X-Men: Dark Phoenix

This review may contain spoilers!

A better retelling of the Dark Phoenix story than X-Men: Last Stand but an overall disappointing end to the X-men franchise. I would give X-Men: Dark Phoenix a 6.5/10.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix is the fourth instalment of this incarnation of the team and focuses upon one of the X-Men, Jean Grey, as she gains access to a cosmic force and begins to lose control of herself and her powers. What unfolds is a race against time as the X-Men try to save their fallen teammate from herself and the alien race attempting to manipulate her. This film really nails Jean's descent into darkness as her powers grow stronger. Initially you're quite horror-stricken by Jean absorbing the entirety of the Phoenix force but then seeing her full recovery is a unnerving calm before the storm. Once her power begins to consume her things begin to take a turn and lead to her having some excellent confrontation scenes with her father, Mystique and Magneto. The entire build up to a fight in which some characters are motivated to kill Jean while others believe she can still be reasoned with is probably the stand out moment of the film, even toting a moment in which Charles Xavier is grotesquely forced to 'walk' towards Jean as she begins to embrace the dark side of her new power. The film is a great exploration about a struggle with power and choosing how to wield it, seeing how Jean ultimately chooses to use the Phoenix force is well done and one plotline in this film that felt well-rounded. The special effects are more sparing than in previous films but they do still look great, the space scene in which Jean absorbs the Phoenix force is a very impactful visual and a design that the film pays a lot of detail to throughout. The score for the film is the obvious knockout, Hans Zimmer has managed a haunting melody that feels otherworldly and really reflects upon this tragic character arc of Jean Grey.

James McAvoy, who played Professor Charles Xavier, did a great job at showing the split between his loyal bond and commitment to his student with the tremendous ego and sense of achievement he had gained on behalf of mutant rights; McAvoy really comes into his own when he commits to bringing Jean back from the darkness and he attempts to show her the family the X-men have become.Jennifer Lawrence, who played Mystique, is perfectly suited to the mission leader role; Lawrence has a way of really deftly handling the diplomatic exchange between characters in tense situations that occurs in this film. Nicholas Hoult, who played Beast, plays well to the more carefree nature of his character in the first act; but what Hoult really takes in his stride is Beast's turn to revenge after the death of Lawrence's Mystique and the extremes this pushes his character to. Sophie Turner, who played Jean Grey, is this really amiable character who portrays such a strong descent into darkness stemming from her newfound power extremely well; what I liked most from Turner was how vulnerable she showed Jean to be in the first couple of acts when she was scared of her new abilities and didn't understand the change that had come upon her. Evan Peters, who played Quicksilver, has such a fun, cocky persona that really stands out in the scenes he's in; Peters just has a natural sense of what makes this role so entertaining and can cut right to the humour in a scene or dialogue exchange. Scott Shepherd, who played John Grey, really does feel like this hollowed out victim of tragedy when we join him in the film; the exchange between Shepherd and Turner is a painful yet honest moment that really hits home.

However, the best performance came from Michael Fassbender, who played Magneto. Throughout these films there seems to be a constant struggle between James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender to absolutely outshine one another and it has resulted in some of the most riveting acting from th entire X-Men series. In this feature Fassbender is a more resolute leader of his people, not someone who immediately launches into combat but rather is willing to come to an amiable understanding. You really get to see the wisdom of Magneto this time around as he chooses his fights and allies far more carefully and isn't willing to take Jean into the fold upon her initial arrival. Yet Fassbender still has this exceptional way of unlocking the rage and motivation of revenge that is such an integral part of Magneto at key moments, chiefly when he goes upon a rampage to kill Jean after the death of Mystique. I love the chemistry between Fassbender and McAvoy, these two feel like old friends and have a wealth of history between them; the final scene of Dark Phoenix is bittersweet but in many ways excellent.

This is a film built upon a few interweaving storylines that comprise the main plot: Jean's descent into becoming Dark Phoenix, the relationship between Charles and Jean, and the aliens who are manipulating Jean for their own ends. While the storyline around Jean and her progression into Dark Phoenix is rather interesting it will never take the viewer anywhere unexpected, a lot of the movie is transparent in what it sets up as its 'big moments'. Worse than this the film puts a lot of importance on the opening few scenes of the film in which Jean's origins are explored. However, the origin isn't particularly gripping and the first meeting between Jean and Charles comes off as quite stilted and you don't see the dynamic of the relationship at all. The film is constantly pushing flashbacks to these moments as well which just interrupts the flow of the narrative more than anything else. The entire alien storyline is what makes this quite a disappointing X-Men adventure. The aliens don't have much in terms of identity or even a significant central character. The alien roles just give some generic cannon fodder to fight in the final act and exposition to overexplain what Jean went through in space and what she is capable of now. The film feels like some very epic scenes and fine character moments patched to a story that doesn;t necessarily make a whole lot of sense, the dialogue throughout the feature certainly could've done with a second look as well. The cinematography for Dark Phoenix is surprisingly underwhelming for a blockbuster feature, the use of multiple shots for a character performing an action or entering a scene is just inexcusable for a film of this scale; not to mention the inconsistencies with how multiple scenes were framed.

Tye Sheridan, who played Cyclops, just feels unnecessarily stoic and feels like an add-on role to either Turner's Jean Grey or McAvoy's Xavier when they need him; Sheridan really doesn't seem to know how to negotiate the love subplot that exists between his role and Jean Grey which is a pity because most of the work for that is put on him. Alexandra Shipp, who played Storm, comes into a few scenes to generate conflict when you don't even really understand how she factors into the film; Shipp has proven to be a rather boring Storm and this film shows that by placing her squarely in the background. Kodi Smit-McPhee, who played Nightcrawler, is a very redundant role in this film; there are some scenes where this role has sudden bursts of strong emotion that just doesn't lend itself to the moment at all. Jessica Chastain and Ato Essandoh, who played Vuk and Jones respectively, have to be some of the most generic X-Men antagonists this series has ever had; Chastain in particular has done much better than this in the past but phones it in pretty strong for this role. Summer Fontana, who played Young Jean Grey, gives a very mild performance of the main role; this film banked a lot on Fontana really standing out in the first act so this really let the film down. Andrew Stehlin and Kota Eberhardt, who played Ariki and Selene Gallio respectively, have the misfortune of being little more than bland henchmen/side character to Fassbender's Magneto; these films tend to enjoy putting some henchmen roles alongside Magneto but consistently struggle with turning these roles into actual fleshed out characters.