Little spark in second take on classic tale...
The X-Men bid farewell to Fox before flying off to their eventual new home in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a second big screen take on the Dark Phoenix storyline.
Simon Kinberg penned the previous attempt in the much maligned The Last Stand and now makes his directorial debut with this fourth outing for the First Class mutant crew.
As a fan of most of the X-Men movies, I’d love to say this gives the Dark Phoenix tale the quality flick it deserves – and rises above its mediocre marketing and fans’ lack of anticipation – but alas not.
Kinberg’s script serves up a few bum lines (“X-Women”), an incredibly talky middle third and no real sense of planet-on-theline peril.
Motivations are murky throughout and even X-Men leader and father-figure Professor Xavier comes across as unlikable for most of his screen time, despite James McAvoy’s best efforts.
The small-scale set-pieces – in the suburbs, on a street at night and in a train carriage – are reminiscent of the very first X-flick, which had the excuse of having a limited budget.
Unlike the previous three franchise entries, the setting – this time events take place in the early 90s – adds nothing and the decision to sideline Evan Peters’ Quicksilver is criminally dumb.
Speaking of dumb, it’s no surprise that spoiling a major death in the trailers heavily detracts from what should be a very emotional moment. Jessica Chastain’s villainess is enigmatic but mostly irrelevant, while Sophie Turner is better that I expected her to be in the titular role, but struggles with the key soul-stirring beats.
It’s great to finally see the X-Men in space, though, and it’s a shame the “cosmic” ending originally planned was changed after Captain Marvel’s climax apparently covered similar ground.
Dark Phoenix is serviceable stuff but fails to soar like the series’ best, or provide a fitting farewell-for-now for the X-Men.