QUICKIE -- The New Mutants (2020)

The New Mutants is a 2020 American horror film in the superhero genre, based on the Marvel Comics team of the same name and distributed by 20th Century Studios. It is the thirteenth and final installment in the X-Men film series. The film was directed by Josh Boone from a screenplay he wrote with Knate Lee, and stars Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Alice Braga, Blu Hunt, and Henry Zaga. In the film, a group of young mutants held in a secret facility fight to save themselves.

Boone and Lee first began work on the film after Boone completed The Fault in Our Stars (2014). The pair pitched a potential film trilogy to X-Men producer Simon Kinberg, and in May 2015 were officially signed on to the project. Taylor-Joy and Williams were rumored to be cast in March 2016, and were confirmed over a year later when the rest of the cast filled out. Filming took place in Boston, Massachusetts, from July to September 2017, primarily at Medfield State Hospital, with an April 2018 release in mind. The film was then delayed while reshoots were planned and Disney began the process of acquiring production company 20th Century Fox. After the acquisition was completed, Boone returned to work on the film, and it was completed without reshoots in March 2020.

The New Mutants was finally theatrically released in the United States on August 28, 2020, after facing many delays from its original April 2018 date. Critics called the film "middling," "so-so," and "perfectly fine." Originally planned as the first in a trilogy of films, Disney's purchase of Fox reverted the film rights to Marvel Studios, making the possibility of future films unlikely.

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Plot:

Danielle "Dani" Moonstar, a young Cheyenne Native American, escapes the destruction of her reservation during a tornado. Dani's father William hides her before an unseen entity kills him, leaving her the only survivor. After being knocked unconscious, Dani awakens in a hospital run by Dr. Cecilia Reyes. Reyes comforts Dani, telling her she is a mutant, and advises her to remain in the hospital until she learns what her abilities are and controls them.

Dani is introduced to four other young teenagers; Samuel "Sam" Guthrie, Illyana Rasputin, Roberto "Bobby" da Costa and Rahne Sinclair. Reyes has brought each of them to the hospital after they have all suffered tragedy; Sam brought down a whole mine on his father and coworkers, Roberto burned his girlfriend to death, Rahne escaped her religiously strict village after being branded as a witch, and Illyana was haunted by her past in child slavery, which manifests itself as otherworldly beings called the "Smile Men". All of them are manifesting mutant abilities; Roberto can manipulate solar energy, Sam can fly at jet speed, Illyana has inter-dimensional sorcery powers, and Rahne's lycanthropy allows her to turn into a wolf. Reyes herself is a powerful mutant who keeps her patients from leaving the facility by surrounding it with unbreakable force fields.

Collectively, the five of them believe that they are being trained to join the X-Men, hence the strict supervision, as well as Reyes reminding them that they are considered dangerous and should not leave until they have mastered their abilities. Dani immediately befriends Rahne, eventually forming a romantic relationship, while Illyana continues to antagonize Dani. When Dani fights back, she discovers that Illyana's only friend is a hand puppet of a purple dragon who she calls Lockheed. Soon, the group all begin to have horrifying visions of their past tragedies, one of which results in Rahne getting branded in the neck. Illyana deduces that the visions are the result of Dani's powers manifesting; she has the ability to create illusions based on a person's psyche. Reyes consults her employers, the Essex Corporation, who instruct her to collect Dani's DNA and have her euthanized.

As Reyes takes Dani away, Rahne suspects that something is wrong. Illyana and Sam are attacked by the Smile Men while Roberto tries to break through the barrier, which has shrunken down. Dani uses her powers to learn of Reyes's true intentions before Rahne arrives in half-wolf form and mauls Reyes, forcing her to flee. The five regroup and realize that, in order to escape, they have to kill Reyes to deprive the force fields of their power source. They find her and Reyes traps them, revealing that she was training them to be killers for Essex. Before she can crush Dani to death, the entity, Demon Bear, who had been following Dani and was the true reason her reservation was destroyed, arrives and mauls Reyes throwing her body down to the floor.

Illyana summons her powers to jump between "limbo" and recruits a real life version of Lockheed to take on Demon Bear. Eventually, Sam and Roberto join the fight, overcoming their insecurities in the process. Rahne tries to reach through to an unconscious Dani until she is forced to fight the Demon Bear alone. Dani is visited by her father's spirit, who encourages her to face her fear. Dani awakens and confronts Demon Bear, calming it into submission and allowing it to rest. As day breaks, the group, now calling themselves the New Mutants, learn that the force field is down and head out together to face the unknown.

