--Vuk, X-Men: Dark Phoenix
What heights First Class, Days of Future Past, Logan, and the Deadpool films climbed to! The best of the X-Men films are indeed among the best of the entire superhero genre and in turn among the best films of the last 15 years. Continuing the wide variation in quality that marks this Fox franchise, Dark Phoenix does not even begin to rival the greatness of its predecessors. For the second attempt at adapting the Dark Phoenix story in the same live-action X-Men continuity to not amount to anything more than what resulted is an enormous failure. Is everything in Dark Phoenix abysmal? No, and certain elements are even very well-done, but they are islands of triumph in an ocean of wasted opportunity. Not even Jessica Chastain, Michael Fassbender, a fairly spectacular action sequence, and a promising set of extraterrestrial villains save this film.
Production Values
As early as the space shuttle rescue scene, the visuals are rather good for a film this mixed overall. These shots of outer space are the best in the entire movie along with those alongside Vuk's explanation of the Phoenix Force, though the finale also has its own bursts of rather excellent camerawork and effects. Jean feeding her cosmic power into Vuk shortly before the credits is especially stellar. As Jean Grey, the titular Dark Phoenix, Sophie Turner gets her chance to be the leading character in an X-Men ensemble movie, and she does her best to emote as the plot calls for it. Fittingly, she has one of the best characters here, and she also sometimes contributes to great shots; her eye turning gold when in her father's house and her holding back Magneto's metal railing are framed well. Jessica Chastain, on the contrary, has a much more emotionally reserved role. Despite doing well at portraying Vuk's coldness, she is not used for almost anything else except providing plot-necessary information to Jean Grey. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are wonderful--but when is Michael Fassbender not fucking amazing? On the less utilized side of the cast, Jennifer Lawrence and Evan Peters (American Horror Story) are only shadows of their former selves in Days of Future Past. Without them actually giving poor performances, their roles do not get the same level of focus and development as they did before.
Story
Some spoilers are below.
The mutant named Jean Grey accidentally led to a fatal car accident when she was a young girl as her mutant ability first triggered, after which she was recruited by Charles Xavier. Charles is called by the president of America many years later to rescue astronauts, and the ensuing extraction mission exposes Jean Grey to a solar flare that unexpectedly does not kill her even when the shuttle around her vanishes, leaving her in outer space without protective gear. She not only survives, but she also begins displaying signs of heightened powers. One consequence is that mental barriers Xavier, as a telepath, placed in her consciousness to suppress the memory of the accident disappear. Meanwhile, the survivors of an alien civilization have come to Earth pursuing the same cosmic power that Jean contacted, and their leader Vuk tries to make an ally of Jean.
Intellectual Content
This is one of the areas where Dark Phoenix most significantly declines from the franchise's former glory. Some of the past X-Men movies were rather philosophically inclined in very outwardly explicit ways, like Day of Future Past and Logan. Here, Xavier's closet utilitarianism is briefly explored as other characters confront him for using people as a means to an end, and the D'Bari leader Vuk brings up some of the metaphysics of the energy force that gives Jean Grey her Phoenix powers, but these and other issues, either newly introduced or carried over from before, are never thoroughly addressed. Like the fellow mutants Xavier initially uses as "benevolent" pawns, Dark Phoenix uses these subjects as a means to the end of telling a story it does not even properly navigate.
Conclusion
Dark Phoenix is neither the second coming of Suicide Squad some people treat it as nor a great movie. It commits a terrible cinematic sin: it is aggressively mediocre, so mixed or middling in quality that it does not even embrace being a bad film. It hovers in the same limbo as many other movies that squander genuine potential and yet have some successful aspects, though perhaps only unintentionally successful. Lacking the clever humor of Deadpool 2, the somber depths of Logan, the incredible characterization of Days of Future Past, and the historical grounding of First Class, Dark Phoenix offers little to nothing to replace them. Some of the acting is strong, yes. Some of the visuals are grand, yes. Flashes of the layered characters occasionally come through. Additionally, the climactic fight is generally choreographed and executed well. This film just needed to be and could have been so much more than mediocre.
Content:
1. Violence: One of the more violent scenes shows Mystique as she is impaled with blood around her wounds. Later, mutants fight the D'Bari in a bloodless clash that still involves a great deal of physical force.
2. Profanity: The infrequent profanity includes words like "shit."
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