X-Men: Dark Phoenix is directed by Simon Kinberg and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicolas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp and Jessica Chastain.
The plot of this film revolves around Jean Grey who, during a mission in space with her fellow X-Men, suffers a terrible accident that takes her powers to a very unstable level and she turns to wreaking havoc on the Earth.
The performances are all mixed, James McAvoy as Charles/Professor X shows that he can be very likeable and charming, but also very serious and intense when he needs to be. Then there is Sophie Turner as Jean Grey/The Phoenix who is good at portraying the distress, fear and confusion she is going through - she is very convincing in the role. And then there is Fassbender as Magneto, who has done better work with the role in the past, but his presence here is an admirable effort and something to be appreciative of. Everyone else just feels like pale imitations of the actors who portrayed them in the previous instalments.
The script was written by the director and some mildly intense opening scenes do show some potential, but as soon as the titular villain makes her appearance a lot of the film ends up becoming very repetitive. Although the film could have some interesting ideas it just doesn't explore the possibilities. I found this script both unduly repetitive and lacking in ambition.
The film was shot by Mauro Fiore and there's very little of note - the film mostly just looks painfully average. There is a little bit of glossiness to scenes that take place in the past, but apart from that the visual side of this film is quite a let-down with only one small redeeming quality.
The music was composed by Hans Zimmer and his score certainly gives the film the darker tone that it's looking for, but nevertheless the music seems as if not much work went into it. What I find even worse is that if you listen carefully, you will hear several echoes of his earlier work. It sounds like he was only half-interested in this work and compensated with what he thought he could get away with.
I would like to mention some of the visual effects. I was somewhat impressed with a key sequence that manged to be bright, colourful, and still possess a mild intensity. And the film did have some use of slow motion which I think is fine, but if used too much is nothing more than a cheap way to keep the audience's attention.
Now I now what you're thinking, what could have damaged my experience with this film any more than the above? One thing did - the ending is a joke!. First we have a climactic fight scene that goes on too long and is hard to get invested in. Then we have one or two call-backs to previous films in the franchise, and the worst part of this is that the ending feels like it is open to a sequel that is never going to happen. This ending really annoyed me, I expected better from a film that was supposed to be a great send-off for the franchise, but instead we got this.
The conclusions I draw from this are: X-Men: Dark Phoenix has some good performances; a ambitious but over-repetitive script; very little to be impressed with in cinematography; a score that gets the tone of the film right, but after that gives in to trying as little as possible; some mildly impressive things to be found in the visual effects; and an ending that is the perfect example of the wrong way to end a beloved film franchise.
Having taken all my pros and cons into account, I'm going to give X-Men: Dark Phoenix...
C-
Thank you for reading.
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