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. 

REVIEW -- X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

X-Men: Apocalypse is a 2016 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics characters of the same name, and is the ninth installment in the X-Men film series. Directed by Bryan Singer, with a screenplay by Simon Kinberg from a story conceived by Singer, Kinberg, Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, the film stars an ensemble cast, led by James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender,Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn and Lucas Till. In X-Men: Apocalypse, the ancient mutant Apocalypse awakens, and plans to cleanse the human race and take over the world, leading the X-Men to try to stop him and defeat his team, the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse.

Cast

James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier / Professor X
Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto ("War")
Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkhölme / Mystique
Oscar Isaac as En Sabah Nur / Apocalypse
Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy / Beast
Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert
Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers / Cyclops
Sophie Turner as Jean Grey / Phoenix
Olivia Munn as Elizabeth Braddock / Psylocke ("Pestilence")
Lucas Till as Alex Summers / Havok
Evan Peters as Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver
Kodi Smit-McPhee as Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler
Alexandra Shipp as Ororo Munroe / Storm ("Famine")
Josh Helman as William Stryker
Ben Hardy as Warren Worthington III / Angel / Archangel ("Death")
Lana Condor as Jubilation Lee / Jubilee

Additionally, Hugh Jackman makes an uncredited appearance as Logan / Wolverine, in his Weapon X form. Tómas Lemarquis portrays Caliban, a mutant with the ability to sense and track other mutants. X-Men co-creator Stan Lee and his wife Joanie Lee make a cameo appearance together, in a more serious role than any of Lee's previous cameos, as bystanders witnessing the launch of nuclear missiles worldwide. The Blob makes an appearance in the film as Angel's opponent in an underground fight club, portrayed by wrestler "Giant" Gustav Claude Ouimet. Carolina Bartczak and T.J. McGibbon portray Magneto's wife Magda and daughter Nina respectively. Archive footage was used of Caleb Landry Jones, Éva Magyar, Georg Nikoloff, and Bill Milner as Sean Cassidy / Banshee, Erik's parents Edie Lehnsherr and Mr. Lehnsherr, and young Erik respectively. Alison Baire / Dazzler makes a brief cameo appearance on a record album which Jean and Scott are shown holding at a music store. Kinberg confirmed that the after-credits scene mentioning Essex Corporation by name will affect and set up the upcoming Wolverine sequel, as well as Gambit, and the next X-Men film following those.

The Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

En Sabah Nur, a powerful mutant believed to be the first of his kind, rules ancient Egypt until he is betrayed by his worshippers, who entomb him alive. His four lieutenants die preserving him.

En Sabah Nur awakens in 1983, and believes humanity has lost its way, without his presence. He decides to destroy the world and remake it. He recruits Cairo pickpocket Ororo Munroe, who can control weather, and upgrades her power.

In East Berlin, shape-shifting mutant Raven investigates an underground fight club and discovers mutant champion Angel, who possesses a pair of large feathered wings on his back, and Kurt Wagner, who can teleport. Raven rescues Kurt and employs the services of black marketeer Caliban to safely transport him to the United States. En Sabah Nur recruits Caliban's enforcer Psylocke, who leads him to Angel. En Sabah Nur enhances both their powers, transforming Angel's wings into metal.

Alex Summers discovers that his younger brother, Scott, is manifesting his mutation for shooting optic beams. Alex takes Scott toProfessor Charles Xavier's educational institute in Westchester County, New York in hopes that Xavier and Hank McCoy will teach him how to control his abilities. Scott meets the telepathic and telekinetic Jean Grey, and the two develop an attraction. Raven brings Kurt to the institute, and informs Xavier about Erik as she learned about his attack in Caliban's hideout. En Sabah Nur's powers cause disturbances around the world, leading Xavier and Alex to consult with CIA agent Moira MacTaggert, who has been researching the legend of Nur.

In Poland, the metal-controlling mutant Erik Lehnsherr lives with his wife and young daughter, Nina. He uses his powers to save a coworker, prompting policemen to come capture him. When the policemen accidentally kill Erik's family, he retaliates by murdering all the policemen. En Sabah Nur later approaches the disheartened Erik and takes him to Auschwitz, where Erik's power first manifested. Erik destroys the camp and joins En Sabah Nur.

