Dark Phoenix - Review

Guys, I'm concerned. I recently watched Men In Black: International the other day, and despite the movie getting terrible reviews, I was able to enjoy it. I was able to see it's flaws, but I was also able to see past them and have fun with the movie. Couple days go by I decide to watch Dark Phoenix which is possibly the last X-Men film in this universe. Again, this movie is getting absolutely terrible reviews. Articles are coming out left, right and center about how this is the worst superhero movie in years and how this is an abomination to cinema. To that I say, "Have you seen Captain Marvel?" All joking aside, even with all this terrible publicity, I still felt obligated to see Dark Phoenix simply based on the fact that it is an X-Men movie. Here's the kicker though, not only did I not think it was as bad as other people say it is, I actually really enjoyed it!

Now I am not here to tell you guys all the definitive reasons why this movie is getting bad reviews, but I do have some theories. Again, if you genuinely hate this movie, more power to you. If you absolutely love this movie, glad I have someone on my side (lol). Whenever a movie is getting terrible movies all around the board, I try to think of the reasons why. My honest opinion is that people are so used to our superheroes being movies like Avengers: Endgame, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel, Aquaman, Shazam. That is the norm now. All the movies I have just listed are either extremely light-hearted and comedic, or over-the-top in terms of it's scope and "epicness". Like, when is a movie going to be as big as Endgame? Not for a long time, I'll tell you that right now. So when a movie like Dark Phoenix comes around, a movie that feels very reserved in terms of it's action and where there is almost no comedy to be found, do people just not know how to handle it anymore? Have we been conditioned to expect the greatest action scenes we've ever seen with every single new superhero movie? In my mind, I get a sense that the movie-going public are always expecting "the most amazing thing ever" when they go to the theatre and if their experience isn't close to that, then it's an awful movie. When did it stop being acceptable for a movie to just be okay? You either love it or you hate it, there is no middle ground anymore. So, if that's the case and we have to pick sides, then fine, put me in the "love" column and I'll be in the minority. I dug this movie.

Two main reasons why I enjoyed this movie are really quite simple. Number One, I liked the slow approach and the darker, tragic tone. Number Two, I still love all these characters and as icing on the cake, I really loved the action in this movie. As I have said in previous X-Men reviews, one of the strongest elements of the entire franchise is the cast and characters. James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Law... okay, you can tell she's over this franchise, Nicholas Hoult, Evan Peters, Sophie Turner, etc. (and that's only the rebooted cast) Of course they are all great in their roles, but each character is written with motivation and with depth. Because of this, I really enjoyed the slower pace to this movie. Gene Grey's emergence as Dark Phoenix is not only a physical threat to the X-Men and the world, but a personal one too. I loved seeing these characters play off one another in a time of despair. You see which characters have their ideals challenged, their friendships put to the test, and their morality come into question. Superhero films nowadays seem to have forgotten stories like that. This movie isn't all about destroying that doomsday device in the sky or stoping that one bad guy from destroying downtown New York. Sometimes, personal relationships going through struggles can be more powerful than just another villain of the week.

Also, because of the focus being predominantly on the characters, there isn't much time for giant action sequences. However, when they come, boy are they entertaining. It's so satisfying to see a group of superheroes like this use their very distinctly different powers as a team to get a mission done. It felt very X-Men. On top of that, the fights were creative, intense, colorful and just a joy to watch. This movie also gave me my favourite fights scenes with Xavier and Magneto together in battle. I'm fanboying out right now just thinking about. It was great!

However, yes, there are some flaws. Well, let me rephrase that. There is one major flaw, and her name is Jessica Chastain. Her character and her performance was just terrible. If there was a way to make her character a little more interesting or do something different with the antagonizing force behind Gene Grey turning evil, I may have loved this movie. Not going to lie. So this is a weird one for me. There hasn't been a movie like this in a while where the vast majority of people hate it with a passion where I can safely say that I throughly enjoyed it and thought it was a damn good movie. So if people want to call me crazy, go right ahead, I encourage it. As long as I get to enjoy Dark Phoenix for years to come, then so be it.