Dark Phoenix X-Men: Dark Phoenix News and Speculation Thread - - - - - - Part 15

[HammerDown]

Another review, this time from a RT approved critic.

Spoiler

X-Men: Dark Phoenix
(12A) ★★✩✩✩
AS THE final instalment of the mutant superhero franchise ahead of its Disney/Marvel reboot, this X-Men outing feels more like an afterthought than a climax. In fact, looking at the posters you could easily mistake it for Captain Marvel 2.

But it’s not Brie Larson aglow on those bus-stop billboards, hair flowing like she’s just flown out of a galactic salon, it’s Game Of Thrones star Sophie ‘Sansa’ Turner. Her character, Jean Grey (later — or, rather, previously — played by Famke Janssen) is the focal point here, which is a shame as she seldom seems like the most interesting person on screen. As far as the plot goes, X-Men goodies led by Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) and Beast (Nicholas Hoult) zoom into space to investigate a mysterious pink fiery thing that invades the body of Jean, causing her to become mega powerful and potentially ‘the greatest force in the galaxy’, according to Jessica Chastain’s sleek blonde, stiletto-clad supervillain (you never get supervillains wearing nice comfy Birkenstocks, do you?)

As Jean grapples to master the dark forces within her like some flame-grilled Elsa from Frozen, the X-Men are riven by internal rifts. And humans still don’t trust mutants, obvs. ‘The women are always saving the men around here — you might want to change the name to X-Women,’ suggests J-Law to Professor X (James McAvoy, below, brilliant as ever) — which gets one of the movie’s few laughs. But if Dark Phoenix was intended as a feminist statement, it plays out more like a male fear at women seizing power and wreaking havoc.

Speaking of which, the well-choreographed action sequences are almost too diverting, as if writer/producer turned director Simon Kinberg is frantically channel-hopping between the over-assortment of characters.

Shot in 2017, with a delayed release due to bad test screenings and reshoots, Dark Phoenix is on course to be the lowest US box-office opening of the series to date. It’s not as much of a disaster zone as that sounds. Solid enough superhero filler, as X-Men movies go, this is not First Class but it’s no Apocalypse either.

The verdict
A missable culmination to the 20-year X-Men franchise thus far.

 

[X-Maniac]

But can they get two actors with the same level of sexual tension as Macavoy and Fassbender have?

LOL... WTF... I don't think sexual tension between Xavier and Magneto is a requirement for those characters on screen. I'd rather see some other characters get some sexual tension.

I also think it's silly to imagine McAvoy and Fassbender could be transferred over to the MCU. The X-Men need a total rebuild to escape from the bad (or worn-out) tropes of this franchise (poor continuity, poor emphasis on diversity, classic characters turned into non-speaking non-entities, duplicate characters, deaths done just for dramatic effect, poor make-up/costume, dodgy flying/wirework). Its just going round in circles and Dark Phoenix is yet more evidence of this treading on the same ground, in some sort of loop of looniness.

At least now Fox has exhausted Mystique, Wolverine, Xavier and Magneto, so it gives a justifiable reason for Disney/Marvel to shift the focus. I would eventually want to see Magneto, Xavier and Wolverine again in the MCU, but would be perfectly happy with never setting eyes on Mystique ever again - that's how much Fox and JLaw have destroyed the character IMO.

Dark Phoenix sounds like it may be technically competent - though I'm not convinced by the wirework when Magneto rises up to speak to Jean inside the house, or when Storm rises up from the train. And the Mystique/Xavier confrontation over putting the team at risk was like a bad scene from a TV soap, so I'm not expecting clever dialogue. It seems eerily ironic that the film concludes with a trainwreck, lol... but I'm hoping thee's some enjoyable moments.

 

[psylockolussus]

Page who? I was disappointed by the quick death of Cyclops and some of the fights on first viewing, but got over that later.
I can't stay disappointed at the death of a Cyclops I couldn't care much about.

Page. Ellen Page.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Page. Ellen Page.

I can't believe I forgot her, and there was that one time I dreamed she was my sister.