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Cast:

Maisie Williams as Rahne Sinclair:
A Scottish mutant who can turn into a wolf and is struggling to reconcile this with her religious beliefs. Williams was convinced to join the film after discussing the character's religious background with director Josh Boone, who identified with the comic book character due to his own strict religious upbringing.
Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin:
A Russian mutant with sorcery powers, she can manifest the Soulsword and use teleportation discs to travel. Illyana is the sister of Colossus, a member of the X-Men seen in previous films in the series. She has a purple dragon companion, Lockheed, in the film. Colbi Gannett portrays Illyana as a child.
Charlie Heaton as Samuel "Sam" Guthrie: An American mutant who can propel himself into the air, and is invulnerable while doing so.
Alice Braga as Dr. Cecilia Reyes: A mentor to the group and a medical doctor who can generate protective fields around herself.
Blu Hunt as Danielle "Dani" Moonstar:
A Native American mutant who can create illusions based on the fears and desires of other people. The film includes a love story between Rahne and Dani, which Williams felt was a natural extension of the comic book characters having a telepathic connection. Boone described this as "the spine and focus" of the film's "character-driven stuff".
Henry Zaga as Roberto "Bobby" da Costa: A Brazilian mutant who can manipulate solar energy.
Adam Beach as William Lonestar: Dani's father of Cheyenne descent.

Additionally, the character Demon Bear is featured in the film. Thomas Kee appears as Sam Guthrie's father Thomas, while Happy Anderson portrays Reverend Craig from Rahne's village, both are the result of illusions created by Dani. The Smile Men are physically portrayed by Dustin Ceithamer while Marilyn Manson provided their voices. Archive footage of Dafne Keen as Laura and Rissa Rose Kilar, Salef Celiz, Aidan Kennedy, Nayah Murphy, Chase Cubia, Emma Teo, Vincenzo Lucatorto, Noell Jellison, Haley Glass, Ella Rowbotham, Hudson Wright, Sebeon Jackson, Allegra Novikov and Sophia Rosales as other mutants held prisoner by Alkali-Transigen from Logan is shown when Dani uses her abilities to read the mind of Dr. Reyes.

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The Verdict:

(Laughs) I honestly don't have much to say about this film, despite all of the delays and alleged re-shoots after Disney bought out 20th Century Fox and got all of the X-Men properties under the House of Mouse and the Marvel umbrella in general. EW.com did a great write-up on all of the ups and downs this film suffered as a result of the constant delays and rewrites.

I know I'm biased toward Magik and Anya Taylor-Joy's portrayal of the character. I knew I was going to love her in this role from the second I saw the first few trailers for this.

I gave them a pass for finding a reason to get Lockheed in this film. I'm sure fans of Chris Claremont's X-Men run geeked out at this inclusion as much as I did.

I can't speak for everyone else, but I got EXACTLY what I wanted when I went into this film. I was eagerly anticipating Magik's live-action debut and she didn't disappoint in the least. Hell, we even got Lockheed as a bonus to that. Magik's powers weren't explained that well here (if at all...) but holy shit did they look awesome. In that regard, it makes me sad that we won't be seeing this story continue to peter out for three films like the trilogy that was originally set out prior to the Disney/20th Century Fox buyout. I could see where they wanted to go with this in later sequels.

There's horror elements in this film, but they are tame in comparison of the potential that they could have gone with this subject nature if this film maintained it's original R rating.

Speaking of the story, I can't complain too much about it as anyone who as somewhat familiar with these characters and their powers would be able to tell casual and new fans that the "horror" aspects of the New Mutants' powers could be explained due to Dani's mutant ability to create illusions based on the fears and desires of other people. In relation to the horror aspects of this film, I have to admit that I was really underwhelmed in that regard when this film was originally pitched as a R-rated affair when the trailers for this film were initially released. Now it seems like almost all of the horror sequences were straight out of the teaser trailers with little to nothing new in the final release. I would have preferred to see exactly how far that they were willing to go in terms of diving into the depths of that genre, but no dice here. It seemed like a completely missed opportunity too when the superhero genre has seemingly done all that it can do at this stage of the game.

Dr. Cecilia Reyes and Alice Braga's portrayal. 

While we're on the subject of missed opportunities, I can't forget about how this film uses Dr. Cecilia Reyes. I have no issue with Alice Braga's performance, but this was a complete waste of one of my favorite part-time X-Men members. When I heard the character was going to appear in this film, I thought she was going to act as a pseudo-mentor of sorts and help the teens escape the facility as she was only treating them as any good doctor would and should. Whoever wrote this script has completely no understanding of that character in any way, shape, nor form. The narrative miscast her as a devious mutant doctor, loyal to the Essex Corporation to the bitter end. 

Too bad we never got to see Nathaniel Essex himself in this film as it would have made for a better climatic finish than what we got with the team squaring off against the Demon Bear. We got that one mention of the Essex Corporation, which was mentioned in X-Men: Apocalypse as well without any further reference in neither Logan nor X-Men: Dark Phoenix either. This is pure speculation but I'm guessing that if Fox were allowed to make this three film trilogy that they originally intended with this spin-off, they would have built towards a final confrontation against Mr. Sinister in the third film where they had some members of the X-Men guest-starring as well since he had a hand to play in their fates too. 

This film concludes with this team of unlikely heroes facing off against a Demon Bear... Don't laugh, I'm dead serious. 

That entire final climatic battle was merely to showcase everyone's powers more or less and use up whatever was left of the special effects budget. I can completely understand while casual fans and newcomers would be underwhelmed by this narrative as it wasn't a strong film in the least to end on, especially for something within the X-Men mythos. Unfortunately, that's the price that was paid when this film was originally set out to be the first in a trilogy of films involving these characters, only to be diminished to a singular cinematic outing. 

