*Sighs*
Guys. This one...this one's going to be painful. I've found a movie that's going on my Worst Of for the year. And this is coming from my first ever fandom. AND it's one of my favorite story lines but once again, they manage to screw it all up. This is the second time we've gotten this specific plot but at least this one was closer to the source material. Even then, that's not saying much. There was so much wrong with this...before I get into it, let me tell you about something that happened to me. Maybe then you'll understand why I'm so disappointed.
As many of you know, I'm part of a trivia team. I go almost every Wednesday. Once or twice a month, the place has a theme. So far, I've competed in Game of Thrones and Marvel, both times I failed miserably. When I heard there was going to be a X-Men themed trivia night, I got excited. By the way, guess what I'm reviewing? Anyway, I love the X-Men. I have comics, graphic novels, visual guides, seen all the movies...I'm borderline obsessed. Seriously, I know more than the common person should know. My point is, this was my first fandom and I dove deep into it.
So, I won trivia last week. Not my team, literally me. I beat out all the other teams to win $50 and some various prizes. Like I said, X-Men is my thing. That's how much I love this stuff. So I was excited when I knew Dark Phoenix would be adapted into a movie. I mean, yes, we got the Phoenix story before, but we all like to pretend that X-Men: The Last Stand didn't happen. I could go on and on about how much I disliked that movie, but that's another story for another day.
Let's talk about the latest Dark Phoenix offering.
I don't even know where to begin with this one. It was plagued with rewrites, reshoots and lots of problems. And believe me, it shows. The story was choppy, the characters were one dimensional and a lot of it felt strange. The villain, if you can call it that, is barely even present and if you took it out, the movie might have improved. A lot of elements are introduced, then left unfinished and the movie feels incomplete. They don't really have a sense of finalty and as far as I know, this is the last movie in this current franchise.
Well...I did some research and they're going to do more movies. They want to focus on the younger mutants so...this *might* be good. I am worried about their next endeavor, "The New Mutants" because it was scheduled for release this year and was pushed back to next year. I really hope they don't mess this one up as bad as they have films in the past. Don't get me wrong, the first iteration of the X-Men movies were good. X-Men and X2 were actually good. The Last Stand was trash. The Logan films were both good and disappointing as the completely messed up Wolverine's backstory. Plus, there was some terrible CGI. Don't even get me started on the "introduction" of Deadpool. We don't talk about that. So when I heard they were doing an origin series, yeah, I was excited.
Needless to say, I'm disappointed.
I mean, come on. They hinted at a huge story line in the end credits scene in "Apocalypse". They teased Mr. Sinister. For those of you who don't know, Nathaniel Essex (the briefcase they showed had the name Esssex on it) is better known as Mr. Sinister. And if you don't know who this baddie is, well, sit down kiddies, I'll tell you. Essex is a villain who was so bad that even his wife knew it. She's the one who called him Sinister and the name stuck. Not only that, he had a massive role in another very popular mutant's life. Did you know that Remy LeBeau AKA Gambit was adopted? Mr. Sinister hired Remy do to some dirty work and trust me, this led to more shenanigans. But my point is, they had so many things they could have touched on but nope, they left all that ignored.
So what we got instead was a 114 minute snooze fest that couldn't live up to expectations. And no, I'm not being harsh because I'm an X-Men uber fangirl. I'm saying this as your average movie goer. To make matters worse, they give away huge details in the trailers. For instance, before I saw the film, I already knew Mystique would die because they basically already showed it to me. So when the scene rolled around, it wasn't shocking or heartbreaking because I was already aware of it. What could have been a beautiful send off for a beloved character was ruined. Yet, it then raises some questions. Mystique shows up in later films, the ones that are set in a more current time so...plot hole. And don't use the Days of Future Past logic. I mean, it could explain every plot hole but that would be such lazy writing.