 

[I Am The Knight]

Another review, this time from a RT approved critic.

Spoiler

X-Men: Dark Phoenix
(12A) ★★✩✩✩
AS THE final instalment of the mutant superhero franchise ahead of its Disney/Marvel reboot, this X-Men outing feels more like an afterthought than a climax. In fact, looking at the posters you could easily mistake it for Captain Marvel 2.

But it’s not Brie Larson aglow on those bus-stop billboards, hair flowing like she’s just flown out of a galactic salon, it’s Game Of Thrones star Sophie ‘Sansa’ Turner. Her character, Jean Grey (later — or, rather, previously — played by Famke Janssen) is the focal point here, which is a shame as she seldom seems like the most interesting person on screen. As far as the plot goes, X-Men goodies led by Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) and Beast (Nicholas Hoult) zoom into space to investigate a mysterious pink fiery thing that invades the body of Jean, causing her to become mega powerful and potentially ‘the greatest force in the galaxy’, according to Jessica Chastain’s sleek blonde, stiletto-clad supervillain (you never get supervillains wearing nice comfy Birkenstocks, do you?)

As Jean grapples to master the dark forces within her like some flame-grilled Elsa from Frozen, the X-Men are riven by internal rifts. And humans still don’t trust mutants, obvs. ‘The women are always saving the men around here — you might want to change the name to X-Women,’ suggests J-Law to Professor X (James McAvoy, below, brilliant as ever) — which gets one of the movie’s few laughs. But if Dark Phoenix was intended as a feminist statement, it plays out more like a male fear at women seizing power and wreaking havoc.

Speaking of which, the well-choreographed action sequences are almost too diverting, as if writer/producer turned director Simon Kinberg is frantically channel-hopping between the over-assortment of characters.

Shot in 2017, with a delayed release due to bad test screenings and reshoots, Dark Phoenix is on course to be the lowest US box-office opening of the series to date. It’s not as much of a disaster zone as that sounds. Solid enough superhero filler, as X-Men movies go, this is not First Class but it’s no Apocalypse either.

The verdict
A missable culmination to the 20-year X-Men franchise thus far.

Rough.

 

[psylockolussus]

I think all X-Men fans want this to be a good movie.

We've been burned before, so the negativity comes from that but ultimately we want this franchise to end on a high note quality wise.

For me, its just hard to eXpect something great from Kinberg. X3, Fant4stic, Apocalypse... if this under a different studio, he wouldn't get the job to write another Marvel adaptation, let alone direct it.

Anyway, I was watching dvds that were sitting in my room for weeks. Underworld Blood Wars and Resident Evil The Final Chapter. The former bored me, while the second one, is an entertaining popcorn flick. So I'm hoping Dark PhoeniX would at least be entertaining, not really great, but cheesy fun with good production values. Though they already failed in the costume department.

The X-Women line is so iconic, so if the movie has more of that, then maybe it would join the other, so bad its soo good" films that I find enjoyable to watch despite of the many flaws.

 

[Alison Blaire]

 

[Alison Blaire]

did the first bot mix up the movie tags?

I'm not sure

 

[psylockolussus]

only at 3500 theatres?? this kind of movie? 1000 less than SLP2.. i thought it would change but no..awkward..

The studios probably did some research or analysis, and I guess there's just more demand to The Secret Life of Pets 2 maybe thats why it booked more screens.

Who knows, if Dark Phoenix would eXpand in the 2nd weekend? It definitely would lose screens in the 3rd weekend, when Toy Story 4 opens.

 

[psylockolussus]

Dark Phoenix sounds like it may be technically competent - though I'm not convinced by the wirework when Magneto rises up to speak to Jean inside the house, or when Storm rises up from the train. And the Mystique/Xavier confrontation over putting the team at risk was like a bad scene from a TV soap, so I'm not expecting clever dialogue. It seems eerily ironic that the film concludes with a trainwreck, lol... but I'm hoping thee's some enjoyable moments.

