of the support characters.

James McAvoy as Charles Xavier using Cerebro to find this movie an actual plot - Image source: slashfilm.com

Pacing

This movie is so painfully slow and it really never gets going, by the time you reach the final battle its all not worth the effort and its a confusing mess as to why they're all even fighting for forming alliances in the first place.

Gender politics

The X-men has traditionally always been about a race war, humans vs mutants and their ability to get along peacefully. But with the current political climate on gender politics, they thought the audience would gobble that up too, but it makes no sense. Surely if you're a mutant that would be your bigger worry than if female mutants get a raw deal over male mutants in the mutant community.

I also think it's well established that Charles is the leader of the X-men so how is he mansplaining or being a misogynist for well, giving orders, he created the X-men for goodness sake. I'm sure Jeniffer Lawrence believes it though, the way she enthusiastically delivered the line about "We should be called X-women"

Character development and introduction

There is none, we don't learn a single thing new about any of the characters we've seen over 4 movies now and even the new villain who should be fleshed out as to why she's a threat and her abilities doesn;t get much screen time nor a real meaty backstory for us to care about her motivations.

Jessica Chastain isn't given much to work with as Vuk which is a shame, shes a brilliant actress who could have surely brought this villain to life.

Trailer for Dark Phoenix

My rating for Dark Phoenix

I would have to say that this is by far the worst X-men movie I have ever seen. Many of the actors seem to show they are tired of playing these characters in a franchise that was always simmering but never really reached a boiling point.

This movie doesn't even seem to fit in with the universe they built and feels like a separate entity that was crudely latched on for some reason. The truth is, there is no story here, nothing worth seeing and if they never made this movie no one would miss it.

Apart from some of the action and CGI there really is nothing you could possibly enjoy. I laboured through it primarily to give my honest review.

I would have to give this movie 3 Mutants out of 10

Have your say

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6 years ago in #movie by chekohler (70)

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pifc (66) 6 years ago

Well that sucks. Hadn't had time to see this one in the theaters, but wanted too. XMen is by far the single franchise with the most potential for the big screen that hasn't been tapped properly. Sure they haven't done Fantastic 4 any justice either...but there just isn't the multitudes of story lines or characters to dive into for them as you have for XMen.

I kind of assumed they would do a crap job on this as they have with other xmen movies...but had held out some hope. Plan to watch it anyways, but really hope one day they figure out how to make some good xmen movies.

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chekohler (70) 6 years ago

!ENGAGE 20

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chekohler (70) 6 years ago

I agree X-men has so many great characters to explore and flesh out yet they keep rehashing the ones we know and not even doing a good job about it. Like why not take a smaller IP lets say Alpha Flight the canadian version of the X-men and run with that. Since few people know about it they can take a lot more risks and build a great story and then slowly introduce the bigger characters

I mean it worked for Marvel, they started with Iron-man, or well Blade but Iron-man kicked off the MCU and he isn't really the biggest character but this new franchise turned him into one

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misterengagement (55) 6 years ago

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1 vote

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j85063 (67) 6 years ago

Another let down.

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chekohler (70) 6 years ago

Absolutely, lol I don't even know why I bother watching movies anymore they're all just cardboard cutouts and money grabs these days

!ENGAGE 10

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mistakili (69) 6 years ago

Hello @chekohler, this is a really nice and elaborate review, I've seen the movie and I also thought it was a waste lol, I mean what is the point of having all the power in the world and still die in the end. The power was more of a curse for her than a blessing.

Thanks for using the Realityhubs tag. We loom forward to your next review.

Realityhubs Mod

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chekohler (70) 6 years ago

Exactly like if you’re dealing with this type of power surely more people would be affected, more would be on the line, that there would be desperate measures that needed to be taken!

It was so predictable and unimaginative and really disappointing

!ENGAGE 20

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cmplxty (62) 6 years ago

Sounds like a ridiculous movie for sure. They were talking about it on the radio the other day, that movies are pretty much trash nowadays. It’s all given away in the trailers and there’s no more actual good movies. All of the ‘top movies’ are action, highly animated CGI films. Actors are probably pumped they don’t really have to do any ‘acting’ like they did in the pre-2000’s lol

Interesting to see the GoT star in the movie, sounds like a flop though.

I just recently watched Ted 2 and Daddy’s Home 2, so that’s how far back my movie watching is delayed lol

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chekohler (70) 6 years ago

LOL that’s so spot on it’s sad, these movies are like a lego set you just slap the pieces together and the audience eats it up

I would say take your time it will give you the opportunity to find movies worth checking out which are few and far between

!BEER 1

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steem-plus (73) 6 years ago

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anggreklesta.rhb (39) 6 years ago

I felt like wasting my money when I saw this film at the cinema. Lots of things are not resolved properly in the plot.

Thanks for sharing your review, @chekohler

Regards,
@anggreklestari
[Realityhubs Curator]

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chekohler (70) 6 years ago

Lol I'm so glad I didn't go check it out in the cinema even though this is one of those movies I would normally pay to see. So much left unresolved which is silly since its the last movie in the franchise, you're supposed to be wrapping things up

Lol are they making these movies to easy to criticise nowadays? seems like lazy writing and rushed to the box office to meet a deadline and contractual obligations to me

!ENGAGE 10

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mimismartypants (61) 6 years ago

The best version of xmen was the animated cartoon series created in the 90s. I watched it again as an adult and it was still pretty good. Jean grey was always portrayed in a bit of a "meh" manner in all these movies. So not a surprise that this screenplay lacked depth. As with all xmen movies, I won't rush to see it.

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chekohler (70) 6 years ago

I would have to 1000% agree with you the animated series to me is still the definitive on-screen X-men and everything else was meh apart from Logan

!COFFEEA 1

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mimismartypants (61) 6 years ago

Logan was pretty savage though. Like on par with Rambo 4. No talking just going for the kill

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chekohler (70) 6 years ago

Lol point taken, it was not one for the kiddies, but I still really enjoyed the movie, was something different

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mimismartypants (61) 6 years ago

lol it was cool. now I can't for the life of me remember it well. I just recall a savage girl growling and wanting rip things apart. potentially a good candidate for anger management. I need to rewatch.

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fredkese (69) 6 years ago

I've not watched the Dark Phoenix but I think I've watched the others. Great movie review and makes me want to watch it now.

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chekohler (70) 6 years ago

Lol thanks and well you have been warned! If you do watch it though let me know what you thought of the movie

I’d much rather rewatch the previous 3 in this set of movies though

!ENGAGE 10

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fredkese (69) 6 years ago

Alright

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Movie Review: Dark Phoenix steemCreated with Sketch.

What is Dark Phoenix about?

What I thought of Dark Phoenix

Acting

Pacing

Gender politics

Character development and introduction

My rating for Dark Phoenix

Have your say

Let's connect

More movie reviews by me

Hi @chekohler!

Evaluation of your UA score:

Movie Review: Dark Phoenix