The New Mutants with the actors and actresses portraying them in this film.

It makes me sad that we won't get to see more of these characters in this universe nor see where their adventures would have taken them next. This film played it safe for the most part and that proved to be a costly mistake as it results in an easily forgettable film within this overcrowded superhero genre. This would have been acceptable roughly two decades ago, but not today, when audiences have been conditioned to expect so much more out of these films and the genre itself. Like I said though, it bums me out even more as I loved the castings for these characters: Game of Thrones' Maise Williams as Rahne Sinclair, Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin, Stranger Things' Charlie Heaton as Samuel "Sam" Guthrie, Blu Hunt as Danielle "Dani" Moonstar, and Henry Zaga as Roberto "Bobby" da Costa. I thought this was a great ensemble of actors to play these characters. I hope Marvel Studios provide them the opportunity to reprise these roles in some capacity. They were all great fits for these characters and I would love to see them return in some capacity. Alice Braga's Dr. Cecilia Reyes was fine for what she was worth in her portrayal of that character when she was given opportunities in the narrative to present herself as a kindly doctor that she's known for in the comics continuity. I thought she could have been the teens' confidant by the time the events of the film came to a close instead of her being mauled to death by the Demon Bear - if her wounds and gashes from Rahne weren't going to do her in already... 

(Shrugs) I don't know... I just had a different ending in mind from how I saw where this was going to end. The ideal ending would have had the teens work together to overcome Dani's illusions for the first half of the film and confront the Demon Bear that was spiraling out of her control until she was able to tame it like things played out here, but the twist I would have thrown in was that she unleashes that force against a platoon of Essex Corporation soldiers/mutants under Mr. Sinister's control. Sinister would deem the hospital ran by Reyes to be a liability and wants it neutralized since he cannot control the mutants there after Reyes rebels against him with their combined efforts to escape. The film would then end with Reyes as a pseudo-Professor Xavier-style leader for this group of teens as they are on the run to confront Mr. Sinister himself as they look for clues where the main headquarters for Essex Corporation's base of operations and free more mutants like themselves from being used like weapons against humanity. 

With my idea, maybe we could have gotten this line-up of members for the team by the third film. (Shrugs) Who knows?

You could end with Magik saying something along the lines of, "It's what the X-Men would do." Cue end credits. 

Watch It or Don't Bother?

I know it's easy to write this film off as a complete waste of time, especially following the heights that this genre hit with Marvel Studios' Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. What people fail to realize is that these films are going to have to go back to a simpler time for a bit before they start hitting home runs again. It's obvious that this film will go down as whisper in a crowded room that is this superhero genre, but I still feel like this left me with a better impression than I had when I walked away from X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Did expect this film to blow me away, given that it will stand in history as the last X-Men film under the 20th Century Fox banner? No. It didn't blow me away with it's very few horror-themed elements either. This will be one of those films whereas you either love it or hate it - simply put. Like I said when I went into this, my expectations weren't high at all, so it helped in that regard. 

I do feel like this film would have fared better as a television series, much in the same vein as Marvel's Runaways did for three seasons or Marvel's Cloak & Dagger for two seasons. Imagine if this crossed over with The Gifted? Oh the possibilities...  

PREVIEW -- The New Mutants | Official Trailer | 20th Century FOX

20th Century Fox in association with Marvel Entertainment presents “The New Mutants,” an original horror thriller set in an isolated hospital where a group of young mutants is being held for psychiatric monitoring. When strange occurrences begin to take place, both their new mutant abilities and their friendships will be tested as they battle to try and make it out alive.

In Theaters April 3, 2020

Directed by: Josh Boone

Screenplay by: Josh Boone & Knate Lee

Produced by: Simon Kinberg, p.g.a., Karen Rosenfelt, p.g.a., Lauren Shuler Donner

Cast: Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Alice Braga, Blu Hunt, Henry Zaga

Without a shadow of a doubt, this is the first thing to have me excited with anticipation from 20th Century Fox's end of the spectrum when it comes to the X-Men property - at least since The Gifted was still airing on Fox. Given Fox's track record following everything X-Men related that's not X-Men: Days of Future Past, Logan, nor Deadpool, I shouldn't get my hopes up, but man, I can't contain my excitement for this.

Please don't fuck this up, Fox. Go out on a good note with this one.

At the end of the trailer, we get to see Illyana Rasputin aka Magik (portrayed by Anna Taylor-Joy brandishing her trademark Soulsword and donning her armor. This makes me hopeful that maybe, just maybe that this character has a chance of being added to the MCU property with the rest of the X-Men, sooner more than later. I'm still glad that they are sticking with the "horror" type theme for this, despite the reshoots following the flop that was X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

From the casting news, I heard that Alice Braga (replacing Rosario Dawson who was originally pegged for the role) will portray Dr. Cecilia Reyes in the film as well. Anyone who has conversed with me about X-Men over the years would know that Cecilia Reyes ranks within my personal top 10-20 favorite X-Men members to join the team. I'm anxious to see how Alice Braga will portray the character in this.

