'Dark Phoenix' Review

I was very excited walking into this movie. I’m a huge fan of the X-Men movies, both the good and the bad. I love the heroes and their powers; I love the social commentary the movies invite. Even the worst movies, The Last Stand and Apocalypse, have some nice action scenes, and of course the classic Charles vs. Erik frenemy dynamic. Also, I’ll put my spoiler warning here, there are a few bits in here where I discuss the ending and what not.

Dark Phoenix is the last film before the MCU and Disney bought the X-Men franchise back. The critics have had their say, and it hasn’t been too pretty. What I’ve also seen is positive feedback from fans. It’s split as to how people feel about this movie, and I know I fall in line with many of the fans. I really liked this movie. I thought the effects looked great, the acting was good for what the actors were given, and I was entertained, and engaged throughout the whole thing.

Dark Phoenix follows Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) coming to terms with a new power being thrust upon her when a mission goes wrong. The power takes over, and makes her lose control, hurting the people she loves, and splintering the X-Men as well. Throw in some aliens trying to take the power from Jean to destroy the world, and you’ve got some interesting conflict.

As I mentioned before, Disney bought the X-Men recently. As the buyout was during the making of this film, there is some drama that needs to be unpacked. We’ve learned that the aliens in Dark Phoenix were actually Skrulls, the same that were in Captain Marvel. The plots therefore were going to be a bit similar. With the MCU and Disney in control, Dark Phoenix was the one that had to do re-shoots and make changes. It was originally going to be a two part movie, and so this one wasn’t supposed to have a neat ending. The changes are easy to see. The tied-up ending seemed rushed. The aliens weren’t well explained. Those were my main problems with this movie. The rushed pacing and alien plot weren’t quite my thing. I wish I could see the version of this movie without the re-shoots. It probably would’ve been even better.

Putting all those problems aside, I had a lot of fun with this movie. Sophie Turner did a pretty good job for her first big starring role after Game of Thrones. I believed Jean was really suffering, and I just wanted her to get control of herself. As always, I was also a huge fan of Michael Fassbender’s Magneto. He has certain mannerisms that he brings to the character that makes it so iconic. The way he portrays using his powers is one of the most believable parts of the movie. Between Ian McKellan and Fassbender, Magneto has had great onscreen appearances.

I said earlier that the effects looked really good, and I stand by that. Jean’s powers seemed tangible and powerful. Storm’s lightning was awesome. I almost wish I’d seen this in IMAX.

To be honest, the best part of this film was the score. I had a feeling it would be great when I saw Hans Zimmer was the man in charge. Zimmer did the music for so many fantastic movies, including the Dark Knight trilogy. You can tell the music for this movie is elevated. It’s similar to those Dark Knight notes; there’s the sound of despair and danger, but also moments of hope. The soundtrack makes every scene feel important, and it engrosses you in the emotional connections between the characters. I haven’t been able to stop listening to it since I’ve seen the movie.

To discuss the actual meat of the movie, it wasn’t perfect, but it gave me everything I wanted from an X-Men movie. There are always new mutants, so there’s excitement to see their powers, and how they react with the mutants we already know. It’s also nice to see a lot of the things we’ve come to love from X-Men movies. There weren’t many Charles and Erik moments, but of course they were there at times. The ending especially was a treat. It wouldn’t be an X-Men movie without Charles and Erik playing chess, would it? I'm sure all the Cherik fans (myself included) were happy with it. It’s also nice to see Scott and Storm teaming up like their older versions in the original trilogy, as well as the Scott and Jean relationship. I wish it ended happily for them. Jean’s end was tragic for me, and that also comes down to the fact that this movie was supposed to be split in two. The Dark Phoenix saga is one of the most iconic in X-Men history. I wanted it to get more focus. Instead, we’ll probably get a totally new cast in a few years for the MCU.

Overall, I had a good time in the theater watching Dark Phoenix. It’s a standard superhero movie with lots of fun action, some emotional investment, and without too many complications. You can sort of turn your brain off and watch it. If you like superhero movies, I would definitely recommend at least checking this out, if not in theaters, then when it comes out for streaming and DVD. I’m sad to see my X-Men go, but I guess I’ll just wait to see what happens next with these characters.