The scenes featuring the spacejet, Cerebro, subbasement and the X-mansion do seem to have a nice production design. However, Genosha looks like present day Chernobyl (they could have made it look cool or at least not too simple, like Magneto's hideout in X1) and the train doesn't look very cinematic. The other outdoor scenes (Jean's hometown) and indoor scenes (the bar where Chastain talks to Jean) feel very small scaled to me. And they are only in space/orbit of the Earth for probably ten minutes or less.

To me, the film is lacking in set pieces to get people eXcited.

 

[Erik Lensherr]

 

[Hand Banana]

Found a review from a french magazine/website.

Spoiler

The penultimate film X-Men under the Fox flag is a blockbuster with ambitions cosmic brimées. Fortunately, there is the Turner-Chastain duo.

The mutant Jean Gray finds herself possessed by a phenomenal cosmic force, and here she becomes so powerful that it threatens the survival of humanity ... The story of Dark Phoenix has already been told in X-Men: The Clash final in 2006, and it was one of the worst movies of the X-franchise. Thirteen years later, with the casting of the "new" X-Men, it's not so much better. The producer of the franchise Simon Kinberg, who replaces Bryan Singer (exiled from Hollywood on charges of sexual assault), behind the camera, fails to make Dark Phoenix the worthy song of the swan of the saga, which will be rebooted by Disney in the future. With the exception of one sequence (the energetic attack of a prison train in the last third, just turned by veteran stuntman Brian Smrz), the film is lazy and never gets up to the height of its subject epic. And, although located in 1992, it never relates to our real world. This is not a point of detail: the previous films of the X-franchise have always known (with the exception of The Final Clash, precisely) use our history - that of the Second World War in particular - to found their mutant mythology. Nothing like this here. Just a cast a little tired: fortunately Sophie Turner and Jessica Chastain put a little more conviction in their game, because Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy seem to wait for the end of their contract with impatience. U.S. too.

X-Men : Dark Phoenix : Moins pire que prévu [Critique]

Another review, this time from a RT approved critic.

Spoiler

X-Men: Dark Phoenix
(12A) ★★✩✩✩
AS THE final instalment of the mutant superhero franchise ahead of its Disney/Marvel reboot, this X-Men outing feels more like an afterthought than a climax. In fact, looking at the posters you could easily mistake it for Captain Marvel 2.

But it’s not Brie Larson aglow on those bus-stop billboards, hair flowing like she’s just flown out of a galactic salon, it’s Game Of Thrones star Sophie ‘Sansa’ Turner. Her character, Jean Grey (later — or, rather, previously — played by Famke Janssen) is the focal point here, which is a shame as she seldom seems like the most interesting person on screen. As far as the plot goes, X-Men goodies led by Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) and Beast (Nicholas Hoult) zoom into space to investigate a mysterious pink fiery thing that invades the body of Jean, causing her to become mega powerful and potentially ‘the greatest force in the galaxy’, according to Jessica Chastain’s sleek blonde, stiletto-clad supervillain (you never get supervillains wearing nice comfy Birkenstocks, do you?)

As Jean grapples to master the dark forces within her like some flame-grilled Elsa from Frozen, the X-Men are riven by internal rifts. And humans still don’t trust mutants, obvs. ‘The women are always saving the men around here — you might want to change the name to X-Women,’ suggests J-Law to Professor X (James McAvoy, below, brilliant as ever) — which gets one of the movie’s few laughs. But if Dark Phoenix was intended as a feminist statement, it plays out more like a male fear at women seizing power and wreaking havoc.

Speaking of which, the well-choreographed action sequences are almost too diverting, as if writer/producer turned director Simon Kinberg is frantically channel-hopping between the over-assortment of characters.

Shot in 2017, with a delayed release due to bad test screenings and reshoots, Dark Phoenix is on course to be the lowest US box-office opening of the series to date. It’s not as much of a disaster zone as that sounds. Solid enough superhero filler, as X-Men movies go, this is not First Class but it’s no Apocalypse either.

The verdict
A missable culmination to the 20-year X-Men franchise thus far.

Found it interesting that the first one says James McAvoy is phoning it in but the other one is saying that he is brilliant.

Rough.