REVIEW -- X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)

Dark Phoenix (also known as X-Men: Dark Phoenix) is a 2019 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics X-Men characters, produced by 20th Century Fox and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the twelfth installment in the X-Men film series, a direct sequel to X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), and the seventh and final installment in the main X-Men series. The film is written and directed by Simon Kinberg and stars an ensemble cast featuring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, and Jessica Chastain. In Dark Phoenix, the X-Men must face the full power of the Phoenix after a mission in space goes wrong.

After X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) erased the events of X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) from the series' timeline, Kinberg expressed interest in a new adaptation of Chris Claremont and John Byrne's "The Dark Phoenix Saga" in a future film that would be more faithful than his previous attempt with The Last Stand, which was not well received. The new adaptation was confirmed as a follow-up to Apocalypse in 2016. Kinberg signed on to make his directorial debut in June 2017, when the majority of the cast was set to return from Apocalypse. Filming began later that month in Montreal and was completed in October 2017; the entire third act was later reshot in late 2018 following poor test screenings. The film was dedicated to the memory of X-Men co-creator Stan Lee.

Dark Phoenix was theatrically released in the United States on June 7, 2019. Critics described the film as "boring" and criticized both the plot and character development, although the performances (particularly McAvoy and Turner) received some praise. Many viewed the film as a disappointing and anticlimactic conclusion to the Fox X-Men series, and it is the worst-reviewed installment of the franchise according to Rotten Tomatoes.

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Cast:

James McAvoy as Charles Xavier / Professor X
Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto
Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkhölme / Mystique
Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy / Beast
Sophie Turner as Jean Grey / Phoenix

Summer Fontana portrays a young Jean Grey.
Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers / Cyclops
Alexandra Shipp as Ororo Munroe / Storm
Kodi Smit-McPhee as Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler
Evan Peters as Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver
Jessica Chastain as Vuk The leader of a shape-shifting alien race known as the D'Bari who manipulates the Phoenix. Kinberg described her as "the devil on Jean's shoulder", while Chastain called her character "clinical". Chastain also plays Margaret, the woman Vuk impersonates.

Additionally, Kota Eberhardt portrays Selene Gallio, while Andrew Stehlin portrays Ariki, a character that was initially reported as Red Lotus. Scott Shepherd and Hannah Anderson portray Jean's parents John and Elaine, respectively. Ato Essandoh appears as "Jones", one of Vuk's fellow D'Bari followers; Brian d'Arcy James appears as the President of the United States; and Lamar Johnson appears briefly as Match. Halston Sage cameos as Dazzler in the character's first cinematic appearance. Veteran X-Men writer Chris Claremont makes a cameo appearance as a crowd member during the scene when Xavier accepts his award for rescuing the space shuttle Endeavour crew. Daniel Cudmore, who previously portrayed Colossus in the franchise, was announced to have a role, but did not appear.

Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

In 1975, eight-year-old Jean Grey inadvertently uses her telekinesis to cause a car accident that kills her parents. Shortly afterwards, Professor Charles Xavier takes her to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, where he mentally blocks the accident from her memories and helps her hone her psychic abilities.

In 1992, the X-Men respond to a distress signal from the space shuttle Endeavour, which is critically damaged by a solar flare-like energy. While the X-Men save all of the astronauts, Jean is stranded and ends up absorbing all of the energy into her body. Jean survives the event, and her psychic powers are greatly amplified as a result. At the same time, the mental block placed by Xavier is destroyed, and she accidentally attacks the mutants celebrating at Xavier's school after a mental breakdown, passing out afterward. She later travels to her childhood hometown of Red Hook, New York, after discovering that her father is still alive. The X-Men attempt to take Jean home, but she injures Peter Maximoff and accidentally kills Raven Darkhölme and several local police officers before flying away.

Jean travels to the mutant refugee island of Genosha to seek assistance from Erik Lehnsherr in controlling her powers, but is turned away by Erik after she engages in combat with U.S. military forces tasked with her arrest. Jean meets Vuk, the leader of a shape-shifting alien race known as the D'Bari, who explains to her that she has been possessed by a force of cosmic power which wiped out the D'Baris' home planet years ago. The power had consumed all those it came across, until it encountered Jean. Meanwhile, Hank McCoy, who feels betrayed by Xavier's manipulation of Jean's memories, allies with Erik and the mutant refugees in an attempt to put down Jean in New York City.

Upon learning of Erik's plan to kill Jean, the X-Men confront him and his faction in New York. As they battle, Erik manages to infiltrate the building and confront Jean but is overpowered by her new abilities. Xavier then enters the building with Scott Summers. Jean attacks them until Xavier convinces her to read his memories – allowing her personality to resurface. Feeling remorseful, Jean asks Vuk to take the force from her; however, it quickly turns out that doing so would kill her. Xavier and Scott are able to prevent Vuk from fully absorbing the force from Jean, before both mutant factions, including Jean, are captured by the U.S. government and placed on a train headed towards a secret containment facility.

A remorseful Xavier admits to a very resentful Hank that the latter was right in his earlier accusations of violating Jean's mind and lying to her. The train is attacked by Vuk and her D'Bari forces. When the soldiers are overpowered by the shape-shifters, the mutants are freed from their restraints to combat the threat. Xavier confers with Jean within his mind, allowing Jean's personality to gain control of the force within her. Vuk once again attempts to drain Jean of the force, but Jean takes Vuk into outer space, then takes the stolen power from the D'Bari, killing her. She then disappears as her full potential is unleashed.