En Sabah Nur hacks into Xavier's mind while Xavier is using the mutant-locating computer Cerebro, and co-opts Xavier's powers to force all global superpowers to launch Earth's entire nuclear arsenal into space to prevent interference. En Sabah Nur and his lieutenants arrive at the mansion and kidnap Xavier. Attempting to stop them, Alex accidentally causes an explosion that destroys the mansion. Peter Maximoff – having learned that he is Erik's son, and hoping that Xavier can help to find him – arrives in time to use his super-speed to evacuate the students from the mansion, but Alex is presumed dead as he was closest to the blast. Colonel William Stryker's forces subsequently arrest Hank, Raven, Peter, and Moira, and take them to a military facility for interrogation. Scott, Jean and Kurt covertly follow and liberate their comrades with help from Stryker's mind-controlled and brainwashed experiment, Weapon X, whose memories Jean partially restores.

At En Sabah Nur's behest, Erik uses his powers to control Earth's magnetic poles, causing widespread destruction across the planet and mass casualties. Nur plans to transfer his consciousness into Xavier's body and use Xavier's telepathy to recruit all mutants into his army. Xavier secretly sends a telepathic distress call to Jean, and the others travel to Cairo to battle Nur and his lieutenants. They rescue Xavier, but Xavier loses his hair as the process was nearing completion. Angel is defeated and incapacitated in the battle. Erik and Ororo are convinced to turn on En Sabah, keeping him occupied physically while Xavier fights him telepathically in the astral plane. Finally, Xavier pleads Jean to unleash the full extent of her powers and appears to disintegrate Nur to death. In the ensuing chaos, Psylocke flees from the destruction.

In the aftermath, Xavier and Moira begin a relationship, while Erik and Jean help reconstruct the school, but Erik turns down Xavier's offer to stay and help teach. Under Raven and Hank's tutelage, Scott, Jean, Ororo, Kurt, and Peter become the new X-Men and train for the battles ahead.

In a post-credits scene, the Weapon X facility is visited by suited men retrieving data on Stryker's mutant research, including an X-Ray and a blood sample marked "Weapon X", on behalf of the Essex Corporation.

The Verdict:

I said this on Facebook about two weeks ago, but I feel the same way about this film like I did about the X-Men: Evolution cartoon. In both cases, the creator(s) took a popular concept, bastardized it to their own machinations but in the end, it produces mixed reactions with some things that people will absolutely adore, others people will loathe, and things that fans and critics alike will unanimously agree that was fucking stupid.

Casting

Jennifer Lawrence has to be fed up of putting on the Mystique body paint as you can count on one hand how many times she actually appeared in this film with it on her entire body. She was in this movie under her "normal" guise than her natural appearance and that really soured the vibe of the film for me for the most part, especially she was the main one preaching about mutants should be accepted for who and what they are. Low and behold, Mystique's the one not being herself for the duration of this film. Ironic, huh?

James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are staples at this point as Charles Xavier and Magneto; no complaints there. Lucas Till comes back just to get killed off in this continuity as Havok without even really putting up a fight. Nicholas Hoult is just there - just like he was in Days of Future Past but with little more character development as his character urges Lawrence's Mystique to embrace the role as instructor for this new class of X-Men. Rose Byrne returns from First Class reprising her role as Moira MacTaggert. Much like Hoult, she's just here for the ride among her mutant co-stars.

Alexandra Shipp as Storm was easily forgettable, but she was okay with the few lines that she was given in this film. I guess we'll see what she is capable of in the inevitable sequel. To be honest, Halle Berry didn't set any high standards for playing Storm, so to her credit, Shipp didn't have much to go on here.

As for the rest of the newcomers, I felt that they pulled their weight for the most for what they were given - more or less for the new members of the X-Men and the Four Horsemen/villains. For one film, they really weren't given much to work with here, much like Hoult was in Days of Future Past. Sophie Turner (Jean Grey/Phoenix) was the standout among the newcomers, while Tye Sheridan (Scott Summers/Cyclops) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler) weren't bad either. Seriously, what was the point of casting Jubilee in this movie? Lana Condor was just there to collect a check for no reason.

That being said, it was worth to have her around for that single best line of the entire movie concerning how the third movie is always the worst one in a trilogy, which ironically sums up this movie in a nutshell.

Narrative

I think the biggest thing against this film in terms of its narrative is that Apocalypse's plan wasn't even really that catastrophic. Compared to what the character is known for in the comic book continuity, the villain came across lower on the totem pole than one of the villains on an episode of Superfriends. Hell, it's even as absurd as Gorilla Grodd's master plan here...

Off-topic, I know but I wanted to get a laugh in the middle of this review.

Seriously though, I don't get what was the deal with Magneto's "family" in this. Was the girl supposed to be Scarlet Witch? And what happened to Quicksilver's kid sister that he was holding during the final moments of Days of Future Past?

