Will this ‘Phoenix’ rise?
X-Men assemble for a slick dark latest chapter
If “Dark Phoenix” is the end of the “X-Men” as we have come to know them, as it most surely is, then we’ve left them in a dark place.
Sophie Turner’s transformation from “Game of Thrones” Queen of the North to an omnipotent killing machine is the main reason to see “Dark Phoenix,” the last of the “XMen” films at 20th Century Fox before it hands the reins, in full, back to Marvel. The film resets some mutant heroes from 20 years of previous X-Men movies, and instead mines Marvel comic books to tell the origin story of Jean Grey.
Although “Dark Phoenix” is more reboot than series ender, it clearly is for those initiated in XMen lore. The movie is based on Marvel Comics’ “The Dark Phoenix Saga” and marks the directorial debut for Simon Kinberg, the writer who has been the connective “XMen” screenwriter since “The Last Stand” in 2006. That film, with Famke Janssen as Jean, told quite a different Dark Phoenix story.
Hers is not the only character reset in 2019 — there is a death that has been much speculated on and revealed on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Tuesday, as if it were common knowledge. (No such spoilers here.)
“Dark Phoenix” is slickly made and features some typically standout computer-generated imagery, particularly the manipulation of materials during a train fight and Quicksilver’s slow-motion/topspeed scenes. But it’s not a lot of fun, nor does it provide satisfying closure in the way the standalone “Logan” did for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.
Kinberg’s script continues to raise important questions about
the rights of Earth’s mutant population and their rights to use their powers on humans and each other. It also is heavy on comic book violence, with a lack of humor bordering on DC depths. The opening scene includes an image that helps the film earn its PG-13 rating.
Turner’s Jean Grey certainly has no reason to smile.
The film kicks off with X-Men leader Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) sending a team to save a space shuttle crew. Jean, who takes off with blue duo Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) and Hank (Nicholas Hoult) in charge, saves everyone by absorbing what appears to be a solar flare. She is dubbed “Phoenix,” surviving what had seemed like a certain fiery death.
The X-Men return, mission accomplished, but Jean finds her powers have flown off any measurable charts. She is suddenly able to detect the “protective walls” — lies? — that Charles has placed in her mind so that she could not remember childhood traumas.
Charles at first is oblivious or in denial about his role in what Jean has become. An early observation by Lawrence’s Raven proves prophetic, as she tells a toosmug Charles that the women have been saving the guys more often than not. “You might want to think about changing the name to X-Women,” she says.
The Professor X we meet here has a Bat phone to the president and has been caught up in the praise being lavished on him for the X-Men’s heroics. It is the calm of acceptance before the inevitable storm, but he can’t see it. “Dark Phoenix” is as much about the comeuppance of Charles Xavier as it is the evolution of Jean Grey.
All eyes, though, are on Turner, whose “GoT” fans will not be disappointed in her fire-and-ice transitions from emotional wreck to allpowerful being. As Jean leaves the X-Men behind and spirals out of control, a new threat enters the picture — shape-shifting aliens come to Earth in search of the power that Jean now possesses.
But why bother to have an actress the caliber of Jessica Chastain as an emotionless alien leader and barely recognizable in a white wig and sensible heels?
Alien/Chastain and her coaliens, along with the X-Men, are caught up in a race to reach Jean. There are those among the X-Men who want to save her and others demanding a reckoning.
Entering late in the game and a welcome addition to the race is Michael Fassbender’s Magneto, who apparently has been living off the grid, as the leader of a communal society of mutant sociopaths.
McAvoy’s Charles regroups when focused on saving Jean or engaged in verbal duels with Magneto. The sparks that fly between the two actors are among the most welcome moments in the film, but they can’t overcome a helter-skelter plot and overall lack of humor. Writer-director Kinberg gives Evan Peters’ Quicksilver and Kodi Smit-McPhee’s Nightcrawler a few quips and sight gags, but they are too few to penetrate the darkness.
Let’s hope that Marvel can work its magic and inject a little fun back into the dour bunch the X-Men have evolved into since popcorn films in 2000 and ’03. It’s a good bet we will see one or more of these characters again, rising like a phoenix when Avengers assemble.