In the aftermath of the incident, the school is renamed the Jean Grey School for Gifted Youngsters and Hank becomes their new dean; with Xavier having retired after decades of fighting for mutant rights. While settling himself in Paris, Xavier is reunited with Erik and reluctantly agrees to play a game of chess with him. As they start playing, a flaming phoenix appears in the sky.

The Verdict:

Trust me, this review won't be that long as everyone's thoughts on this film seem to be unanimous across the board. As the last film of the Fox era of the X-Men film franchise, Dark Phoenix opens to the lowest rating and box office draw in the series ever. That's not without reason either. From the sheer amount of reshoots, rewrites, and rescheduling, it seemed like this film was doomed to fail right off the bat. What I couldn't understand was why did Fox allow the same writer, Simon Kinberg, that screwed up X-Men: The Last Stand to tarnish this legendary story arc from the comics with another piss poor adaptation? Don't get me wrong. Kinberg is capable of greatness. He's given us Star War Rebels and the original Sherlock Holmes with his writing credits while serving as a producer and creative consultant for a wealth of films. He's had success in other areas of nerd culture in terms of adaptations and screenwriting, but it seems that he was too timid to adapt this story as how it should be portrayed. Bringing in aliens from outer space is one thing, but having them be something radically unrelated nor associated with said story is giving the impression to your fan base that you're pulling shit out from left field. This is amplified when said writer completely ignores some of the events from the previous film that this one is allegedly a sequel to, X-Men: Apocalypse. 

(Sighs) I'm getting ahead of myself here... We'll discuss that and much more as we dissect this film into chunks for analysis. 

Characters

I don't blame the actors and actresses cast to be in this film. They did as much as they could with so little to work with on this script. Jean Grey/Phoenix (Sophie Turner) was reduced to merely repeating "I can't control it..." for majority of this film, which is a massive disservice to her acting talents. For some reason, Kinberg credits her as the "main character" of this film. In a lot of ways I can see that but this is just as much a film about Professor Charles Xavier's (James McAvoy) growing arrogance and past blunders in the upbringing of his students. Boy, did they paint a horrible light onto Xavier here though. I don't understand why it was necessary to repeat that negative character trait here that was recycled from X-Men: The Last Stand. It had a lukewarm reception to fans then and didn't rub me the right way here either. Mystique/Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) and Quicksilver (Evan Peters) were in this film long enough to make a cup of coffee and that's it. Lawrence had wanted out of these films since Days of Future Past so I wasn't surprised in the least that Mystique was killed off early on. I still don't understand what was up with that ultimate cringe-worthy line of "You might want to think about changing the name to X-Women." I kid you not - I facepalmed in the theater when I heard that come out of Jennifer Lawrence's mouth.

Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is the best thing about these films. Even with a lackluster script, you can't deny that this dude knows how to make chicken shit into chicken salad with whatever he's handed in terms of his acting ability. He demands your attention in every scene that he's in here and has more on-screen presence than even Sophie Turner's Jean Grey/Phoenix to say that she's the titular character here.

(Cracks up laughing) If you didn't laugh at that scene, then we can't be friends. Thank you, Michael Fassbender.

Tye Sheridan's Scott Summers/Cyclops was up the same creek as her when Cyclops barely got any dialogue in this either, outside of the best line in this entire thing in terms of defending him and Jean's relationship, "IF YOU TOUCH HER I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU" (to Magneto) - even though it came off here that their relationship wasn't that serious at all. At least he had more to say and do than Kodi Smit-McPhee's Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler, who was essentially there for them to have someone who could fucking teleport when the plot demanded it. Otherwise, he was knocked out or nowhere to be found when the action went down until the end of the film. I guess it could have been worse. He could have been Nicholas Hoult's Hank McCoy/Beast, who was just here to look like he was taking a shit for majority of this film's runtime when he was on a wire, flipping around with CGI blue fur on his face. Boy, did he feel like a massive waste of space on this cast. People can "stan" all they want for Alexandra Shipp's Storm, but she's just as easily forgettable as Beast and Nightcrawler in this film. 

Jessica Chastain's fineness was severely wasted in this film. That was crime all on it's own.

Last but not least, we have Jessica Chastain's Vuk that was surrounded in mystery upon the announcement of her casting when it didn't amount to nothing significant here at all. She ends up being the leader of an alien race that serves as the lackluster secondary (maybe third behind Magneto at one point) antagonist of a film that's pretty underwhelming to begin with.

Dazzler makes a cameo in this film, even though I thought she would have felt more at home in the previous entries set in the '70s.

Oh yeah, Halston Sage makes a cameo in this film as Dazzler for some reason, so there's that...