To the people complaining about Storm's mohawk... Clearly, Cyclops bondage fetish
outfit is a LOT worse than Storm's haircut so get over yourselves...

I found it a little silly for Apocalypse to be recruiting mutants and "unlocking" their full potential like he was some crazy hybrid of the Pied Piper and Guru from Dragon Ball Z. His "enhancements" aren't even really improvements. It's just stuff that those mutants would have learned on their own over time anyway. He was merely speeding up the process. Magneto had to be a colossal dumb ass if he didn't consider tapping into the Earth's poles to control the planet's natural magnetism. The film doesn't give a clear clarification on exactly what is his powers. They just throw a lame duck excuse that he's got a collection of powers from all of the mutants that he has encountered in his past. This brings up another plot hole as Apocalypse has been in "hibernation" for centuries, so when did he have time to pick up more abilities when even his original Four Horsemen couldn't keep themselves alive?

Remember that teaser trailer for this movie at the end of Days of Future Past? En Sabah Nur is shown as child - HUGE continuity error there. To be honest, that's the theme of this movie - continuity errors galore to say they went out of their way to fix all of that in the previous film.

Why doesn't she just make a hurricane and just throw Cyclops into the next state?

I know that a lot of my friends had an issue with how Storm was portrayed in this movie. I didn't have a problem with the actress they went with here. I didn't even have a problem that they went with the "mohawk" look for Storm in this - much to chagrin to many fans. That really didn't bother me as they went with just about every Storm hairstyle BUT that in these films, so it was about time in my honest opinion. If you didn't like it, get over yourselves as it's part of the characters' history if you can even call yourselves fans of the character. My issue with Storm in this movie was the fact that they gave Professor Charles Xavier and the Shadow King's role in her origin to Apocalypse.  She was born with snow white hair, so I don't know what they were thinking with Apocalypse "unlocking" that potential of her powers. Here's how absurd the battle with the Four Horsemen was. Storm could have - no, should have been able to deal with everyone on her own outside of maybe Jean Grey and Nightcrawler. I guess Apocalypse didn't teach them any imagination to go with those fancy upgrades to their powers. Nine movies in and Bryan Singer is still just looking at comic book covers instead of actually reading them before making these movies.

I wonder how much of her so-called "training" took her to do that...

Another offender to fucking storylines and origin stories up was with Psylocke. I literally busted out laughing in the movie theater that Olivia Munn calls herself a geek/nerd and signed off to this role yet didn't point out that it's not even remotely close nor accurate outside of her costume. Psylocke's base powers couldn't even utilize the "psychic knife" and she didn't even develop the "psychic sword" until a few decades later in the comics continuity. It wasn't until after her mind was transferred into the assassin, Kwannon's body was until she learned the new applications for her powers. Maybe I'm being too hard on Singer and he possibly wrote this so that Psylocke's already at that point - BUT Psylocke shows like no telepathic abilities here.

What was even more strange with Psylocke's backstory in this film is that she's working for Caliban, who is pretty much is trafficking mutants for profit, but Caliban ends up being one of Apocalypse's minions in the comics continuity. I don't understand why Apocalypse does not recruit this guy who could find even more powerful mutants

I have focused on a lot of negatives so far, but let's focus on a few positives.

Quicksilver has hands-down one of the best sequences in the entire movie where he evacuates the entire X-Mansion to the sound of "Sweet Dreams" after Havok's misfire blows up the entire mansion after Professor Xavier is kidnapped by Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen. I wouldn't mind seeing the film again in 3D just to see that sequence in all of its glory. Quicksilver's other great moment was fighting Apocalypse one-on-one in slow motion.

About time we get the proper "Weapon X" in a X-Men movie...

A few minutes of runtime after the first Quicksilver sequence, we FINALLY get to see Wolverine cutting loose in a berserker rage in the Weapon X facility, in his full Weapon X garb. I'm surprised it took Singer NINE movies to get this into one of these movies. I thought for sure it would have been in either X2: X-Men United or X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but nope. Better late than never I guess.

While we're on the subject of Weapon X, how the fuck did William Stryker get Wolverine? At the end of Days of Future Past, it was Mystique posing as him, so what, did Singer forget he left that in there? Goddamn this movie and it's plot holes and continuity errors... I'm not even going to bother to figure out where Stryker went to during Wolverine's murderous rampage. Couldn't he just pulled out another one of those adamantium bullets and blast him with that again like in X-Men Origins: Wolverine or is he not old nor smart enough to think of that yet?

