Wouldn't it have made more sense...

[bosef982]

...to make the Phoenix another mutant?

I mean, the more I've watched X3 the more I've come to be irked by it not only on the technical, filmmaking levels, but also just on its overall lack of creativity or effort to tell a compelling, well-paced story. I think something everyone agrees on is the diservice payed to Phoenix.

Honestly, instead of the Phoenix Force being some cosmic entity, it would've been interesting and a tad more thematically compelling if the Phoenix was simply another mutant, incorporeal, that Xavier and Magneto were aware had existed for many, many decades...perhaps the very first mutant even, or so they suspect.

Jean was discovered by Xavier at a institution, where her powers were driving her insane and out of control. To keep Xavier from being a total unethical jerk, Xavier -- to help heal Jean's mind -- helps Jean control and restrain her limitless potential. This is a decision they both came to, not fully understanding its consequences. During thesesesions when Jean was a child, Xavier discovered -- and kept from Jean -- that the Phoenix host had been attracted to her because of her enormous sense of power and potential and bonded with her, stunting her ability to control her power. Xavier's therapy sessions with Jean -- done with Jean's consent so she could have a normal life -- also helped Xavier cage the Phoenix force, which he feared as a primal, unstoppable force that would seek to exterminate and cleanse any genetic inferiority. Thus, the Phoenix is still a "cleansing" force.

With the events of Alkali Lake and the Dark Cerebro Effect, the Phoenix began re-asserting herself over Jean until we get Dark Phoenix.

 

[X-Maniac]

That's an interesting idea, but I think the idea of an incorporeal mutant is just as non-viable for the movieverse as a cosmic force. Too 'out there.'

I think the more straightforward ideas were better. Some wanted it to be that Jean's own power simply expanded/evolved until she couldn't control it...but that begs the question of why only she had an expanding power, of why only she was affected by Magneto's machine.

The idea they used - of a second, suppressed personality created by Xavier blocking off a large part of her powers - was good, in my view. It also gave dimension - and a twist - to Xavier.

The portrayal of Phoenix suffered largely because of Fox's interference. The writers said they lost battles over what happened in the latter half of the movie. As a result we got very little development of the Phoenix in the later part of the film. I've heard people say they liked Jean's silent, unpredictable majesty and her surveying the lesser mortals at Alcatraz, but this is probably not a majority verdict.

If they were going to leave her standing around on Alcatraz, because Fox demanded it, they should have made more of it and turned it into a virtue - for instance, showing the battle from her viewpoint for a moment, then we see her turn to one side as though beginning to weep, we could even have had some overlaid audible thoughts (like those in the museum in X2) to show mental turmoil.

In short, I think the concept (of what the Phoenix was) was great, the development of the character just hit a brick wall after she joins Magneto.

 

[X-Maniac]

Just wanted to add that there's nothing 'wrong' with your idea, and i'm not criticising it as such except to say i'm unsure of how the X-Men audience would accept a disembodied mutant entity. I just think the Phoenix problems in X3 are in the execution rather than concept.

 

[Phoenix_Flare]

I really like your idea its kind of like the "First Evil" from Buffy TVS...it's not corporeal,male or female,a thing, but a POWER...look how it corrupted Caleb into killing and he's a preacher!!!

I think of one of the themes in X3 was power and how it corrupts (TLS just executed the idea wrong)...I mean they did make the 1st Evil seem real enough in the Buffyverse, so I think your would've worked in the Mutant-verse...I mean all this is non-fiction anyway, so...KUDOS...you should write a fan-fic

 

[britrogue]

The thing that pisses me off most about X3's Phoenix is the lack of continuity from X2. The whole firebird effect was completely gone, rendering it pointless in X2.

 

[javphonic]

I always felt they should've tied Jean using Cerebro to the emrgence of the Phoenix... such as if they said, when she used cerebro the strain she suffered weakened her mental blocks the professor had installed, and as a result throughout X2 the Phoenix was slowly making it's way out

 

[the a1ant]

I like that explanation better than Magneto's machine.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Your idea is good Bosef, and i wouldnt have minded it, but the idea they had for the movie would have been fine if they didnt give it like ONE scene to show itself.

IMO in the final battle, it would have shown Jean's conflict perfectly by showing her attempting to walk away from the battle, only for The Pheonix to telepathically drag her back and hold her there watching it.

It would have shown the conflict between Jean and The Pheonix MUCH better than the poor attempt we got IMO.