Narrative

Right off the bat, it felt like this film was a tale of two cities. The first instance of this is the opening sequence of the film where the X-Men are called in to rescue the crew of the space shuttle Endeavor. I was digging all of this as we got to see the fruits of Mystique's training this team as they were all using their powers in tandem while Xavier was coaching from the mansion with the assistance of Cerebro to enhance his own abilities to monitor the situation. Thing play out like the comics and Jean's forced to hold the shuttle together while Nightcrawler teleports the remaining astronaut to safety. Some fog (which I'm sure the same special effects that were used to create the gaseous fart that was Galactus in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) then slipped into Jean Grey's body and she was somehow "changed" for the rest of the film due to this cosmic entity.

The Phoenix Force (or rather the same fart cloud that they were calling Galactus in that F4: Rise of the Silver Surfer film a few years back...) consumes Jean Grey.

This is the exact moment where Kinberg messed up. I'm not talking about in terms of being true to the comics, but in screwing up their own continuity from X-Men: Apocalypse. In that film's climax, Jean Grey already shown that she had the potential to have that level of power when she destroyed Apocalypse. Right off the bat, this film acts like that didn't even happen at all. There's no mention nor acknowledgement of this event at all here. They don't even acknowledge how or why she was able to do that. This film treats this "entity" or whatever that she was possessed by on the space shuttle was the sole reason that her telepathic and telekinetic abilities were cranked up to eleven. For all of it's flaws, X-Men: The Last Stand didn't have this problem. They simplified the narrative by stating that Jean Grey always had the potential of the Phoenix Force, just that Charles Xavier sealed off that portion of her mind for her abilities wouldn't be radically out of control. This film recycles the part where Xavier tampered with her memories to hide the memory of Jean killing her parents (which was a lie too, since her father survived the incident) when her powers first manifested at that capacity for destruction, only to just shoehorn the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force into this plot with an half-assed explanation. Jean Grey would have been this dangerous with or without the entity within her body; this film makes this more than apparently obvious. It just comes across as Kinberg attempting to merely reuse his same script as before, but adding the cosmic element that people complained about that was absent and removing the whole "mutant cure" subplot from the narrative. 

Get used to that image. That's pretty much everything Sophie Turner does while playing the Dark Phoenix.

That along with this magical vibe that the film was trying to convey where the world was praising the X-Men as heroes for this one act of heroism. No one saw them defeat Apocalypse, so they would not have received that much praise from that feat alone. It just seems like we, as a viewing audience, missed a massive amount of exposition explaining how we got to this point where the X-Men and most notably, Charles Xavier, were recognized as international heroes. This vibe gives this film it's second identity crisis where it seems like that they wanted to convey the X-Men as this summer blockbuster superhero team that we're used to seeing (*Ahem*...in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the Avengers-centric films...) doing good for the world and all that jazz, only to flip the script when it takes one incident from Jean Grey killing one of their own and flipping a few police cars over (by the way, we never see those guys actually die either...) to cause the world to blacklist the X-Men and mutantkind again? Hell, after the events of X-Men: Apocalypse, I thought we would have seen their world even stricter on policing those with mutant powers. 

From the impression that this film left on me, it seemed like Simon Kinberg was ultimately trying to do about four decades worth of advancement and storytelling from X-Men comics in one movie and paid the price for it. You could blame this film's shortcomings on Fox's focus on heavily promoting Alita: Battle Angel instead of this film all you want, but I doubt this film would have fared any better even if it had it's original ending with the Skrulls and stuff that would have been (more than it already was at the end) compared to Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel film from earlier this year. Not to mention that the various re-shoots stick out like a sore thumb too. Sophie Turner visually gains and loses weight throughout the film from scene to scene. I was constantly asking myself, "WHERE THE FUCK DID THAT BLOOD COME FROM AND WHY IS IT MOVING IN EVERY SCENE!!??" as I was sitting in the theater. It was driving me to the point of insanity at one point of the film until I jokingly disregarded it as her mom's spaghetti. I know, bad joke... 

Jean killing Mystique was borderline comical though. It had like no emotional impact though for the viewers as the early trailers for this film spoiled that in the first place, along with press releases that Jennifer Lawrence wanted out of her contract. That was just an easy way to get what they wanted out of her, much like how X-Men: The Last Stand wrote off Xavier and Cyclops in that film with little thought put behind it. Mystique's death had like little impact on the X-Men though. They had that small funeral for her and moved on like it was another day at work. Beast left after blaming everything on Xavier and sides with Magneto. In retrospect, Magneto would not have had any reason to side with anyone in this conflict if he wasn't forced to be a "murderer" again to avenge Mystique's death and later, honor her memory.

If I were to guess, the decision of the D'Bari's inclusion of this film was inspired from this scene from Uncanny X-Men (1963) #135 by John Byrne. 

