3.5 stars. Rated PG-13, for considerable sci-fi violence, disturbing images and fleeting profanity
By Derrick Bang
Comic book writers are notorious for adjusting, revising, reworking or even completely undoing the mythic back-stories and details of long-established characters.
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| The spooky, otherworldly Vuk (Jessica Chastain, right) insists that she can help the confused and increasingly overwhelmed Jean (Sophie Turner) control cosmic powers that are literally off the chart. Naturally, Vuk's motivations are far less than pure... |
Nothing is sacrosanct: not even death. If so-and-so perished nobly while saving the universe, s/he can be resurrected five years later via some previously undisclosed loophole. (If all else fails, rely on time travel.)
Putting up with this is difficult enough with comic books, but at least such contrived and manipulative nonsense can be “justified” during multiple issues over the course of many months.
It’s a lot more disconcerting when the newest X-Men entry — Dark Phoenix — makes absolute hash of the continuity established in previous films … or so it seems. Apoplectic fans sputtering “But … but … but!” are advised to pay closer attention to what went down in 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Which is how writer/direct Simon Kinberg gets away with the jaw-dropper that hits during this new film’s second act.
It also kinda/sorta justifies — albeit with an eyebrow lift — this film’s more-or-less replication of events already covered in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. Both are based on the iconic Chris Claremont/Dave Cockrum/John Byrne “Dark Phoenix Saga,” which played out in comic book form from 1976 to ’80 (back when only one X-Men comic book hit the stands each month, and boy, those were simpler times).
At its core, this is a common superhero plot device: What happens when a good hero turns bad?
Having proven themselves heroic after events in 2016’s (thoroughly unsatisfying) X-Men: Apocalypse, Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and his mutant students happily bask in the unaccustomed glow of public acclaim. Charles has a direct line to the U.S. president; children eagerly purchase dolls and other ephemera related to their favorite X-Man … or X-Woman, as the shape-shifting Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) tartly suggests should be the team’s actual designation, given how frequently the gals save the day.
That’s no mere idle comment. Female characters are front and center in this film, and it’s darn well about time.
Raven heads Charles’ “first response” team, sent via the sleek X-Jet to handle all manner of emergencies. The squad typically includes the telepathic/telekinetic Jean Grey (Sophie Turner); weather-controlling Ororo, aka Storm (Alexandra Shipp); the teleporting Kurt, aka Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee); super-speedster Peter, aka Quicksilver (Evan Peters); and energy beam-wielding Scott, aka Cyclops (Tye Sheridan). Scientific analysis and way-cool gadgeting are handled back at base by Hank, also known as the preternaturally agile Beast (Nicholas Hoult).
They all duly charge into action when the crew of the just-launched space shuttle Endeavour issues a panic-stricken “Houston, we’ve got a problem.” That’s an understatement; once in space, the X-Men discover that the shuttle is about to be engulfed by a massive, weirdly glowing cosmic cloud.
The mission is successful — the astronauts are rescued — but at a cost; Jean somehow absorbs the entirety of that cosmic whatzit. She appears unchanged, after they all return to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Alas, an undefined and massively robust “otherness” manifests rather quickly.
Absolute power. Which, as the saying goes, corrupts absolutely.
Nor is that the only problem. The cosmic cloud was being followed by the remnants of a nasty alien race hoping to exploit its power, as a means of repopulating a new planet … or simply taking over Earth. They assume human form, led by Vuk (Jessica Chastain), with the new goal of finding Jean, and controlling her for their own benefit.
Kinberg’s script is pretty vague when it comes to these extra-terrestrials, who remain ill-defined throughout the entire film. They’re simply Bad, and we don’t get much more than that. Chastain does little but walk and talk with an ethereal solemnity that occasionally verges on unintentionally laughable.
On the other hand, Kinberg injects a welcome note of closeness and “grounded” character dynamics, as these events play out … but only to a degree. Jean and Scott have become an item; Lawrence and Sheridan deftly suggest a poignant degree of intimacy that’s clouded by their awareness of the dangerous paths their lives take (not an easy sell for Sheridan, given that he must “act” from behind Scott’s protective goggles).
Jean and Raven have bonded as well, as BFFs. Raven feels protective of the slightly younger Jean, who never has completely come to grips with her powers. Raven also is close to Hank — perhaps because they’re both blue? — and he regards her as a soul mate.
On a more prickly level, Raven increasingly chafes under the orders given by Charles, who breezily puts his “students” in danger from the comfort and safety of his study. She worries about the degree to which he has succumbed to public worship, and accuses him of betraying the beliefs upon which his school was founded; McAvoy gives Charles a dismissive sneer as he rejects such a notion. Which, of course, makes it true.
McAvoy, Lawrence, Turner, Hoult and Sheridan give these encounters more emotional weight than is evident in Kinberg’s sketchy dialog. In lamentable contrast, Storm, Quicksilver and Nightcrawler are never more than their powers; Shipp, Peters and Smit-McPhee aren’t given any opportunity for character development.
The same is true of the sidebar mutants — Selene (Kota Eberhardt) and Ariki (Andrew Stehlin) — who accompany Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto (Michael Fassbender), when he gets sucked into the chaos that results as Jean loses more and more of herself to whatever is inside her. Selene and Ariki are disposable ciphers: just somebody else to throw adversaries around, and get thrown around in return.
Magneto is different. Fassbender has long been a crucial part of the recent X-Men films: a former friend of Charles’, back in the day, who subsequent turned evil, and then repented. That’s a tall order for any actor, but Fassbender makes Erik quite credible; he’s like a reformed alcoholic forever craving a drink, in this case only one emotional crisis away from succumbing to his inner rage machine.
His scripting limitations notwithstanding, Kinberg definitely knows how to stage a melee. A fracas at a Manhattan embassy building is impressive enough, but he, editor Lee Smith and visual effects supervisor Phil Brennan really pull out all the stops during the climactic battle aboard a moving train. It’s exciting, suspenseful and breathtaking, with a raw fury that reflects Kinberg’s willingness to give his film some bite.
Which we’ve already witnessed. A flashback prologue involving Jean’s childhood is unexpectedly grim — almost too much so — and the aforementioned second-act stunner is a genuine jolt. In that sense, Kinberg’s handling is far more realistic than most larkish superhero entries: Tragic stuff obviously will happen, under conditions as weird and dangerous as these.
And yet Kinberg loses control of that aspect of his film, thanks to a wholly bogus epilogue that flies in the face of what occurred earlier. This contrived finale seems dictated solely by 20th Century Fox’s preposterous claim that Dark Phoenix is the “fitting conclusion to the X-Men franchise’s remarkable 18-year run.” (Yeah, right. Until box-office returns demand otherwise.)
In the final analysis, Kinberg deserves credit for adding a level of heart and soul that have been absent in recent X-Men entries. But he still didn’t come close to the emotional wallop we got from the concurrent Marvel superhero series that just concluded with Avengers: Endgame.
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