Dark Phoenix movie review

MOVIE TITLE: DARK PHOENIX

RATING: PG-13

LENGTH: 1 hour, 53 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: C

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Scary car accident scene
Lots of fighting and destruction

IN A NUTSHELL: Marvel attempts to connect former movies and their loose ends in the X-Men franchise with this grand finale. Unfortunately, as a finale, it’s not as grand as fans hoped it would be, especially considering they spent $200 million to make this film. The marketing and build-up were sparse at best. I readily admit that I just have never been much into the X-Men franchise, certainly not like the Marvel’s The Avengers fan that I am. Sadly, this movie will make no new fans. Technically, there will still be more spin-offs in the franchise, but this is the last of the team movies.

THEMES:

“There’s still hope.” – Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy)
“Who are we? Are we simply what others want us to be? Are we destined to a fate beyond our control? Or can we evolve? Become something more?” – Jean Grey/Phoenix (Sophie Turner)
Desire to be loved and accepted
Friendship and loyalty

THINGS I LIKED:

The movie poster does a good job of showing which X-Men characters are going to be in the movie and that it IS an X-Men movie.
Game of Thrones: Season 8 fans will be thrilled to see their beautiful Sophie Turner added into the X-Men world. She did a great job as Jean Grey/Phoenix and her eyes are so beautiful. The language Lunara speaks sounds like Dothraki. ha ha
Hans Zimmer had already decided to retire from composing music for superhero movies, but newbie director Simon Kinberg talked him into one more in order to work on this film. What a great win for Kinberg’s first movie (although he did work on Fantastic Four and some other films).
Some of the CGI is really great and the action sequences are fun.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

A car scene in the beginning of a movie never ends well, right? Especially in a superhero movie. Ha ha
Most of the characters don’t have very much to do other than remind us that we never got their origin stories or had time to really get to know them.
I absolutely adore James McAvoy and think he is one of the best actors in Hollywood right now. It was disappointing that he didn’t get to show us how truly talented he is.
I was excited to see Jessica Chastain but was sad that her story moved so slowly and ineptly.
This is the first X-Men movie where we don’t get to see the awesome Hugh Jackman in his role as Logan/Wolverine.
I would have liked to see more of the young Jean on her journey to discovering her powers. Instead, the story jumps straight to her young woman years.
There was no build-up or fun tension leading to the romantic part of the story. People just start kissing.
We’re so used to amazing movies nowadays that this one felt boring in comparison.
You definitely need to have seen prior movies in this franchise to understand what’s going on. It’s not really a stand-alone film.
Almost everyone in the cast yells, “Jean!”
There is a certain death scene and the camera is WAY too close to someone’s face so we see someone’s cheek, rather than the emotional face.
Hardly anyone uses their special powers.
What was the deal with that girl “Dazzler”? It’s fun to see the students at the school, but not just hanging out at a party, right?
They don’t really refer to the name “Phoenix.”
Why does Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler need a helmet in space but no one else does?
Not very much humor.
You can tell that there were some completely new reshoots because those scenes actually look like they’re from a different movie.

INTERESTING LINES:

“You didn’t come here looking for answers. You came here looking for permission.” – Professor Charles Xavier
“You think you can fix me too?” – Jean “No. No, because you are NOT broken.” – Professor Xavier

“We’re only ever one bad day away from them starting to see us as the enemy again.” – Dr. Xavier
“And by the way, the women are always saving the men around here. You might want to think about changing the name to ‘X-Women.'” – Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence)
“Sometimes we want to believe someone is something they are not.” – Ororo Munroe/Storm (Alexandra Shipp)
“Your emotions make you weak.” – Smith (Jessica Chastain) “You’re wrong. My emotions make me strong.” – Jean

OTHER MOVIES LIKE THIS YOU MIGHT ENJOY:

X-Men