Does Dark Phoenix send the X-Men series out on a high?
X-Men: Dark Phoenix hasn't had one of the smoothest journeys to cinemas, resulting in a sense of general fan apathy toward the movie.
After the disappointment of X-Men: Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix already had a job on its hands to reignite interest in the franchise. Add in its connection to the much-maligned X-Men: The Last Stand and it's no surprise that the movie is heading for an unwanted box office record.
But here's the thing: it's not a bad superhero offering. It's good even, in large stretches.
The problem is that as well-made as it is, you'll probably be giving it a similarly back-handed compliment, leaving the cinema thinking, "Well, that was fine". It just doesn't bring enough new to the table to overcome the muted build-up.
One thing Dark Phoenix does have in its favour is that it's much more faithful to the celebrated Dark Phoenix Saga of the comics, even if it doesn't include all of it.
Simon Kinberg's second go at the story starts with the X-Men getting into a bit of a sticky patch in space. While saving a crew of astronauts, Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) absorbs a cosmic force that nearly kills her.
When they arrive back on Earth, Jean is feeling better than ever and boasts powers that no other mutant can match, not even Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) or Magneto (Michael Fassbender).
She can't control her new powers, though, and after a tragic event tears the X-Men apart, they're left facing their most dangerous enemy yet.
First things first: X-Men: Dark Phoenix is better than both The Last Stand and Apocalypse. It's very much Jean's story and not relegated to a subplot like in The Last Stand, while it's more focused and less bloated than Apocalypse.
Unlike Apocalypse, the action is used sparingly in favour of a more character-driven movie. When the set pieces come, they're more grounded. While we see the full force of Jean's new Phoenix powers, we're not talking destroyed cities here. It's a welcome change for a superhero movie to take the less-is-more approach.
This isn't superhero action on the scale of Avengers: Endgame, but it's quietly impressive in its own way. Backed by a booming score from Hans Zimmer and with excellent special effects, the set pieces are the strongest part of Dark Phoenix by some distance.
Other aspects are less successful. In a common complaint for superhero movies, the villain is underdeveloped and Jessica Chastain has little to do. Her anonymous henchmen fare even worse. We get one bit of exposition about why she wants Jean and her powers, but that's it. She's just another generic baddie with nefarious plans for Earth.
The rest of the cast are equally hampered by a weak script that rehashes messages from every other X-Men movie, alongside some token nods to the fact that it's the first female-led film in the series.
Kinberg fleshes out Jean's character and backstory but Sophie Turner doesn't get enough to really get stuck into. The pacing of the movie is so rapid that Jean's character seemingly shifts between scenes, leaving you with the impression that a lot of the movie got left on the cutting-room floor.
The biggest shame though is that one of the movie's biggest emotional moments was spoiled in the trailer. We won't reveal it here in case you've avoided the trailer (or Kinberg talking about it), but its impact is blunted if you know it's coming. For a movie that is struggling elsewhere for a must-talk-about moment, it makes even less sense to have revealed it.
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In hindsight, Dark Phoenix's delay from November 2018 hasn't helped. With it repositioned as the "culmination" of the X-Men series, it suffers in comparison to Avengers: Endgame and one key third-act beat is a carbon copy of a Captain Marvel moment.
It leaves the movie in a tricky position of being a well-made but overly familiar entry in a crowded superhero field. Combine that with the mixed build-up to Dark Phoenix's release, and the movie just doesn't do enough, unfortunately.
"You're always sorry and there's always a speech, but nobody cares anymore," Magneto says to Charles at one point. Maybe one of his powers is clairvoyance.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is out now.
Director: Simon Kinberg; Starring: Sophie Turner, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Evan Peters; Running time: 114 minutes; Certificate: 12A
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