X-Men: Dark Phoenix ★★½
X-MEN can be a confusing film series.
Not only is it hard to work out which films matter overall (the Wolverine spin-offs? Deadpool?), the progression of the characters doesn’t make sense between some films.
Apparently this can be explained away by claiming the characters exist in some kind of timeless state, while everyone and everything around them progresses.
That OK for some of the movies, but it’s not a rule followed in all of them.
The latest instalment, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, is set in 1992, three decades after one of the other films featuring the same characters (Last Stand, I think?), but they have all barely aged.
I also recall Jean Grey being the subject of a dilemma in one of the earlier films (can’t remember which one) and now the same basic plot occurs in this latest film.
Does all this matter? Kind-of, if you are a fan who has invested in the series. For others, not so much.
Dark Phoenix can basically stand by itself and for the first hour or so it’s engaging enough.
Sure, we’ve seen most of it before, both characters and script; but actors like James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence will always give it their all trying to turn sows’ ears into silk purses.
At the start of the film the X-Men have been around in the current world for a while but are still barely being tolerated by much of society.
Magneto (Fassbender) has left to create his own community on a remote island and Raven (Lawrence) is having doubts about Xavier (McAvoy), specifically his efforts to gain government support.
When a space shuttle is crippled and stranded with its crew Xavier is quick to offer the services of all the X-Men, but Raven thinks the rescue mission is too risky.
It turns out she is right and Jean Grey (played by Sophie Turner) is subjected to the impact of some kind of star-burst that renders her unconscious. When they return to Earth, Jean starts to change physically and mentally, assuming incredible new powers that she cannot control.
At the same time, she also starts to question the motivations of Xavier in first bringing her into the X-Men fold.
A group of shape-shifting aliens arrive, led by Vuk eerily played by Jessica Chastain, determined to either make Jean side with them or give up her new powers.
Writing this precise it all sounds a little silly and I think fans will still be the most engaged. The film cost $200 million to make and has struggled so far to attract big box office or critical support.
There are some good visuals- the extended fight on the train is particularly good – but there are also some that look either lazy or too high concept, depending on how generous you are.
Turner, who played Sansa in Game of Thrones, is quite good as Jean and the young cast of Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Evan Peters and Kodie Smitt-McPhee also return.
Dark Phoenix isn’t a terrible film by any means; it’s just an average X-Men instalment.