Dark Phoenix X-Men: Dark PhoeniX Rate and Review Thread (spoilers in spoiler tags)

[DACrowe]

Just got back from seeing it, was totally expecting a disaster and honestly it wasn't. It was a huge heap of "meh" however. I think this was the same problem I had with Apocalypse, DP is just a lot of grandiosity, but boils down to predictable dialog and by-the-numbers set pieces. Emotional moments happens, but there's no emotional resonance to any of it. It's literally stuff happening on a screen set to a musical score. It made sense, it wasn't pointless, but you just didn't feel any weight to what was going on. It felt almost unimportant, just stuff happening to characters we don't really care about. Honestly, I think that was my biggest problem. I felt nothing for these characters. I wasn't scared for them or scared of them, I didn't feel sorry for the characters I should have felt sorry for, I didn't root for the characters when there were clearly moments I should've been cheering for them. I should have been emotionally invested in what was going on, but I wasn't. I had a similar feeling with BvS. I was supposed to feel something because of who the characters were, but in the end, they were just guys and gals on a screen and the director never brought me into their story or made me feel something. And it felt short, compacted, and rushed, like we were hurrying from one scene to the next without any time to contemplate what had happened. Can't say its the worst film of the year, but I won't be watching it again anytime soon.

4.5/10

Pretty well said. This gets to its problems in a fair and accurate way. Comparing it to BvS seems fair in this way to me.

 

[Hand Banana]

Will Dark PhoeniX be the king of the Marvel films that failed to gross over $100 million?

Wrong thread.

 

[Hand Banana]

I saw it. I would say its a very forgetful movie for this being the last one. This movie was lacking any joy or light warm moments. It was truly depressing the whole time and not once did I laugh or smile. Some of the action was ok, but still very underwhelming action scenes. The Phoenix storyline should be a story full of good visuals but this adaption did not do that.

Chastains character was so forgetful and was one of the worst villains in X-Men movie history, just so underwhelming. Kinda like the Dark Elves in Thor Dark World.

Dark Phoenix herself was also very underwhelming, hated her outfit and her pink energy force fields its just not the Dark Phoenix Ive seen in the comic or cartoons.

The best parts were probably the scenes with Magneto, NightCrawler, Quicksilver, and Charles. Some of Storm and Cyclops action scenes were ok, but they were still miss-used.

For a second attempt at adapting the iconic Phoenix storyline, this was not very good. I give it a 4/10

My X movie rankings

1) X2 / X-Men Day of Future Past
2) Deadpool
3) Logan / Deadpool 2
4) X - Men First Class
5) X - Men
6) Apocalypse / The Wolverine
7) Dark Phoenix / X-Men The Last Stand
8) XO: Wolverine

Actually, it was like that in the comics.

 

[EnDz0n3]

Actually, it was like that in the comics.

The comics had the Phoenix Raptor.

 

[Hand Banana]

And it felt short, compacted, and rushed, like we were hurrying from one scene to the next without any time to contemplate what had happened. Can't say its the worst film of the year, but I won't be watching it again anytime soon.

That’s pretty much the reason why you don’t feel much of anything for the characters despite some of them being around for four movies now. The pacing/editing just never gives the audience enough time to breathe and make the characters feel like they matter.

The 2+ hour version really should have been the theatrical version.

 

[MarvelU]

Actually, it was like that in the comics.

I stand corrected, I guess I just wanted to see more of what was in XMen Apocalypse ending or what I see in more recent comic art. The fire bird was pretty good at end of apocalypse.

 

[Flint Marko]

I called it mediocre. It's not a good movie. But to be able to notice that many critics are enjoying calling it a disaster and using hyperbole to compare it to true train wrecks like Fan4stic and Elektra is not "weird." It's just having a difference of opinion and noticing that folks came at this with their knives out and might be enjoying cutting deep for the sake of cutting.