Outside of the problems with Jean Grey and the mismanagement of how the Phoenix Force was portrayed, this film had another glaring narrative issue with the introduction of the alien race known as the D'Bari. Their leader is Vuk, portrayed by Jessica Chastain, who merely acts as the devil on Jean Grey's shoulder in a sense, encouraging her to use her powers for her own personal gain. This was reminiscent of how Magneto manipulated Jean Grey to his side during X-Men: The Last Stand, but the catch here was that Vuk wanted to use her and the Phoenix Force to eliminate the entire human race and recreate the Earth in the image of her destroyed planet's former glory. Her plan isn't that bad (just another cliched global destruction megalomaniac), but the problem lies in the execution. Her and D'Bari acted as if that Jean Grey is the only one that is compatible with the Phoenix Force, but by the end of the film, she's siphoning off the Phoenix Force from Jean Grey as if it's the life force from the kids in Hocus Pocus. In the end, she's defeated by the same thing that she sought after by Jean overflowing her with the Phoenix Force until she couldn't handle that much power at once - hence being destroyed in the process. To say that Kinberg was so worried that this film was going to be compared to Captain Marvel, he didn't worry about that in regard to the special effects in the final battle. Jean was literally Captain Marvel if you were looking at the effects. I was blown away at the fact that they didn't even try to make that look different in any way in the least. 

Consider this a bit of fantasy booking/fan-fiction writing in this regard, but I feel like this film would have benefited more being a film focused solely on Jean Grey/Phoenix on her relationships with her mentor/teacher, Charles Xavier, along with her friends within the X-Men as they coped with the dilemma upon unleashing the force within Jean Grey that allowed her to defeat Apocalypse with ease. Instead, this film was plagued by the same mistakes that Kinberg dealt with The Last Stand that saw that film, along with this one, juggle with far too much unnecessary baggage. That being said, they would have had to change much with this that they brought to the table. If they wanted to keep in the X-Men's good will mission to save the Endeavor crew, then that's fine. Just scrap the stuff where there's a parade ready to welcome them back on Earth and use that as a means to show that mankind's still leery to the good that mutants can do, but have them be optimistic about whether that they could rely on them or not. Show that despite their efforts in Days of Future Past, the Sentinel program is alive and well, but in a different manner as the world's governments have been investing in global defense satellites to monitor and neutralize potential mutant threats. The Endeavor crew were one of the teams running the final tests on these satellites when a freak accident causes their shuttle to malfunction before reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. Jean Grey could've fallen to Earth from the shuttle explosion but her survival comes from the Phoenix Force coming out again to protect her. The rest of the film could have been about her struggling to maintain her sense of herself from it's growing power. Eventually, it becomes too much for her to reel back in and she kills Mystique as planned. Jean then seeks out Magneto, begging for help on how to reel in her inner beast, begging to be released from its cage. After finding out that Mystique was slain at her hands, you still would get the conflict between Magneto and Phoenix, but his Brotherhood could play the part that the Shi'ar Imperial Guard played in the finale of that arc in the comics. The Brotherhood wants Phoenix dead for her crimes, while the X-Men think that their friend can be saved and fights to protect them. Both sides reach a stalemate when they realize that Jean's too powerful to overcome individually and join forces. Their combined forces fail in this task until Scott Summers/Cyclops pleads with her to come to her senses. Jean does so just long enough to shove him away and destroy herself with the on-board weapons on the global defense satellites that were shown at the start of the film. That way you get Chris Claremont's original ending to this story on the silver screen while manipulating it to fit this continuity as Jean is able to redeem herself with heroism like how this film portrayed in it's final moments. The film could end with Jean's funeral, acknowledging her for being a hero in the end that chose to sacrifice herself for the greater good out of love and affection to protect her family and friends from the monster that she had become. This ordeal would end both Xavier and Magneto's rivalry in a similar manner, where they will both continue to fight for a better world for mutantkind, but saw each other as brothers - equals.

I guess I should mention that this film is getting a surprisingly amount of support from the LGBQT community from the portrayal for Prof. X and Magneto's relationship at the end of this film. Xavier finds himself out in Paris after retiring from his duties as leader of the X-Men following the events of the film, only to find Magneto has made his way there as well. Magneto offers his long-time friend a place in his sanctuary for mutants like himself and they end the film with a friendly game of chess. I didn't see anything homosexual about their relationship in their relationship here or any of the previous films (outside of the original trilogy where Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen openly kissed off-set but that's a different story altogether), but I'm not going to knock anyone for what they got out of these films in terms of representation. The biggest appeal of the X-Men are that they are heroes (and villains) born into a world that fears and hates them, yet they wish to continue to protect it and find their own place to exist within in terms of equality. You don't have to be a mutant to understand and identify with that that struggle.

Is There Anything Good Here?

What the hell is that weak-ass looking shit?

Some of the fight sequences are really good, but there's too many moments where you feel like the X-Men not named Jean Grey are holding back in some scenes and going all out in others. Perfect example: In the scene where Beast has aligned himself with Magneto and his newfound group of mutant allies to kill Jean Grey for Mystique's demise and the X-Men intervene to stop them, Storm is toying around with this dude who has whips for hair. What the fuck? Are we back with Halle Berry's Storm and Ray Park's Toad in the original X-Men film again with this crap? Turn that fool into an ice cube or fry him to a crisp with a lightning bolt from the heavens or something! Alexandra Shipp's Storm would redeem herself in the train fight sequence, but that fight just came off really odd. Another thing that irked me about that fight though was Cyclops' blasts were missing. Hello, the only thing this fucker has to do is LOOK at his target and hit the button on the side of his visor. Somehow, he was able to reflect that shit off a car mirror and beat the bitch with pinpoint accuracy who was holding a knife at Xavier though. Goddamn, they made the X-Men come off stupid in that scene. I guess you could write it off as the X-Men were ATTEMPTING to use restraint in a public area with a ton of civilians in the surrounding area, but still, that scene was fucking stupid.

