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

[Lip]

My thoughts on the movie:

 

[Quasimod0]

I liked this more than Apocalypse. But it still wasn’t good. Wasn’t offensively bad but it was just kind of a whimper of a movie. I liked the space scene at the beginning well enough, and liked the train scene.

 

[X-Maniac]

I was going to write a long review but, honestly, most of it has been covered and there is a broad agreement on many of the problems.

I saw it in 3D and it looked great, especially the space rescue and Cerebro sequences. Sophie also looksd stunning in the opening scenes. She did her best but the 'turning bad' was all too quick, suddenly she was attacking cop cars in the Greys' neighbourhood and the army on Genosha.

Magneto and Jean straining against each other looked almost comical. Fassbender looked like he was about to have a stroke.

Dazzler was uninspired, Chastain's character was underdeveloped, too much dialogue was borrowed from X2 and X3, the film was rushed and choppy and started to go too fast from the mansion grounds party onwards.

Storm at least had some presence, if very little dialogue or essential character interaction.

Selene and Red Lotus were boring as hell. Quicksilver was never mentioned again after being carried back from Genosha, they just forgot about him altogether.

A lot feels like it was on the cutting room floor.

 

[EnDz0n3]

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

How many times did a character say "I need you!" How many times did Mystique (!) and Magneto (!) bark orders. AT X-MEN members (!!)
When Mystique tells them they're going to space, Kurt makes a space joke and then Pietro says another one. Were they even in the same room when they delivered those lines? lol
JLaw delivers two jabs at Xavier naming the team after him.

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.

Sounds like Emma Silverfox all over again.

 

[Hand Banana]

Sounds like Emma Silverfox all over again.

No, that was Claremont original idea for Phoenix.

 

[Frankeh]

No, that was Claremont original idea for Phoenix.

Then there shouldn't have been a "Cosmic Force" at all.

 

[Hand Banana]

Then there shouldn't have been a "Cosmic Force" at all.

The idea was that Jean’s full potential was unlocked by a nameless “primal force” as The Watcher states in #138.

 

[Frankeh]

The idea was that Jean’s full potential was unlocked by a nameless “primal force” as The Watcher states in #138.

Then she shouldn't have whipped Phoenix out in the last movie on her own.

 

[Hand Banana]

Then she shouldn't have whipped Phoenix out in the last movie on her own.

That wasn’t her full potential though.

 

[Frankeh]

That wasn’t her full potential though.

You're taking me in circles.

You know very well there is no point in showing that image of Jean Grey engulfed in that firebird if that's the case.

 

[Hand Banana]

You're taking me in circles.

You know very well there is no point in showing that image of Jean Grey engulfed in that firebird if that's the case.

Jean was engulfed in that same firebird in X2 before reaching the peak of her power though.

 

[EnDz0n3]

Jean Grey Silverfox should be a meme (ie. any retcon that makes even the first iteration worst). You've been SilverFOXed.

 

[kineticist]

I might get attacked lol but I enjoyed it.
Critics are too harsh this was miles better than Apocalypse. Some weak writing, odd pacing, and shoddy cgi in the final act but.... I had fun and would watch it again.

 

[Xeno]

Jean was engulfed in that same firebird in X2 before reaching the peak of her power though.

So what you're saying is that, in a movie called Dark Phoenix, there is no actual phoenix force/firebird. Makes sense.

 

[Sage2016]

JLaw delivers two jabs at Xavier naming the team after him.

Sounds like Emma Silverfox all over again.

Wasn't it JLaw who called them X-Men in the first place in First Class lol?

 

[P Supreme]

How many times did a character say "I need you!" How many times did Mystique (!) and Magneto (!) bark orders. AT X-MEN members (!!)
When Mystique tells them they're going to space, Kurt makes a space joke and then Pietro says another one. Were they even in the same room when they delivered those lines? lol
JLaw delivers two jabs at Xavier naming the team after him.

That whole scene between Jennifer Lawrence and Xavier [refuse to even call her Mystique] why was she blond in that scene ? but anyway to tell Charles when was the last time he risked anything ? what!!
well like is effin legs and he was there in the final battle in X:A where it was he who stopped her from being choked out

just terrible it's like they forgot about X:A sorry but we didn't

 

[Zorro]

I like it more than Apocalypse but it's not near First Class's level and especially not DOFP. Some good performances and great cgi/special effects everything else is pretty weak.

Franchise ended gunned down than with guns blazing

 

[Hand Banana]

That whole scene between Jennifer Lawrence and Xavier [refuse to even call her Mystique] why was she blond in that scene ? but anyway to tell Charles when was the last time he risked anything ? what!!
well like is effin legs and he was there in the final battle in X:A where it was he who stopped her from being choked out

just terrible it's like they forgot about X:A sorry but we didn't

The events of X:A was nearly a decade ago though. So that’s not exactly a recent event. Plus, Xavier did not willingly put himself on the field. Apocalypse dragged him into it and if he had not done anything he would have gotten his body taken from him.

 

[EnDz0n3]

Here. From Deadline:

...finance experts tell us that the tale of Jean Grey will burn out with an estimated $100M-$120M loss after ancillaries, off a combined production and P&A estimated cost of $350M+ (which includes reshoots).

 

[jolldan]

Spoiler: My Dark Phoenix SPOILER Review

Dark Phoenix Review SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY!

Well I got in to see it last night and honestly im not too sure where to even start on this movie so going to do a list of things I did and didn't like with a little summary at the end.

