When Jean Grey is struck by a cosmic force, her powers become more powerful than ever. Increasingly unstable, she spirals out of control in a facet that can destroy the planet and tear the X-Men family apart.
This film is not as bad as everyone made it seem. Actually, this is nowhere near a terrible film, especially in a year like 2019. However, “Dark Phoenix” does not compare to its predecessors. It lacks a sense of story development, character development, and constantly struggles with pacing. Nonetheless, if this film was released a year after “Apocalypse”, fans reactions would be different.
Let’s start with the good. The cinematography is extraordinary. An aspect that never disappoints with the X -Men franchise. Countless scenes showboat with visuals that we’ve never seen before, including some outstanding slow-motion fight scenes (thanks to Quicksilver). Action scenes are fast-paced, glorifying, and honestly the best part of the film. Magneto is a scene-stealer by showing his strength one last time and its notably worth seeing the film again just for his scenes alone. Most mutants are excellent in this film, but others are downright awful. Which brings me to the worst aspect of the film.
Jean Grey is a dramatic wreck. Yes, the star of the film is extremely lukewarm. Aside from her powers, her performance was just boring. She does what the script entails but the standards are too high for just a bland performance. It’s painful to say but the same issue I had with Captain Marvel, I have with Jean Grey (Captain Marvel is still much less of a badass). Oddly enough, I enjoyed Jessica Chastain character before she became evil. The problem is, that lasts about three minutes. Once she becomes a villain, it all goes downhill from there. Also, the worst mutant of them all is Storm. Since Apocalypse, the casting for Storm was always off and this film is no different for as her performance is almost comedic.
Now the story. This film is the finale and while it is a difficult task to clear all questions and concerns, this does not mean to speed it up. Many questions were unanswered and even new ones have arrived. We don’t get enough of Jean Grey’s backstory, neither do we fully understand her battles regarding her powers. At one point, it seemed as if the writers just wanted everyone to cry, be amazed, then cry again; without knowing the point of any of those notions. However, I will say the last half is the better half.
So here we have it. The last of Fox’s X-Men series. Marvel may reboot the series in Phase 4, making it the third reboot of its kind. If that’s the case, then I will be front and center once again.
While First Class and Days of Future Past are the A-list films of the franchise, if you enjoyed Apocalypse, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one.
