Actually, the ending of Dark Phoenix was reportedly so close to Captain Marvel’s that they completely reconfigured and reshot it. That may have been a blessing in disguise: Though familiar, the new climax features some of the cleanest, most inventive action the series has offered; after years of writing these things, Kinberg proves himself a more than suitable replacement for Singer, one-upping the disgraced director in the spectacle department. What he can’t do is fend off the sense of fatigue that’s fallen over not just the X-Men but also the actors playing them. There’s just little here that the X-Men series hasn’t shown audiences before. On top of that, it finds no real replacement for the shopworn franchise pleasures it doesn’t provide.