Dark Phoenix

This film was a complete mess from beginning to end. I hope that the deaths of a couple famous characters take the franchise with them.

There is absolutely nothing to like about Dark Phoenix. While it tries to redefine the term “tedious” as meaning “entertaining”, it fails by any definition.

The film involves a shallow plot where Jean Grey/Phoenix, Sophie Turner off of her role in Game of Thrones, evolves into a sinister force after an accident in space. She soon becomes as mean and nasty as she is cute, and she quickly turns on her X-Men comrades.

As it turns out, a space alien simply known as “Smith”, played by Jessica Chastain in one of her most regrettable performances, visits Earth and tries to align herself with Phoenix. While the entire X-Men force bands together to try to save an old friend, Ms. Chastain’s villainess has a major problem. She clearly is unfamiliar with the changes in women’s wardrobes in that she continually runs around in 8-inch heels as opposed to fashionable flats.

One of the real problems with this film is that Director Simon Kinberg wants to give time to all of the X-Men characters. With the exception of Michael Fassbender’s Magneto, they all come off as inept lightweights who have little common sense.

That is particularly true of James McAvoy’s Charles Xavier. Though he is a performer that I greatly admire, his aging, bald-headed character has morphed into an arrogant, selfish booze-drinking leader of a once-famous organization where he is now interested in little else than his own reputation.

As noted above, several long-standing characters die in this film and I won’t spoil it by naming them. Interestingly, their deaths produced few tears on screen and you quickly suspected that these accomplished actors were gratified that they would never have to appear in any subsequent X-Men films.