X men Dark Phoenix review

X Men: Dark Phoenix review. When it was announced X men would be redoing this hit comic storyline, there was global excitement from so many fans. Then it started going wrong. First Simon Kinberg was announced as the director. Kinberg has had a long future with X men including some disappointing films and even produced the major misfire of the remade Fantastic Four and considering this is his directional debut, it's understandable why fans became worried.

Another worry was the constant date push backs the film received. First it was supposed to be released last November but then got pushed back to February. Then it received a 3rd push back to June which stayed it's permanent slot but since its a sign bad films get constant push backs, it was another worry for fans.

Finally Disney bought the rights to 20th Century Fox which made it likely this would be the final x men film produced by Fox and the X men would start appearing in the MCU so it's fair to say Dark Phoenix had it's fair share of problems before it was even released. And unfortunately it seems it's fate was sealed with the constant push backs.

The film starts off really well. It is a million times better than The Last Stand and it does the first half of the story justice. Sophie Turner does a fantastic job as Jean Grey as she struggles with her powers and emotions and finally succumbs to her devastatingly powerful abilities. The rest of the cast are impressive especially James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr, Nicholas hoult as Hank McCoy and Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers.

Unfortunately after the first half, the film starts to fall apart. First Jennifer Lawrence deserves so much better as Mystique. She had a fair bit of screen time but really had nothing to do but bark orders and criticise decisions. And her death should have been a powerful moment but since it was spoiled in the second trailer, it's impact was really meaningless and afterwards it turns out to be a pointless plot device to turn Hank and Magneto against Jean, which if you think about it doesn't make much sense especially for Magnetos point.

Then we have unnecessary characters that bring the film down further. Jessica Chastain is a brilliant actress but she plays such a bland and pointless villain who ends up becoming very annoying. The shapeshifting alien race really did not need to be in this film. Also Evan Peters as Peter Maximoff in usually fantastic and charismatic but he feels really out of place and underused. Apart from the opening act, he has no place in the film and it's a wonder why he still appeared in it.

What was so much more disappointing about the second half was the major U turn in the film. It went from the X men trying to save jean from herself to them saving the world from the shapeshifting alien race and although that's the meaning of superhero films, it completely overshadows the original meaning of the Dark Phoenix story. This should have been an opportunity to reinvent the superhero genre but instead it's like the writers decided they got bored halfway through the original story and decided to change it entirely.

This really should have been the best and most powerful entry in the franchise but it ends up falling flat that can't be saved by fantastic performances or decent action. 2/5 Stars.