As cool as this looked, I couldn't help but laugh that it was ultimately ineffective against the D'Bari.

As much as I enjoyed the fight scene on the train against the hordes of D'Bari, I have a major gripe about it. The D'Bari's powers were never established. It just seemed like those aliens had whatever powers that the plot required and had whatever threshold/resistance to whoever and whatever at random. For instance, you would see Storm flying around, roasting tons of them off the hull of the train, only for these same guys to get back up minutes later. The soldiers on the train were getting slaughtered using guns on these guys but when Magneto, Beast, and Nightcrawler are fighting these very same guys hand to hand, they are dropping like flies. As cool as fuck some of that looked, it was just as bad that there was no consistency here. It really made me think of that line from the end of X2: X-Men United when everyone was looking towards Nightcrawler to go and teleport Jean to safety and he's shrugging his shoulders going, "She won't let me!" where Jean Grey somehow can control everyone else's powers for them or set limiters on them at her own discretion. Seriously, go back and watch the end of that film. That line is there without a shadow of a doubt. I remember it fondly as my roommates and I laughed at it enough in college. 

Some of the coolest parts of this film in terms of action were spoiled in the trailers, including Magneto's psychic blocking helmet getting crushed underneath the force of Jean Grey's powers, but my personal favorite wasn't to my surprise. Charles Xavier confronts Jean Grey right after Magneto fails to kill her and gives his tired and true spiel about "We (mutants) can do anything..." Jean gives him the coldest stare imaginable with her Phoenix-charged resting bitch-face and simply replies with, "Then walk..." I found myself laughing hysterically in the theater when she destroyed his wheelchair and forced him to stand up and walk up the stairs to engage her face-to-face. God, I'm laughing even writing about that scene. I haven't laughed that much since Dark Phoenix blew up his wheelchair in X-Men: The Animated Series or when the X-Men put his wheelchair on his grave during The Last Stand. Then there's that moment where Charles was shitting a brick at the Incredible Hulk beating the piss out of all of his students on the front lawn of the X-Mansion during the World War Hulk storyline in the comics.

God, that scene was so awesome. If you want a really good adaptation of Chris Claremont's work, then look no farther than X-Men: The Animated Series. It's a simple as that.

One of the few good points of this film was that once Jean Grey was at the brink of her destructive potential as the D'Bari's pawn and reduced most of the X-Men's efforts to oppose her as child's play, she found her mental clarity by reading Charles Xavier's mind (following the scene that was mentioned above). This was a clever role reversal in terms of what he did to her when she was a child. Xavier was always invading her mind for her "safety" (not to the radical extremes that his counterpart did in the original X-Men trilogy) but to protect her from herself. It wasn't to have a weapon at his disposal, Xavier truly wanted what was best for his surrogate daughter. Jean sees his intentions and memories and instantly feels remorse for what she's done. It adds a layer of redeeming qualities to Jean Grey that was completely absent from her character in The Last Stand. Between this scene and Xavier's formal apology to her on the train, that family bond between these iconic characters is firmly re-established - as it should be for an X-Men film. Jean Grey/Phoenix doesn't want to destroy the X-Men. No, she wants to protect her family when she is "reborn" on the train to oppose Vuk and rest of the D'Bari. In a bizarre twist of storytelling, I thought Kinberg got that much down in terms of an adaptation. In the comics, Jean Grey hones and masters the Phoenix Force to protect the universe and better yet, her friends and family within the X-Men, from the pending Shi'ar Empire's invasion. After that task is done, the Phoenix Force proves to be addictive as it revels in the destruction that this seemingly limitless power can create, thus ushering in the Dark Phoenix story arc. It seem like Kinberg did this progression with Jean Grey in reverse by having her tap into the worst that this power could do first, only to regress to a state where she has the mental clarity to wield it as a force for good instead of being this film's villain by the time it's all said and done.

(Shrugs) Maybe I'm giving Simon Kinberg a lot more credit here than he deserves, but in all honesty, he's done better work than this before and after X-Men: The Last Stand. So maybe his forte just isn't this storyline at all.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

We never get to see Jean at this level of her powers as the Dark Phoenix either. There's that one firebird shown during the climax but that's it.

Without a shadow of a doubt, don't bother seeing this in the theaters - don't even waste your money and time entertaining that thought. While I don't feel like it was as bad as X-Men: The Last Stand, Dark Phoenix just will be remembered as a massive disappointment and easily forgettable final nail in the coffin for the X-Men franchise under 20th Century Fox's banner. Too bad Logan couldn't have been the last film in this franchise while the X-Men brand ended with Days of Future Past after they fixed all of their colossal fuck-ups with their continuity with that film. 

I know that I went to see this out of sheer morbid curiosity on how bad that Fox could mess this up again for the second time, but I don't expect casual fans to have that much patience with this film. This will be on free television sooner more than later. For the price of admission, you could buy the paperback graphic novel of this original comic book story and read it yourself anyway if you haven't already.