'Dark Phoenix' A Review

Dark Phoenix is a superhero movie, the final installment in Fox's X-Men series. Following the events of X-Men: Apocalypse the X-Team have become the world's clean-up crew, being called into situations that normal governmental infrastructure can't handle. When Houston loses communication with a NASA shuttle the X-Men are sent on a rescue mission. During the rescue Jean Gray(Sophie Turner) is possessed by a solar flare which is actually a undefined cosmic power. On the team's return to Earth Jean begins to lose control and nameless shapeshifting aliens captained by Vuk(Jessica Chastain) hunt her and her new power.

Although stacked with incredible talent none of the considerable actors manage to distinguish themselves. Evan Peters as Quicksilver is the most egregiously wasted, as a fan favorite of Days Of Future Past and one of the only redeemable aspects of Apocalypse, he is inconceivably underutilized. With little to no development in the previous installment in the series Turner and Ty Sheridan, who plays her love interest Cyclops, are given too much emotional(an actual) ground to cover to really engage any interest. Both James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender(Professor X and Magneto respectively) are asked to contort their characters in unearned ways that they valiantly attempt but absolutely don't work. Overall the entire cast is a dearth of wasted potential, misplaced professional effort, and bizarrely muddled characters for the sake of an unexciting plot.

Visually the movie is a very-middle-of-the-road forgettable superhero pastiche. The soundtrack doesn't utilize the only vaguely referenced 90's setting, and the costumes are a bizarre pendulum of comic book throwback and a kind of post-Matrix black leather milieu.

Dark Phoenix encapsulates well Fox's tenure over the X-Men franchise- uneven and mismanaged.

Don't See It.