X-Men: Dark Phoenix *** (2019, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Sophie Turner, Jessica Chastain, Tye Sheridan, Evan Peters, Kodi Smit-McPhee) – Movie Review

London-born producer/ writer Simon Kinberg has been with X-Men for a long time as writer of X-Men: The Last Stand (written by), X-Men: Days of Future Past (screenplay and story by), X-Men: Apocalypse (screenplay and story by), but now in X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019) he steps up as the director too, though this is his first movie of any kind as director. However, he makes a slick, smart and taut job of it, breathing some life and fire into a wheezing saga in an ageing franchise past its prime.

James McAvoy, with a lot to do as Professor Charles Xavier, and Michael Fassbender, with a lot less to do as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto, try to get by on acting as the top billed stars, and to some extent they do, while Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy / Beast and Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers / Cyclops add a bit of value and appeal. However, poor Jennifer Lawrence sulks on the sidelines as Raven / Mystique, while Evan Peters and Kodi Smit-McPhee are also wasted as Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver and Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler.

(By the way, why didn’t they let Tye Sheridan take off his Cyclops glasses occasionally and let Kodi Smit-McPhee dump his Nightcrawler suit for a bit to let them do a bit acting?)

Nicholas Hoult plays Hank McCoy / Beast.

But the film belongs to Sophie Turner as the all-powerful super-villain Jean Grey / Phoenix, who has acquired incredible powers that turn her into a Dark Phoenix, and to Jessica Chastain, having a grand old time as the arch villainess Vuk, who turned Jean Grey over to the dark side in the first place (via a Moon shot rescue and a solar flare) and now comes to claim her as her right-hand woman. Together they will rule the world, killing everyone in their way and laying waste to the planet. All very metoo. Unless, of course, the X-Men can somehow stop them.

Professor Xavier, who has adopted and educated Jean after the apparent death in a car crash of both her parents, wants to save Jean, but Magneto wants to kill her, and Cyclops says he’ll kill Magneto if he kills Jean.

It is billed as the X-Men’s Final Battle. And so it is Endgame on a familiar note. There are surprises, a bit, but not much. With another $200,000,000 spent, Dark Phoenix completes the the X-Men franchise produced by Twentieth Century Fox, though there are plenty of hints of at least some of the actors and characters carrying on regardless, maybe into the MCU, or new standalone X-Men movies. As such, those expecting something remarkable, a triumphant finish, will feel frustrated. It is a minor movie in every way, just a long-running franchise series episode, yet it entertains with its suitable dark and doomy tone and dark action, and keeps its welcome at a brisk and efficient 113 minutes, ending with an excellent action finale aboard a train, and a sentimental postscript saying goodbye.

All this is fine, but this has nothing like the charge of the end of days stuff in Logan or Avengers: Endgame, despite similar deaths of beloved main characters. So there will be a sense of disappointment in some quarters. It has nothing like the quality of the Bryan Singer X-Men movies, and the actors are no way as exciting or iconic.

The production is impressive, the CGI is seamless and Hans Zimmer’s notable score has the stuff to add atmosphere and power.

Those who don’t like it have to blame Simon Kinberg, who writes the screenplay from the story The Dark Phoenix Saga by John Byrne, Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum. I’d say the screenplay is serviceable and entertaining.

There are no mid-credits or post-credits scenes.

Dark Phoenix was set for release on 2 November 2018, but, perhaps through studio jitters, it moved back to 14 February 2019 for reshoots, and then moved back again to 6 June 2019.

Bryan Singer is the director of X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Movie Review

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Sophie Turner and Jessica Chastain star in Dark Phoenix.