And I’d point to that cinemascore which shows moviegoers think it’s as good as Green Lantern. The opening weekend audience apparently isn’t too far off from the critics so I disagree about any unfair mob mentality.

 

[Blade Hoarder]

Yeah. The cienmascore is lower than Origins. Keep in mind this is the weekend crowd. The people most predisposed to liking it.

 

[DACrowe]

And I’d point to that cinemascore which shows moviegoers think it’s as good as Green Lantern. The opening weekend audience apparently isn’t too far off from the critics so I disagree about any unfair mob mentality.

They also put it about on par with Batman v Superman, which is fair. I don't think either are Batman & Robin or Superman IV, or Fan4stic which I see others lumping this in with. Maybe I'll just need to suffer through it again and see it's "really that bad."

 

[EnDz0n3]

But don't you guys see?! The weekend crowd only went to the cinema to hate-watch this movie! They were obviously all MCU fanboys with nothing better to do! *flips table over*

What's sadder is even with the forecast calling for Pets to win the weekend, boxoffice sites were still hopeful Dark Phoenix would have a higher Friday BO because fans were going to see this the first chance they got. But no Pets 2 topped it $16Mil to DPh's $14Mil.

 

[Raiders]

2/10

 

[FunkMiller]

I disagree with the perceived Snyder DCEU syndrome. I think most Snyder fans have a chip on their shoulder because they’re irritated with the discrepancy between the audience and critic score on rotten tomatoes. I’m not a huge Snyder fan but, I’ve always felt there was an agenda against all of his movies. Critics usually always rate his films much lower than the general public reaction.

Also, before anyone attempts to call me a Snyder apologist I will make it clear that I only like 3 of his films. BvS and Justice League don’t qualify.

There is no agenda against Zack Snyder. There is an agenda against bad movies.

Audience score is incredibly unreliable and easy to prejudice. Can be safely ignored.

 

[Flint Marko]

They also put it about on par with Batman v Superman, which is fair. I don't think either are Batman & Robin or Superman IV, or Fan4stic which I see others lumping this in with. Maybe I'll just need to suffer through it again and see it's "really that bad."

People I know who have seen it say it's worse than Apocalypse and I thought Apocalypse was pretty dreadful. Not an outright disaster but just pointless.

The time jump thing is a big sticking point with me. Again, it worked in DOFP but sticking with that choice baffles me.

I'll give DP this, the marketing was way better this time around than it was with Apocalypse. I remember seeing some TV spots for Dark Phoenix and

 

[Frankeh]

Well, Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse felt pretty much straight out of the Batman & Robin set.

At least this movie doesn't have an embarrasment like that, I guess? But I've heard nothing good about Chastain's villain.

 

[Hand Banana]

Well, Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse felt pretty much straight out of the Batman & Robin set.

At least this movie doesn't have an embarrasment like that, I guess? But I've heard nothing good about Chastain's villain.

She gets a cool fight scene and that is about it.

 

[X men Fan]

It’s because we don’t know this version of the newer X-men and we don’t care for them as they are written. Everyone is just a basic prop , and we’ve seen too much of Prof x Magneto and mystique. It was like playing baseball but every thing was pre planned in the game and we all knew it.

It's not good. It's not a disaster either like so many have claimed--including critics who are strangely piling on with a mob mentality with hyperbole--but it is most definitely a mediocre movie. I dig in deeper with spoilers below.

Spoiler

Why it didn't work:

Spoiler

Surprise, surprise - Simon Kinberg is still a terrible writer. He doesn't write dialogue between characters, but rather exposition that explains each character's motivation, "I just buried my foster sister," as opposed to revealing the depths of their sadness or pain. He just has them state what is going on in them, which is not the same thing. That or clumsy dialogue to get the plot from A to B, "Someone spotted Jean in New York." As a result the drama falls flat, and because this attempts to be a drama about what Jean is going through the movie is flat.

