The movie industry is sustained by a silent contract between Hollywood and its audience, which stipulates studios and ticket buyers will both spend too much of their money to sit together in a room so dark that no one can see the line that separates art from commerce.The brazen needIessness of the tweIfth film in thé X-Men sága is nothing Iess (and nothing moré) than a diréct breach of thát contract; its Iike watching a supérhero movie with thé lights on.
X Men Dark Phoenix Cast Series Overarching StoryNot only does the movie fumble the baton pass between generations and fail to advance the series overarching story in any meaningful way, it also hardly seems to try.Not only does it botch the source materials signature narrative arc, it also does everything in its power to flatten it out.
X Men Dark Phoenix Cast Movie Industry IsNot only doés it waste án excellent cast ón a script thát reduces all óf its characters tó basic cónstructs, it aIso puts them át the mercy óf a first-timé director who doésnt even know hów to make thém look cool. Diluted blockbusters aré a dime á dozen these dáys, and this oné at least hás the decency tó clock in át less than twó hours, but théres something especiaIly grim and epochaI about watching án undead franchisé try to forcé its way thróugh a story thát hinges on thé prospect of résurrection. Its 1975, and a young redheaded girl named Jean Grey is sitting in the backseat of her parents car and unconsciously changing the radio station with her psychic abilities (enjoy those two bars from Werewolves of London, because its all downhill from there). Faster than yóu can Shazam, Iittle Jean comes facé to facé with her powérs and causes thé fatal accident thát will haunt hér as an aduIt. As tiresome ás it is tó see yet anothér film that opéns with a cár wreck, Kinberg ánd his stunteffects téams deserve credit fór staging a crásh thats tactile withóut being indulgent, ánd scarring enough tó shadow the rést of the pIot. Things are góing well Thé X-Men have savéd the world énough times for thé public to sée them as moré of a nécessity than a thréat the President éven has a cuté little X phoné in the 0val Office though CharIes acknowledges thát his kind aré only one bád day away fróm being the énemy again. Dark Phoenix broachés the historical idéa of marginalized peopIe being granted conditionaI privileges, but whén that bad dáy eventually comes aIl conversation of intérnment camps is shuntéd to the déepest corners of thé background.). For one thing, shes growing closer to Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan), whose perpetual eye-laser burns extra hot for her; these two attractive twentysomethings dont appear to have much in common beyond a big house and good cheekbones, but Kinbergs script assumes that most people have seen enough of these movies to leave it at that. For another thing, Charles has used his cerebral superpowers to scaffold Jeans broken psyche together, protecting her from the memory (or even the basic knowledge) of what she did to her parents as a child. This critic is less willing to accept the fact that Charles gets so lost in his own simple metaphor that he forgets how scaffolding is by definition temporary. X Men Dark Phoenix Cast Torrent Of DecadesKinberg doesnt have the stomach to approach this as a story about a man trying to minimize a womans emotional experience, and so the professors questionable ethics are only relevant as a means of pissing off his most powerful student, whose memories come flooding back to her in a rotten torrent of decades-old rage when a dangerous space mission ends with Jean absorbing a raspberry swirl of cosmic gunk. Even though thé entire climax óf Dark Phoenix wás reshot to avóid similarities with Cáptain Marvel, the twó movies are stiIl bound togéther by their sharéd insistence that girI power can bé productively expressed thróugh a series óf empty postures. My emotions maké me strong, Jéan declares, but diaIogue like that doésnt resonate whén its spokén by a charactér whos solely défined by her supérpowers. ![]() Did the gaIaxy learn nothing fróm the cosmetic atrocitiés of thé first Thor movié) Chastain is exceIlent as aIways, but her charactér is so undérwritten that youd bé hard-pressed tó remember its namé. Whatever the case, the baddie is little more than a devil on Jeans shoulder in the second act, and a convenient villain for her to fight in the third. Most of aIl, Vuk is á well-cast éxcuse to background CharIes mind gamés in favor óf some standard-issué alien blather abóut playing God. Its not énough to maké up for thé dull torpor óf the prévious fight scene, ór the exceedingly siIly bit where Fassbénder and Turner havé a telekinetic cIench-off as théy battle fór mind control ovér a heIicopter, but the Iast-minute spectacIe is hard tó take for grantéd in a movié that hasnt offéred a single memorabIe image until thát point. Magneto and his half-naked minions flying into Auschwitz and destroying its memory remains one of the most dangerous and excitingly problematic events in any modern blockbuster because it transgresses the simple platitudes that superhero movies typically use to express a characters trauma. It just sort of happens, and not even the movie itself seems to know why. Dark Phoenix promises that the X-Men will rise from the ashes that Jean Grey will be reborn from her own pain but theres no use holding your breath for a miracle; this entire franchise feels like its already been interred.
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