First Take: X-Men Dark Phoenix- is this what Fox call a Civil War?

Spoiler free as usual. Because this is likely the last time we’ll be writing about a Fox branded Marvel film.

SYNOPSIS: Jean Grey begins to develop incredible powers that corrupt and turn her into a Dark Phoenix. Now the X-Men will have to decide if the life of a team member is worth more than all the people living in the world.

Well, this is an important review. With the Disney/Fox deal about to kick in and bring these characters into the MCU, this final film had to give these characters a good send-off… how wrong we were. So, in true radio show style for our old school fans, it’s time to cue the music from Barry Lyndon folks, as it’s time to kick off a rant.

Simon Kinberg makes his directorial debut on this film, after steering the X-Men franchise in a producer role for 20 years- he doesn’t do a good job. The pacing is messy, the script- which he wrote- is all over the shop, and at 1 hour 53 minutes, sure, it isn’t as long as other big culminations of storylines, but it felt like a real slog to sit through at times, knowing how some characters are treated in this film. Behind the camera is Mauro Fiore, who does a decent job with the cinematography, and making his return to the superhero genre is Hans Zimmer on scoring duties… and this is one of his more underwhelming scores. At times, I could genuinely hear samples he’s reused from Dunkirk. A real shame considering he was once upon a time a man who could make a movie go to the next level with his music.

As for the cast, they do the best with what they’ve been given. Returning for one last round is James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Evan Peters, Alexandra Shipp, and of course, the Dark Phoenix herself in the form of Sophie Turner. This main cast are OK, but purely because we’ve seen them evolve through this trilogy of films, when Bryan Singer controlled the strings- the new characters though, well, they’re decent, even with the might of Jessica Chastain playing the film’s villain Vuk, they don’t feel fleshed out, with not much reason given behind their motivations. And considering this film has been delayed for so long, I can fully understand why here in England, it didn’t get a midnight release, and on top of that, I understand why the review embargo literally lifted this morning- because this film is academic level Bullsmit.

THE VERDICT

If Hugh Jackman could get the perfect send-off as Wolverine, why couldn’t Fox perfect the Dark Phoenix story on the second time of asking and bring the curtain down on 20 years of these films? Yes, we still have New Mutants to come next year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if following the 21% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (lower than X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Kevin Feige and his team are accelerating their plans to integrate the franchise into the Marvel Studios fold.

RATING: 2/5