Dark Phoenix Review

X men dark Phoenix : Lets you down

The thing about X – Men has always been on how different it had been from the other segment of Marvel universe – Avengers; the way it deals with the darkness in a no-nonsensical way. However, looks like the production house will have to learn to say "We’re done" with Logan, which was a stunner. Dark Phoenix is a failed attempt in re-establishing X-Men universe with heavy desperation. The 2 hour drama is a CGI fest, tries to be emotionally high yet deplores on various grounds miserably. All the mutants together and yet they are in short of words and tricks.

A brief flashback to 1975 shows a young Jean’s defining trauma, when the telekinesis she can’t yet control results in a horrific car crash and her becoming an orphan. She’s taken in by Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) who offers her help and guidance and tells her that she can decide to use her powers for good, which is not exactly top of mind for her when, 17 years later, she absorbs a deadly cosmic energy field. It’s 1992, and on one of her first missions as an X-Woman, she is sent up on the X-Jet, along with the Mystique (Jenifer Lawrence), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) in his Bono wraparounds, the loyal Beast (Nicholas Hoult), the fearsome Storm (Alexandra Shipp), and all the rest of them. Their job is to save the astronauts who are traveling on the maiden flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavor. The space ship is caught in one of those centrifugal movie thingies that cause a spacecraft to go into a fatal spin cycle. After several of her comrades fail to stabilize the situation, Jean gets beamed out there, and she happens to absorb a lot of energy, force and light propelling her power to even higher, so much that even she doesn’t know what she is capable of.

Essentially, Jean discovers that Charles has been hiding some information from her about her childhood and she gets angry (dangerously so) and starts racking up a body count. Even Magneto (Michael Fassbender), who is living in what looks like a dystopian sleepaway camp, doesn’t want any part of it and she becomes an outcast. So when an intense alien with evil plans and sky high daggers, Vuk (Jessica Chastain) tells her that she’s just misunderstood and to follow her, Jean is all ears. It’s a lot of fussy plot with not much heart behind it, and while Turner is excellent at looking like a woman in distress, she needs a character to back up all that conflict and make us care. Even a pretty shocking death barely registers emotionally. As always, a superhero movie devoid of emotions makes up by heavy visuals, with Magneto too at the offing, there is enough claw wrenching scenes for xmen fans.

The film strikes on the Charles Xavier front – a straight forward professor who cares for mutants and their rights on par with Humans has his task cut out in adding responsibilities to manage all the mutants. In the process ego gets on to him, these are some emotional content that gets the non-CGI scenes a little on the toes.

Overall this is certainly not the solid Good bye to these 12 franchises long that X – Men fans would have expected. The series that usually works out between all mutants sticks with Jean dominantly, maybe one of the major reasons for the letdown.

Verdict : X- Men Dark Phoenix has enough visuals for a good cinematic experience, yet lets down on solid content and entertainment that the series has stood so far.