Things I Liked

• Scott Is The Ships Weapon System - This was imo the most cartoonish comic book thing in the entire movie and I loved it was totally unexpected and a great use of his powers.
• Magneto & Charles - Two standouts in the movie for me are McAvoy & Fassbender, both get very different arcs but they both so good with what they get. Especially like the whole Charles wanting to be a savior thing.
• Genosha - It was very small size wise but just to get a little comic book nod like that was really cool to me.
• The Fight In New York - This battle is on a much smaller scale than the later train one but was still cool seeing everyone use their different powers and we got a rare chance to see Charles in the field using his.
• The Train Battle - In terms of action set pieces this was this movie's highlight for me. Everyone gets a chance to shine but Kurt & Magneto stands out for me personally. Kurt going ham with the knife while teleporting around dropping that one alien in front of the train was really cool and Magneto's wall of guns and folding one of the carriages around the alien's was ace.

Things I Didn't like

• The Aliens - My biggest gripe with the movie is The D'Bari are so generic I literally had to just google what the name of the race was called, they never feel like more than generic bad guy fodder for the X-Men to have someone to fight against. Not as well versed on the Phoenix story in the comics but honestly it felt like you could have told a better more personal story without them.
• Jennifer Lawrence - We all knew she was gonna die and you can almost sort of sense it Lawrence looks to be looking for the door from the get go and she has more screen time than someone I would have given to someone who's gonna get killed off mid movie.
• Benching Quicksilver - This one just baffles me the guy who in your last two movies has had the best set piece of the movie and you just don't use him, spare in the first five minutes?
• No Cameos - A highlight of all X-Men movies is usually getting to see the younger or more unexperienced ones pop up and occasionally use there powers in this all we got was Dazzler who looked like she was about to perform a private dance for the kids.
• Charles Walking Up The Stairs & Magneto's Train - Just dumb and made no sense, I get Jean's meant to angry but so what she's like "haha dance cripple". Same scene Magneto pulls a subway up from the ground literally just so he can make a boss entrance lol.
• The Ending - I really enjoyed the train sequence but it felt like we were building up to some final battle that we never got instead Jean just take's Jessica Chastain's character up in to the sky and explodes.
• It Being Set In The 90's - I get they like to jump 10 years each movie but for this one I have to seriously ask why? It served no story purpose for this to be set in the 90's it wasn't obvious that it was even set then. Overall I just think staying in the 80's would have been a much more exciting time visually. Plus it just further adds to brain hurting time travel stuff as you're telling me James McAvoy & Michael Fassbender turn in to Patrick Stewart & Ian McKellen in just 8 years!

Overall I have to say that its not great but its not terrible. For me though personally it commits an even bigger sin by being pretty much the first X-Men movie that I can ever think of that has been forgettable rather than just bad, which I just can't wrap my head around being that the same guy got to tell this story twice and instead of taking a completely different approach this time around basically did the same story if you swap out the mutant war sub plot with the alien sub plot

 

[Erzengel]

I want to give this movie a 4 in score but according to this it more aligns with a 5 adjective being not good.

 

[Raiders]

2/10

The box office and the creativity is a sign of franchise fatigue.
Here is where the XCU got it wrong and the MCU has got it right.
XCU:
a) 7 team movies, which is too many. Mostly about Charles vs Erik
b)Only one character spinoff franchise (Wolverine)
c)Very little introduction of new major characters.
d)Getting two Dark Phoenix movies.
All of this has become tiresome, there nothing new with an X-Men team movies.
I’m not counting Deadpool, because he seem to separated himself from the XCU, and he proud of it.

MCU:
a) They are playing smart, the MCU is an umbrella of about 8 separate franchises. Each franchise will make about three movie and avoiding getting tired.
b) As some major characters leave other major characters are introduced.
c) The MCU is constantly evolving and reinventing itself, something that the XCU fail to do.

The sad part about is there are many many mutants will could have seen in there own franchise that Fox fail to deliver. It took 13 years before Ryan Reynolds is able to get Deadpool on the big screen. Channing Tatum has been trying to get Gambit for 5 years, now it’s not happening.
Fox fought everyone who was trying the evolve this franchise.
All Fox wanted was a Charles vs Erik movie. No other characters mattered to them except for Wolverine.

 

[BlackFox]

Well its over.

A rather sad and dull end to the FoX-verse which deserved a much better send off than this but alas it was not to be, unlike Apocalypse though I think most were anticipating it so it wasnt so much of a surprise or disappointment but that doesnt make things any better.

Its clunky, slow, rather bland and overly on the nose at times. It suffers similar problems to Captain Marvel in that we have seen this done a hundred times over now and done a whole lot better on numerous occasions that the whole thing feels redundant. I can kind of see some odd moments and flashes of good ideas and shots but it just doesnt come together as a whole and have the movie is close up's of either people pulling contorted faces as they "struggle" or waving their hands about to "do things".

It picks up by the end a little but the damage is already done long before with pacing all over the shop and characters that are one note or less than that (dear lord the "bad guys" are just there). The series just seems to have forgotten or thrown out the things that made First Class and DOFP so great and gone almost completely off the rails in the end.

Most of the cast is wasted, Sophie T trys her best with what she's given but she too is hamstrung by the dire script and Fassbender, McCavoy & Co have all done much better work and had more to chew on in previous installments, Chastain is just sort of "there" like a piece of scenery rather than an actual character.

Sad but not surprising, I just wanted Deadpool to come in slap the miserable lot of them to at least inject some friggin life into the whole thing.

Its not the worst ever comic book movie, granted, but its not one you will remember for too long after I doubt. Its just a shame it had to end like this, it deserved a Logan level of send off, not a by the numbers, checklist of comic book moments and forced emotions, shame.

5/10

 

[Hand Banana]

slow

Disagree there. I thought it moved pretty fast. Too fast.

 

[Hand Banana]

The box office and the creativity is a sign of franchise fatigue.

Just about every summer blockbusters except Aladdin is underperforming. The films this season are cannibalizing each other.