X-Men: Dark Phoenix (Movie Review)

*This review will contain spoilers*

Summary:

The X-Men face their most formidable and powerful foe when one of their own, Jean Grey, starts to spiral out of control. During a rescue mission in outer space, Jean is nearly killed when she's hit by a mysterious cosmic force. Once she returns home, this force not only makes her infinitely more powerful, but far more unstable. The X-Men must now band together to save her soul and battle aliens that want to use Grey's new abilities to rule the galaxy. 

There goes 2 hours of my life I'm never going to get back wasted on watching this movie. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. I think it's because I've invested so much time into watching these movies that I can't give up now or I'm holding on and praying a good X-Men movie is going to come out. But alas this movie misses the mark. From lack of structure in the story to yet again more plot holes. I'm afraid I won't be holding back punches to another X-Men movie. 

Before I even started watching the movie I knew from the summary that they were going to completely disregard what happened in X-Men: Apocalypse. In that movie, Professor X told Jean to let go of her control and use her powers against Apocalypse and she destroyed him. At the end of that the energy that she released turned into the shape of a Phoenix. So visually we understood that was the Phoenix Force. But in this movie, she merges with Phoenix Force when in outer space. Will we be forever deprived of consistency with these movies? 

The opening scene was such a bore! Jean Grey and her family are driving on the road, Jean causes the accident with her abilities, however, she protects herself in a psychic cocoon. This was such a bad choice for an opening scene. They should have cut it and used those scenes in a flashback. I think if they started off the movie with the rescue mission in outer space, it would have started off the audience on a more excited and captivated note. 

There were parts of this movie that I really enjoyed. We were introduced to the D'Bari; a alien race whose home planet was destroyed by the Phoenix Force. It's why they want to control Phoenix Force to take over the Earth. I absolutely love Jessica Chastain as Vuk; the D'Bari leader. She killed this role! I'm happy that there finally was an explanation on the big screen of what the Phoenix Force is and what it is capable of. It would be great if there would be a consistent storyline involving Phoenix Force instead of what we keep getting. A less than thrilling ending. 

This movie really had a lot of potential but whoever greenlit this project didn't look over at the script at all. It makes no sense that Jean automatically distanced herself after a small incident when the Phoenix Force overwhelmed her and she lashed out with her powers. Logically speaking and taking into account how she's been in the previous movies Jean would have asked for help instead of running away. Raven's death held little meaning because the script was poorly written. 

Thank God this movie had some great actors who were able to give some life to an otherwise lifeless script. I hate that they keep producing movies for everyone to 'enjoy' so they barebone these amazing characters to try to make a quick buck. Just cause you add a lot of action scenes and CGI doesn't make it an instant blockbuster hit. 

Rating:

I am going to give Dark Phoenix 2 stars on 5. This movie had such potential to be one of the best X-Men movies to date but alas it missed the mark. Yet again we have plot holes that mess up the story but it's so stupid that it happened in the first place! Especially, since it was the same guy (Simon Kinberg) who was overseeing these movies. You'd think he would have caught this disaster before it happened. I'm at least happy we were given some new characters that opens up the X-Men world a little bit but quite frankly, there needs to be a new creative director because these past movies have been such let downs and disappointments.