Is it though? The reviewer is saying its entertaining but nothing special.

 

[Hand Banana]

I noticed that. There were A Star Is Born bots coming after Venom as well.

 

[psylockolussus]

Hmm I don't think would even watch Dark PhoeniX in Imax. I watched Apocalypse in Imax because of psylocke and they had a lot of display for the film and a redcarpet, but I slept like 1/3 of the film.

I haven't tried 4dx before, but the mall that I always go to, already have it for years, but I haven't seen any movie in it. Maybe if Dark PhoeniX miraculously gets good reviews but I'm not even eXcited to see it today and I'm just waiting til Saturday since the ticket is free.

Edit: So upon seeing that video, I definitely don't want to see an entire film in 4dx especially if the chair will be constantly moving for 2 hours. Definitely not for me.

 

[psylockolussus]

Is it though? The reviewer is saying its entertaining but nothing special.

That review is the first one counted in Rottentomatoes.com and its not fresh.

Dark Phoenix (2019)

Off to a bad start, oh boy, here we go.

 

[Spidey 2007]

That review is the first one counted in Rottentomatoes.com and its not fresh.

Dark Phoenix (2019)

Off to a bad start, oh boy, here we go.

Not really a start yet. Give it at least 10 reviews...

 

[Hand Banana]

That review is the first one counted in Rottentomatoes.com and its not fresh.

Dark Phoenix (2019)

Off to a bad start, oh boy, here we go.

Much better than Apocalypse’s start.

 

[psylockolussus]

The review is counted, so it has begun. How many more hours til the embargo is lifted? I've been refreshing the rt page again and again.

 

[Marvel united]

The best case scenario is a competent but mediocre film

 

[Spidey 2007]

The review is counted, so it has begun. How many more hours til the embargo is lifted? I've been refreshing the rt page again and again.

Still a few hours. I don’t consider it until there’s an actual meter. That’s when people start to notice.

 

[psylockolussus]

Hmm, I think this series is highly reflective of the Rt ratings it received. So anything below 60% would be seen as bad by a lot of people. Just slighty better than Apocalypse ain't gonna cut it especially as the final film of the series.

 

[Erik Lensherr]

 

[Hand Banana]

Found a review from a french magazine/website.

Spoiler

The penultimate film X-Men under the Fox flag is a blockbuster with ambitions cosmic brimées. Fortunately, there is the Turner-Chastain duo.

The mutant Jean Gray finds herself possessed by a phenomenal cosmic force, and here she becomes so powerful that it threatens the survival of humanity ... The story of Dark Phoenix has already been told in X-Men: The Clash final in 2006, and it was one of the worst movies of the X-franchise. Thirteen years later, with the casting of the "new" X-Men, it's not so much better. The producer of the franchise Simon Kinberg, who replaces Bryan Singer (exiled from Hollywood on charges of sexual assault), behind the camera, fails to make Dark Phoenix the worthy song of the swan of the saga, which will be rebooted by Disney in the future. With the exception of one sequence (the energetic attack of a prison train in the last third, just turned by veteran stuntman Brian Smrz), the film is lazy and never gets up to the height of its subject epic. And, although located in 1992, it never relates to our real world. This is not a point of detail: the previous films of the X-franchise have always known (with the exception of The Final Clash, precisely) use our history - that of the Second World War in particular - to found their mutant mythology. Nothing like this here. Just a cast a little tired: fortunately Sophie Turner and Jessica Chastain put a little more conviction in their game, because Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy seem to wait for the end of their contract with impatience. U.S. too.

X-Men : Dark Phoenix : Moins pire que prévu [Critique]

Wait...what X-Men movie focused on WW2? Its a part of Magneto’s backstory but it’s never really been the setting of any of the plots. And only First Class and DOFP tied to historic events.

 

[psylockolussus]

Me right now waiting for reviews for hours now

when i could have gone to the mall now to see it myself in two hours but I'm too lazy and thrifty to watch it today... lmao!

 

[Fallen]

The review is counted, so it has begun. How many more hours til the embargo is lifted? I've been refreshing the rt page again and again.

4 hours.