Title: X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Simon Kinberg
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Jessica Chastain
Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins
What It Is: The seventh installment in Fox’s superhero franchise – and twelfth overall movie set in the overarching X-MEN universe – X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX is based on one of the most revered storylines in all of comics: ‘The Dark Phoenix Saga’ written by Chris Claremont and drawn by John Byrne.
DARK PHOENIX is set in 1992 (following the cataclysmic events in X-Men: Apocalypse) and sees the mutant supergroup forced to take on one of their own when psychic Jean Grey has her powers corrupted and her sense of right and wrong shattered after a rescue mission in orbit goes horribly sideways…
What We Think: I loved the original storyline from the comics, and wanted to love this movie since it’s the last of the X-Men franchise under Fox. But, I just couldn’t, the characters are dull, and I didn’t feel any compassion for any of them. The movie also starts off adapting the original comic storyline, but then veers way off course. Why it veered off course so much is probably due to the fact that Fox already used the Hellfire Club (in X-Men: First Class). But I’m not sure why they didn’t use the Shi’ar or Lilandra, maybe they didn’t have the rights to them?
There were very few parts of the movie that I liked, but those parts do include Hans Zimmer’s terrific score, and seeing the Phoenix in the sky (albeit briefly towards the end of the movie). Oh, and we finally get an appearance by Dazzler, which unless you’re familiar with the comics you probably wouldn’t have caught.
All in all, the movie is a good end to almost 20 years of Fox’s X-Men universe (not counting New Mutants which is scheduled for release next year), I just wish they had kept with more of the original source material for the movie.
Oh, and if you want to know, there are no mid-credit or post-credit scenes at all.
Our Grade: C-. As I said above, the movie just did nothing for me at all. It does end the Fox X-Men saga on a somewhat good note, but not enough for me to give the movie a better grade.
