Dark Phoenix

While I felt that "X-men: The Last Stand" wasn't as good as its predecessors, it still had its moments. As for "Dark Phoenix", the movie lived up to its name because the show was quite dark. It seems that whenever the Phoenix is the main subject of an X-Men film, it results in a poor entertainment experience. I don't think the show is as bad as others are saying it is but "Dark Phoenix" is defiantly not worth seeing in the theaters because the film wasn't really entertaining and I didn't see a purpose for it to be made. I could identify two mistakes that commonly occur with poorly made comic book films.

Many filmmakers mistakenly look at "The Dark Knight" and believe that the key to making a successful comic book film adaptation is to go with a darker approach. I have seen a lot of movies darker than "The Dark Knight" and it was realism, not darkness, that put that movie in the history books. The filmmakers working on "Dark Phoenix" saw the success of "Deadpool" & "Logan" and felt that a Phoenix storyline might work if the movie was more serious than previous installments in the X-men franchise. There might have been an attempt to differentiate this franchise from the Marvel Cinematic Universe but whatever the reason, going dark was not the answer. Another common mistake that comic book movies make has to do with the fact that the original comic books have a large following. Angering your base by departing from the source material is hardly ever a good thing. I felt that there were a few alterations from the comics, which ruined the experience even more. Professor X is supposed to be a hero. It is true that heroes make mistakes but "Dark Phoenix" takes his actions in the past with Jean and portrays them in a very negative light. Xavier comes across as a fallen hero and I can't say that inspires me or entertains me. If anything, it pains my soul. Another departure from the source material has to do with the ending. Compare if you will the ending of "Dark Phoenix" with the ending of "Days of Future Past". One film has all the X-men end up together at the school while the other has Professor X seemingly kicked out of his own school. Which one is the happier ending? There were also a few activist shout outs in "Dark Phoenix", which were a distraction because we go to the movies to escape from the world and not to be reminded of its problems. If you're going to teach a message, subtle themes are more effective because if you work hard to discover them, they are more potent. The audience can also subconsciously take in subtle messages to great effect while they are being entertained. Speaking of being entertained, there was only one time I laughed while watching "Dark Phoenix" and that wasn't because the funny moments were falling flat. The film lacked any humor to ease the tension or to contrast the drama. The film could have felt even more dramatic if the dramatic scenes were played against some entertaining scenes. I had a feeling after seeing "X-men: Apocalypse" that the next film in the franchise was going to be set in the 90's. "Dark Phoenix" however had no nostalgia for us to enjoy. It is true that there is a danger of showing too much nostalgia, as was the case with "Bumblebee", but we needed something lighthearted in this X-men film as mentioned. Just like Scott and Professor X die too early in "The Last Stand", we get a death much too early in "Dark Phoenix". It seems that Fox and the other filmmakers learned nothing from the shortcomings of "The Last Stand". It was interesting to see the X-men as public heroes. They have a direct line to the president and are publically thanked for their heroics. I don't know if this aspect of the film is faithful to the comics but even if it wasn't, I don't mind it. What I did mind was the mutants versus aliens conflict. Even though the D'Bari are from the comics, this didn't work for me in terms of entertainment. Aliens have never been in an X-men film so this was too much of a change for me.

If I had to pick one positive aspect of "Dark Phoenix", it was the acting. I saw some great performances from Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult and Sophie Turner. I always like to pick a favourite new X-men with every installment but there was a serious lack of new mutants to choose from. As a side note, the entire final third of the film was reshot after poor results from screenings. I don't think there was much to save anyways. Director Simon Kinberg's first X-Men film ironically was "The Last Stand", a film that he helped to write. While Kinberg has been involved in other hit movies, both inside and outside the X-men franchise since then, he also helped to write the "Fantastic Four" flop released in 2015. I was surprised to see Hans Zimmer as the composer. He said he would not compose for another superhero movie after "Batman v Superman" but I guess he changed his mind. In conclusion, "Dark Phoenix" for me wasn't horrible but it had obvious flaws that can't be ignored. There were problems with honoring the source material and looking to other comic book films for inspiration instead of doing what was best for this particular franchise. The darkness of this movie did not work. It is sad that the Fox X-men film series ends on such a low note. However, Disney now owns Fox and so all the world is looking forward to a new incarnation of the X-men in the MCU.

3 Stars out of 5