Holy cow... I couldn't believe that they introduced the Mindscape/Astral Plane in this continuity. When they went there, I KNEW they were going to let Jean beat Apocalypse with the Phoenix. That was so obvious to see coming that even Ray Charles could see it. It was even worse that the TV spots for the film spoiled that less than 24 hours before the theatrical N. America release to say that was the finish of the entire damn movie. After spoiling that and Weapon X's appearance, I don't see why else people would go see this in theaters unless you're a really hardcore X-Men fan.

The final moments of the climatic battle against Apocalypse made me think of Dragon Ball Z yet again though. Remember when Perfect Cell is holding off ALL of the Z fighters while keeping his focus on Gohan and the Final Kamehameha? That's EXACTLY what I was thinking of when Apocalypse was able to hold off attacks from Cyclops and Magneto simultaneously while fighting with Charles Xavier in the Mindscape. Charles' "Unleash your power!!" line was essentially the same trigger as Goku's "Now's your chance!!" to Gohan to deliver the final attack.

All jokes aside, I enjoyed that part of the final confrontation more than anything else from Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen. It's one of those rare moments that we see the X-Men doing what Charles Xavier has envisioned - mutantkind working together for the greater good. About time Singer got that right instead of one mutant (namely Wolverine) hogging all of the glory. I can applaud Singer for getting that right for once. Jean Grey/Phoenix may have dealt the fatal blow, but it was a combined effort to take Apocalypse down by the X-Men together.

Nightcrawler, Storm, Cyclops, Jean Grey/Phoenix, and Quicksilver with Mystique
and Professor Xavier in the background. 

I felt the film ended on a strong note too, with this newly formed team of X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Storm, Quicksilver) training in the Danger Room with Beast and Mystique acting as instructors - even though that's so odd to see Mystique as an instructor. Then again, stranger things have happened in the X-Men universe, Lady Deathstrike and Juggernaut were briefly members at one point, so anything is possible at this point. The film ends with the team getting ready to square off in a simulation against a squadron of Sentinels - the same models from Days of Future Past. I wish Singer would quit teasing this and finally do it in a future film. Days of Future Past doesn't count as those "Sentinels" were barely passable as such. Those were more closer to Nimrod or a Super-Adaptoid than anything else. I applauded for the proper costumes for once. Once again - it took Singer NINE movies to get the costumes right?

Controversy

Bad product placement there, FOX...

I agree that it was in bad taste to post ads for the film with a guy strangling a woman, but the reaction to it was a bit much in my honest opinion. People were acting like it was plastered in every location like this but the ads and posters I saw for the movie locally had the group images of the X-Men and villains, so I guess that was just a regional thing. Someone in advertising definitely needed to be fired over that one.

Seeing Rose McGowan pointing it out just screamed that she wanted to be relevant again or just was jealous that she wasn't having kinky submissive foreplay with Marilyn Manson...

Where do we go from here? 

The post-credits teaser shows the Essex Corporation taking samples of Weapon X's blood. For those who don't know, Essex Corp obviously points to Nathaniel Essex aka Mr. Sinister. I'm guessing that Sinister ends up creating X-23. I'm not sure whether they plan on telling this story in the "final" Wolverine film or saving it for whatever is the next X-Men sequel, but I'm actually intrigued to see how they would pull off Mr. Sinister in this continuity. That's a character that it would take a LOT to mess up, even for Bryan Singer, so I have faith in that debut for once.

If Old Man Logan is truly the "last" Wolverine tale for Hugh Jackman then I'm completely fine with a reasonable adaptation of that story for Laura Kinney/X-23 to take over from there as Wolverine until Singer recasts the character. If they don't go with that story, I wouldn't mind them adapting a mock version of the Death of Wolverine storyline to give Hugh Jackman his last hurrah as the character.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

If you have kept up with this franchise up to this point, you might as well watch this one. Everyone else? Save your money and don't bother. This film has essentially no character development following Days of Future Past and just revisits familiar territory from previous MUCH better movies in this franchise. The few good scenes (Weapon X's slaughtering soldiers in the Weapon X facility, Quicksilver's awesomeness, Jean Grey channeling the Phoenix Force briefly, and this team of "New X-Men" squaring off in the Danger Room against Sentinels) from this film will more likely be ripped and uploaded to YouTube a few weeks anyway.

It's a far cry from being the "worst" X-Men movie, but after the good note this series ended on after Days of Future Past, most are better off skipping this outing altogether.