DISORDER OF THE PHOENIX
A confused plot and woeful script means this final X-Men chapter is a boring mess
THIS final episode in the long- running live action comic-book superhero series fails to finish in a blaze of glory, and instead flames out in a CGI puff of indifference.
Set mostly in 1992, it stars a willing Sophie Turner as young superhero Jean Grey, who along with fellow X-Men team members is involved in the deep space rescue of a stricken space shuttle.
She’s exposed to a solar flare which gives an immeasurable boost to her mind-reading telepathic and groundshaking telekinetic powers, but back on Earth she struggles to control her enhanced abilities.
Soon she’s being pursued by two competing groups of X-Men, the US military, and a band of homeless alien shape-shifters led by Jessica Chastain.
It’s alarming and dispiriting to see an actress of Turner’s quality slog through CGI-landscapes and grossly functional dialogue and direction with such grim determination.
Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult don’t fare any better as blue-skinned mutants, while James McAvoy’s bald and brainy Professor X, and Michael Fassbender’s anti-hero Magneto, are rolled out
once more to read minds and bend metal. Given an eight-year head start on rival superhero franchise the Avengers, but with 10 fewer films under its belt, the X-Men series suffers from previous creative decisions resulting in a confused and contradictory patchwork of cast changes, multiple timelines and repetitive narratives.
This 12th outing is a sombre and plodding retread of the series’ 2006 third instalment, X-Men:
The Last Stand, and feels at all times like a rehashed greatest hits package of uninspired action scenes.
Sorely missing the fan-pleasing muscle of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, we should be grateful this repeat doesn’t see ex-footballer Vinnie Jones reprise his role as the super villain, Juggernaut.
“Nobody cares any more,” exclaims Fassbender at one point. It’s as if he can read my mind.