Dark Phoenix: X-Men Doing X-Men Things, And That Never Gets Old
The trick to getting the most out of a movie is going in blind. Let the experience consume you. Allow adventure to drown out the rest of the world. Without comparison to films past, just watch.
Basically, don’t be a critic, be a kid.
Have fun first, and above all, settle into the vulnerability. Worry about what went wrong later. That’s how I see every movie, and that’s how I approached Dark Phoenix — a blank canvas waiting to have paint slathered all over me. And for that I am grateful. If I’d have listened to all the negative comments beforehand, I might not have enjoyed the latest Simon Kinberg directed X-Men installment as much as I did. And that’s a shame. An unfair shame.
Does that mean Dark Phoenix is a perfect film? Of course not. There are issues; like the absence of Scott and Jean’s relationship. Sure you can tell they’re together, but that’s about it. One of the things that made the comics and even the 90’s cartoon work so well, was Scott’s love for Jean. The dude was hopelessly devoted to her, and mercilessly pulverized when she started to pull away. Without seeing how much Scott cares for Jean, we don’t care for Jean either. Every good story is, after all, a love story. So why take that away? One has to feel like, along with some pretty specific dialogue, the producers were trying to take advantage of the female empowerment angle. The whole “you don’t need a man to be happy” thing. That’s all well and great, but Sophie Turner already has her issues playing Jean without being forced to play her like a 17-year-old girl who just got dumped.
It didn’t help matters that Scott was ridiculously underpowered, ricocheting optic blasts off car windows and barely scratching his opponents. Instead of the legendary leader of The X-Men, Scott was a puppy dog. And no fault to Tye Sheridan who played him — he was great — he was just written wrong. Yet another example of when sticking to the source material would’ve benefited the film greatly. Adding Wolverine to muscle things up would’ve been fabulous too, but instead, we’re left with only one sweet tough guy line from Cyclops, “if you $#@%ing touch her, I’ll kill you.”
It’s also hard to connect with the rest of the team. Storm feels like Raiden from Mortal Combat and Quicksilver gets knocked out quickly. But in truth, it’s not their story anyway. It’s Jeans. Or at least, it always has been before. As the film continues we begin to understand something: the story isn’t about Jean. She’s a plot device for Charles. A super-powered motivation for him to admit that he was wrong and for the audience to learn that lying to those you love, no matter how well it works today, will always come back and bite you later.
Once we understand that the big money, along with all the attention, is on Charles, we’re free to let him and Eric do their thing. Be it separately or together, Charles and Eric have been delivering the best X-performances — aside from Hugh Jackman as Logan — since “X-Men” debuted in theatres nearly 20 years ago. It makes you wonder where we go from here.
It’s easy to see why the new angle on the classic Phoenix Saga, along with other weak ideas, puts Dark Phoenix into an unfamiliar corner. But even so, the film is entertaining, worth seeing at least a few times, and memorable. The limited dialogue between Charles and Eric is striking and simple, and when Nightcrawler gets pissed and turns all rabid blue devil I nearly jumped out of my skin. A solid 7 out of 10. It’s the freaking X-men, doing X-Men things! And unless the kid in you is dead, that never gets old.
