X-men: Dark Phoenix begins with the world finally excepting mutants for being different, a theme that has always played out within the world of the X-men from the comic books to the movies. The team new X-men team consists of Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkhölme / Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy / Beast; Sophie Turner as Jean Grey / Phoenix, Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers / Cyclops; Alexandra Shipp as Ororo Munroe / Storm, Kodi Smit-McPhee as Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler and Evan Peters as Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver; not forgetting of course James McAvoy as Charles Xavier / Professor X and Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto. Phew, That was a lot.
When a space mission goes awry and the X-men are called in to save the day is when things begin to turn for our heroes. Jean is hit by a cosmic force that transforms her into one of the most powerful mutants the Phoenix, a force that isn’t explored too much throughout the movie. This cosmic force we soon find out ended the life on another planet, known as the shape shifting D’bari led by Vuk played by Jessica Chastain, who seek to find this force and use it to restore their home world.
Before any of that can happen it starts to become apparent that something is wrong with Jean as she seems to be losing control of her powers due to the fact that she has become so powerful. Jean learns that Charles has been lying to her about her parents death something that causes Jean to lash out with dire consequences for the X-men team, altering the teams. A ‘civil war’ of sorts ensures as different vested interests are in pursuit of Jean and not all of them are looking out for Jean’s best interests.
Unfortunately, the X-men movie has not done as expected in the box office and there is not much in the way of critical positivity for this movie which is rather sad as it was quite enjoyable. One thing that is important for me is the believability of the events that lead to the conclusion. For me Infinity wars worked well as a story because Thanos kicked ass even after everyone tried to stop him and in Endgame Thanos seemed to not be the same force that he was in Infinity wars. Think Black Panther fighting Killmonger, their battle was believable because there was a balance in their abilities; it wasn’t just a physical fight but an ideological one something that pushes Thanos in infinity wars and was lacking in Endgame. That is something that is not there in Dark Phoenix, as the writers clearly wanted the story to revolve around Jean without resolving the real issues that Jean poses by having an undeveloped antagonist in the form of the Vuk and the D’bari.
Dark Phoenix is in cinemas now.
Categories: Movies
Robert Geoghegan. 
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