Dark Phoenix had almost no enjoyable moments. In fact, it was quite forgettable. Nothing really jumped out at me or made me excited. It was mostly me being confused by the characters and not being sure what the actual story was. Was it an attempt to show Jean dealing with past trauma? Was it the Phoenix saga? Were we going to get a history of Genosha? Who were the other mutants on Genosha? Who were the mutants who went with Erik to New York? Is this why Kurt Wagner decided to become a priest?
While I'm discussing certain characters, I want to address something mildly spoilery. Nicolas Hoult plays a decent Hank McCoy, I'll give him that. However, in Apocalypse, he mentions he's created a drug that suppresses the mutant gene, allowing Charles to walk again or something. I don't remember, I haven't seen the film in a while. He uses it on himself to appear human, but that wears off. In Dark Phoenix, he's able to shift between his human and blue form, which is something that's never been addressed before? So is he a shapeshifter? Because he's always been big, blue, furry, Beast. I wish these things got clarified.
Now, let me touch on Vuk, the villain of the story. She's barely visible. We get a weak backstory about her people dying because of the Phoenix force and that's it. That's all we know about her. She has no other qualities to her, other than being bland. If Vuk had been removed, I wouldn't have minded. Seeing Jean struggle with her powers and inability to control them was enough story, but nope, we had to add an additional, somewhat pointless layer to it. Vuk and the D'Bari are maybe in 20 minutes of the movie. But we have no backstory so I can't view her as sympathetic. Vuk comes off as vengeful so I really couldn't find a reason to like her as a character.
I wanted to like this movie, I really did. But once again, the story was butchered. And now that Disney has acquired Fox, who knows what will happen next with this franchise. I mean, they've done a decent job with Marvel but Fox tends to be a bit more edgy with their choices. I don't know if this means we're going to have all future X-Men films watered down to make them more family friendly but I sincerely hope that is not the case. X-Men makes it a point to touch on issues that people don't want to discuss, like discrimination, racism and even homosexuality. It's always been this way. Don't believe me, have a look at my autographed copy of X-Men that has the first ever gay wedding on it's cover and yes, Stan Lee (God rest his soul) signed it.
So, New Mutants has the potential to be good, as all films do. The constant push backs have me worried because some times, many of the times, all the add ons can really destroy a film. For example, in Thor: THe Dark World, Loki was supposed to die. But, people reacted so negatively that they brought him back. And you all know I love Loki and Tom Hiddleston, but I though having him die in the noble way he did was perfect. Bringing him back felt like a mistake and honestly, he really didn't have anything to do in Ragnarok, then just got killed off again in Infinity War. Movies can't decide between being good and pandering to the audience. Not everyone is going to like your finished product, that goes for everyone. At least create something you're proud of.
Trust me, this is a lesson I've had to learn in a very hard way. It's the reason I lost all confidence in my skills as a blogger and film critic. I was trying to write things I thought people would want from me, not write what I wanted to. I made posts I wasn't proud of because I felt I had to churn stuff out. The truth is, I have to do things in my own time so I can be proud of what I'm posting online for you, my lovely reader, to read. Otherwise...why do what I do?
Dark Phoenix isn't the worst X-Men film out there. The Last Stand is. However, it still doesn't know what it wants to be and that was its downfall. Instead of creating something that was potentially amazing, we got a generic, confusing mess that didn't have a satisfactory ending. Hell, they left it wide open for a sequel.
Dear cinematic gods...don't let there be a sequel.
I know this review seems like it's been a little...off and maybe cut abruptly short, but I am rather ill at the moment. I've been working on this review for a week and I really wanted to finish it because I also plan to review Shaft, which I saw. My friend Sin surprised me and took me to see it, so I'd like to talk about that too.
Plus, I was talking to some other friends, Shadow and Pink, about Disney and princess and things like that and they gave me some very interesting ideas I want to talk about in a future blog. So, there's something for everyone to look forward to.
I'm Cora Valentine, better known as TheCinemaChick and if I had a mutant power, I'd be an empath.
Love you guys and I'll see you in the next blog.
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