‘Dark Phoenix’ rises above the norm
Dark Phoenix Rated: PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action including some gunplay, disturbing images, and brief strong language). Running time: 114 minutes. 666 1⁄2 (out of five),
We’re stuck in this superhero world, and we can’t escape, any more than the people in the movies can. But every so often, within that world, somebody finds something different to explore, something new to say, and we realize this genre might still grow. Such is the case of “Dark Phoenix.”
Yes, if you like superhero battles, computer-generated explosions and barely comprehensible action, you will find it here, and in the usual place — the last half hour. But leading up to all that, there are lots of interesting things to think about. For example, what do you do about an all-powerful person who isn’t evil, but mentally ill?
The movie takes place in alternate-history 1992, at a point when the X-Men have risen in such esteem that their leader, Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), has a direct hotline to the president. In an early scene, the X-Men are sent into space to rescue Space Shuttle crewmembers. Among the X-Men is Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), who was brought up at Professor Xavier’s school, following the death of her parents in a car crash.
“Dark Phoenix” immediately endears us to Jean because, at this stage, she’s the most normal of the XMen. She is on a space ship, but she has a fear of flying. She has a boyfriend that’s she’s close with — his name is Cyclops, but aside from that, it’s an average, nice relationship. But then, on the mission, she is hit by some kind of huge, force field — it’s violet colored, just in case you ever see one coming at you.
From this event, her life changes. First, her power becomes unlimited. And second, all the barriers in her mind (or “scaffolding,” as Xavier calls in) disappear. Within the movie, this scaffolding is presented as something almost literal. We’re to understand that Xavier entered her mind when she was a child, and erected barriers within her memory to past trauma.
But in metaphorical terms, it’s as if everything previously repressed and unconscious is now front and center in her consciousness — not just memories, but dark impulses that become irresistible. So she does what any one of might do in that situation. She freaks out.
Of course, if she were an average person, she’d be fine after a few months of therapy. She’s not psychopathic, just in pain and lashing out. But because she has incredible power, she’s the most dangerous person in the world. So what do you do with someone like that? Talk to them? Kill them? And what if you can’t do either?
This is the question of “Dark Phoenix,” the dilemma that everyone in the movie faces, but especially fellow mutants. Obviously, she is screwing it up for everybody, ruining the reputations of mutants everywhere. But she is also a beloved member of the family, going through a rough patch — rough for everybody, in this case. So no one knows what to do, or rather everyone they know what to do, but they all disagree, particularly Xavier and his equally powerful counterpart, Magneto (Michael Fassbender).
To an extent, the movie waters down its moral complexity by introducing a flat-out villainess, who begins to guide Jean’s actions, thus absolving Jean of some moral responsibility. Still, it’s hard to complain when the villainess is played by Jessica Chastain, the best person in the world to play a cool, coiffed, composed entity of evil, looking for a new planet for her displaced people.
The movie’s best lines belong to Chastain, but only because she makes them the best. “Your lives have no meaning. Your world will be ours,” she tells Magneto, not as if issuing a threat, but as though stating the obvious. With similar wide-eyed certitude, she asks Jean, “Are you a scared little person who cowers to a man in a chair? Or are you the most powerful being on the planet?”
Well, when you put it way . . .
As Jean, Sophie Turner is at the center of the action, but she doesn’t play the usual superhero. At all points in the story, Turner is focused on the character’s mental state, on her pain, anger, confusion, grief and terror. It makes for a different kind of X-Men movie, one of the better ones.