X-Men Dark Phoenix 2019
Twentieth Century Fox
Directed by Simon Kinburg
Written by Simon Kinburg (based on characters created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby and the “Dark Phoenix” saga by Chris Claremont and John Bryne)
Starring Sophie Turner, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jessica Chastain
The First Class of X-Men are here for their fourth (and probably final) outing in this different twist on the typical four-color superhero movie that we have seen in Dark Phoenix. Based on the original saga by Claremont and Byrne, this story takes a much darker, gritier turn than the typical story as Jean Grey (played by Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner) takes on cosmic energies that brings out another side from her. Between the X-Men, the D’Bari race and the mutants of Genosha, Jean is needing to keep herself together while dealing with the depthless power she now has.
The movie itself is definitely not the regular superhero movie that you’d be expecting. It pushes the boundary of action and horror in this dark portrayal of the mutant’s journey. In the beginning you get a feeling that it’s the live-action X-Men The Animated Series we’ve all wanted… for about 5 minutes. After that point this thing goes sideways in a huge way. After watching all the special features you see the reasoning and view of director Simon Kinburg’s take on the Phoenix Saga. However, in the absence of that, it does feel very disjointed and sometimes uncomfortably gritty. The movie wasn’t horrible, just very akin to The Last Stand; it moves the evolving story but has a hard time showing it.
The special features on board this movie are actually pretty interesting. You can see that the cast and crew of the movie were very invested and passionate about the film. Out of them all, the absolute best was “How to Fly your Jet to Space with Beast.” Needless to say, if you want some of the funny you missed from the movie, check this out. The making-of pieces are good and informative and did make the movie a little more palatable after the fact.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is now available on DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital.