X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019) - Review

'X-Men: Dark Phoenix' the twelfth and penultimate installment of the X-Men film series, acting as a send-off to the main series whilst next year's 'The New Mutants' has ended up as an unexpectedly standalone coda. The entire franchise has been cut short by Walt Disney Pictures, who during post-production acquired the assorted assets of 20th Century Fox and made the decision to end this run of X-Men films to make way for a new rebooted series as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, making 'Dark Phoenix' the exciting (?) finale to twenty years' worth of films. Until that next film comes out...eventually.

The film has been re-tooled into a satisfying finale during post-production, and the marketing has leaned more towards nostalgic love for the X-Men films as a whole as opposed to building excitement for this entry. The new marketing push has even produced a new, more comic book-inspired poster to sell the film, but despite their best efforts, it's hard to shake the general sinking feeling. 'Dark Phoenix''s story has been done before in 2006's 'X-Men: The Last Stand', and whilst this is obvious to fans and moviegoers alike, writer/director/producer Simon Kinberg has insisted that 'Dark Phoenix' adapts the comic book story much better, and is a superior film to the 2006 original (which also was intended to end the X-Men "trilogy").

With all of that production context aside though, is 'X-Men: Dark Phoenix' a good film? Well, yes and no. It's a very mixed bag, with a pretty solid first hour-and-a-half, and a terrible final twenty (ish) minutes that just killed the whole film. If you were going into 'Dark Phoenix' interested to see how this entry would conclude the X-Men saga, I'm afraid you're going to be very disappointed. It's rushed, unearned and smacks of awkward re-shooting. Most bizarre of all is how writer/director Simon Kinberg undoes his own re-worked ending from 'X-Men: Days of Future Past'. If the whole point of that film was to fix the awkward chronology of the X-Men films, then why break it so soon after?

Despite it's obvious similarities to 'X-Men: The Last Stand', the story here actually works quite well - for the most part, anyway. The X-Men are now celebrated as heroes by the world, with Charles Xavier / Professor X (James McAvoy) now having a direct line to the President of the United States. Raven / Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) worries that the X-Men are only valued because of the risks they'll take, whilst Charles is too concerned of another incident to pit humanity against mutants. Naturally, both are right. When a NASA operation goes awry, the X-Men are sent in to save them, but Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) becomes trapped in a solar flare explosion. Then, however, she wakes up, feeling perfectly fine. As the X-Men celebrate the success of their mission, Jean's powers start to overwhelm her, and she leaves Scott Summers / Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) and the X-mansion to discover herself. As Jean starts to learn more about her past, her heightened powers grow stronger, and soon becomes the target for Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and a group of aliens known as the D'Bari. Yes, there are aliens in this film. No, they haven't appeared before. And they really are just dropped in.

'Dark Phoenix' is spinning a lot of plates, and with its clearly shortened run-time (the film clocks in surprisingly at under two hours), many aspects of the film feel underdeveloped. The D'Bari are introduced as mysterious shapeshifting alien creatures and remain that for the entire film. Kinberg never shows them in their true form, and for those who saw 'Captain Marvel' earlier this year, you might very quickly realise that these D'bari were very clearly intended to be the Skrulls (and were no doubt changed to avoid confusion). They appear at seemingly random points in the film, and their motivations are vague at best. The X-Men don't seem to even realise that they're aliens, which feels like an odd narrative gap. Jessica Chastain plays Vuk, the...leader (?) of the D'Bari, and whilst she has an interesting role as a "devil on shoulder" for Jean, her role ultimately ends up with Chastain hissing generic villain dialogue.

Magneto also appears in the film, in a role that feels so awkward and obligatory that I couldn't shake the feeling that he might not have even been in the script originally. Jean just...appears on an island that Magneto and a number of mutants are living on (and have been given by the US government...off-screen) and with some haphazard writing ends up drawing him away to try and kill her. For once, Magneto takes on a more proactive, less villainous role but doesn't really have much to do. He wants to kill Jean for (spoiler) reasons, but this desire comes from "the greater good". Magneto also has two henchman characters, who are never clearly named, and just follow him around. I'm not entirely sure if they were worth mentioning, but they're in there as well.

An interesting angle to the film is the revelations regarding Xavier's relationship with Jean. Very early on its clear that Charles is reveling in the popularity of the X-Men, and keeps Jean constantly under control, but when events spiral out of control, its revealed that Charles altered her memories, leading to the argument of just how supportive he really has been. Charles' motivations are constantly questioned by the other X-Men, and he struggles to help Jean. Nicholas Hoult does very well with Hank/Beast's arc throughout the film, whilst Storm doesn't get much to do and Quicksilver disappears after about forty-five minutes.

This really is Jean's story though, and whilst I was initially worried about Sophie Turner supporting a Jean Grey-centric film so soon after 'X-Men: Apocalypse', 'Dark Phoenix' demonstrates how good Turner is in the role. So much of the film relies on her performance, but she's actually very good, and manages to sell the more difficult moments. Kinberg doesn't just turn Jean evil, and explores her fluctuating mental state to an interesting degree. This focus on Jean also means that we get more time with her boyfriend Scott, who acts as the moral center of the film, despite not getting as much screen-time as I think he deserved.

'Dark Phoenix' is Simon Kinberg's directorial debut, and in many respects, I think it shows. Kinberg isn't overly-ambitious with the film, relying more on in-camera action as opposed to excessive visual effects. It feels very grounded and serious, meaning that the sillier moments and jokes don't really work too well. Kinberg doesn't seem to be pushing himself as a director too far, but his more grounded approach does actually help to make the film more interesting than just turning into a green-screen, CGI-heavy mess (a trap 'X-Men: Apocalypse' fell into with its third act). The film doesn't really look or feel like a proper superhero film, and while that makes it slightly more interesting in some respects, it also means that the film doesn't have a particularly bold colour palette or production design. The new X-Men costumes and X-jet look more like that of the comic book X-Men, but the film doesn't go overboard with its comic influences. Hans Zimmer's score is more akin to his score for 'Blade Runner 2049', relying mostly on ambiance and creating atmosphere, as opposed to having a big superhero march seen in previous X-Men films. This does mean that John Ottman's X-Men theme is nowhere to be found, but it is an interesting choice that I think mostly pays off.

The main issue here is the ending, which completely falters. Characters make bizarre decisions that don't feel earned at all, and it feels like it's been cut down to ensure that it's as short and easy-to-reshoot as possible. The way Jean's story ends doesn't feel very satisfactory, and the main conflict becomes much more conventional by the end. When all is said and done, the events of 'Dark Phoenix' just come down to a rather small-scale conflict within the X-Men - that also features aliens. This isn't the big, climactic finale that the series perhaps deserves, but I certainly don't think it's the complete disaster so many critics have been calling it. There are redeeming features here, and if you are a fan of the series, there are things to like...it just doesn't work nearly as well as it could have. 5/10