It doesn't help that Jean's turn from in control to out of control is 0 to 60, and Sophie Turner, as much as I like her on Game of Thrones and as a celebrity personality, could not pull off Jean's dark turn I'm sad to say. With a better script and likely more seasoned director she could've probably been serviceable (see: Game of Thrones) but she was left out high and dry here.

The aliens... just no.

What it actually did pretty well: Not so surprisingly, the score is amazing Hans Zimmer knocked it out of the park. It created better tension than Kinberg's flat script and unconfident direction, and it also is just a wowzer of an X-Men score. 'Tis a pity no one will remember it.

The action is really great. The reshoots paid off, as that train sequence is dynamite and, unsurprisingly, the space sequence they teased for months at the beginning was top-notch. The X-Men were actually behaving like X-Men in space. It's a great moment. Also the X-Men behaving like themselves at school with their hair down afterward. We could've used more scenes like that and of seeing Jean in her day-to-day slowly being corrupted by the Phoenix Force, which would've made the transformation more painful. I know some will dislike that a lot of practical effects instead of heavy CGI were used in sequences like the Central Park fight, but to me that was a highlight. It felt down and dirty while actually feeling like the X-Men comics more than most Bryan Singer-directed action sequences (with several notable exceptions).

McAvoy and Fassbender don't know how to phone it in (ahem, JLaw) and are good, even if Fassy is given very little to do. And Nicholas Hoult gave his best performance as Beast in this movie. After four movies, he's finally allowed to do some good stuff, albeit it still makes no sense why he transforms between human and blue.

Overall it's a 5.5-6/10 from me. Not a good movie, but better than Venom, which got better reviews, and honestly not that far off from Captain Marvel in terms of quality, which was even patchier in terms of post-production reshoot muddying. But it had the benefit of starring Brie Larson and not being part of a franchise where folks had their knives out. Mediocrity was tolerated from the MCU, from Fox-Marvel, it was an excuse to execute.

Well put!

 

[Mr.T]

It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was ok. My wife and daughter loved it. As others have stated, I didn’t really care about what was going on with any of the characters. Lots of whining in the movie. Magneto was awesome as usual.

Underwhelming and a very quiet close to such an influential franchise. 5/10.

 

[Detective Conan]

People I know who have seen it say it's worse than Apocalypse and I thought Apocalypse was pretty dreadful. Not an outright disaster but just pointless.

The time jump thing is a big sticking point with me. Again, it worked in DOFP but sticking with that choice baffles me.

I'll give DP this, the marketing was way better this time around than it was with Apocalypse. I remember seeing some TV spots for Dark Phoenix and

......and?

 

[P Supreme]

Wow how bad was that? first and foremost let me see if I get this straight they were mad a Charles for essentially controlling her since her accident but then they mad Charles because he can't control her now BUT NOBODY BRINGS UP THE FACT SHE HAS AN ALIEN ENTITY IN HER and no explanation on what was that in X:A were going to ignore that fire bird that killed Apacalypse that what happens when you switch writers OH WAIT NO THEY DIDN'T

and no surprise Mystique only transformation was to J.Lawrence

and Genosha oh man so I was told it may look like a scrap yard in the trailers but not in the movie
well it was a literal scrap yard so terrible

and the kids name her the phoenix lolololol how many times did Jean say "when it comes bad things happen"? top notch writing right there

movie was terrible except for the score

scale on 1-10 I'll give a 2

 

[nightwing06]

The X-men say goodbye to foX and helllllllllllllooooooo to Disney/Marvel


PRAISE: I went in with eXtremely low eXpectations after all of the terrible things i have heard about Dark PhoeniX for almost a year now.
Fortunately i was able to embrace some of the plot.The mutant co eXisting with human story thread is still strong.Performances by James McAvoy,Sophie Turner,Nicholas Hoult and Michael Fassbender are strong.A good portion of the SFX is glorious to take in.Some good dramatic moments are laced in with some terrific action sequences.


PROBLEMS:Jennifer Lawrence is basically around long enough to deliver an SJW gut punch.Jessica Chastain is absolutely terrible in the movie.I kept looking at her and saying to myself,why is she standing there like that?Why is she delivering her lines in such a spaced out manner? Come on Jessica you're better than this !!
There are some TV shows and movies that are able to overcome changes to canon,swapped out story threads and characters Dark PhoeniX is not one of those movies.
I could actually see the limitations in this film as it played out.It's a shame how they decided to sum up almost 20 years of films in a dry,laughable and eye roll inducing way.

Im not sure if New Mutants will ever make it to the big screen,but i know i will definitely wait until it hits cable or a streaming service.


Scale of 1-10 a 6

 

[Random490]

There is no agenda against Zack Snyder. There is an agenda against bad movies.

Audience score is incredibly unreliable and easy to prejudice. Can be safely ignored.

Correct, from what I remember the "agenda" only started once Man of Steel was released. It began as a reaction to the actual film. Going into it people were excited and pretty hype for it. A guy I know once said, "The greatest Superman movie ever made was the Man of Steel trailer." And I think that puts it perfectly. WB had a chance to look at the criticism and course correct for the future but went all in with Snyder and gave him free reigns until it was too late to course correct.

Dark Phoenix is a little different, It's coming off a poorly received film, directed by someone that no one has confidence in, and is being released after the biggest news regarding the franchise is that it's coming to the far more beloved MCU. It's really a recipe for poor reception and I wouldn't be surprised if people were just done with the franchise and wrote it off before seeing it.

I came to this thread because I'm on the fence with seeing it. I liked the trailers and really want to enjoy Fox's last hurrah, even if it's 'just okay'. But I do not want another X3, leaving the theater just pissed off. I mean I actually enjoyed Apocalypse, despite it's many, many flaws, it was the first X-men film to actually feel like the X-men I grew up with. But if this film is worst than that then I don't know. And this thread has not been able to lean me one way or the other.

 

[Theweepeople]

There is no agenda against Zack Snyder. There is an agenda against bad movies.

Audience score is incredibly unreliable and easy to prejudice. Can be safely ignored.

I misspoke in my original post. Most of Snyder’s films have been bad. I just thought the critics had an agenda against two of the 3 films I liked by Snyder. Regardless, this is all subjective. I personally feel critics can have an agenda foror against certain directors. Another example that comes to mind is the critic vs audience score of Star Wars The Last Jedi. Critics loved that movie in contrast to a horrendous audience score. I’ve yet to meet a Star Wars fan that liked that turd.

 

[Hand Banana]

Wow how bad was that? first and foremost let me see if I get this straight they were mad a Charles for essentially controlling her since her accident but then they mad Charles because he can't control her now BUT NOBODY BRINGS UP THE FACT SHE HAS AN ALIEN ENTITY IN HER and no explanation on what was that in X:A were going to ignore that fire bird that killed Apacalypse that what happens when you switch writers OH WAIT NO THEY DIDN'T

and no surprise Mystique only transformation was to J.Lawrence

and Genosha oh man so I was told it may look like a scrap yard in the trailers but not in the movie
well it was a literal scrap yard so terrible

and the kids name her the phoenix lolololol how many times did Jean say "when it comes bad things happen"? top notch writing right there

movie was terrible except for the score

scale on 1-10 I'll give a 2

The alien entity is never called the Phoenix Force in the movie, near does it resemble a Phoenix. What we saw in Apocalypse was Jean’s mutant power.

 

[P Supreme]

The alien entity is never called the Phoenix Force in the movie, near does it resemble a Phoenix. What we saw in Apocalypse was Jean’s mutant power.

which resembled a fire bird so hence me and others foolishly thinking it was the phoenix silly me for reacting to something shown to me on screen

 

[Hand Banana]

which resembled a fire bird so hence me and others foolishly thinking it was the phoenix silly me for reacting to something shown to me on screen

It resembled pink cosmic gas in the beginning. The firebird at the end was Jean’s mutant powers evolving as explained in the narration.