Filmed two years ago, a couple of release date delays and a reshot third act – X-Men: Dark Phoenix looked like it was doomed to fail from the start and yet the end result couldn’t be further from the truth. Fox’s fourth X-Men prequel movie is a fitting end to the franchise, paying tribute to the best-loved entries and correcting previous mishaps. Dark Phoenix may be a direct sequel to X-Men: Apocalypse, but it’s also a remake of X-Men: The Last Stand.
The latter is based on the X-Men Dark Phoenix comic book storyline when Jean Grey loses control of her powers to catastrophic effect.
However, 2006’s The Last Stand was a turkey and something X-Men producer – and now director of Dark Phoenix – Simon Kinberg wanted to get right.
Taking advantage of X-Men: Days of Future Past’s time travel creating an alternate timeline, he moved Jean Grey’s most famous storyline to a 1992 setting, following the previous prequel films’ traditional decade-jump-per-movie.
But Dark Phoenix doesn’t waste time justifying its existence in the convoluted canon but instead dives into one of the most adult dramas of the superhero genre in recent years – certainly since Logan.
X-MEN MOVIE TIMELINE EXPLAINED
Without spoiling the plot, X-Men Dark Phoenix manages to capture a completely different tone to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s boisterous humour, one that is serious, character-driven and tragic without being dull or pretentious.
Dark Phoenix sees the X-Men thrown into something of their very own Civil War, with a greying over of who the heroes and villains really are.
Sophie Turner, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Nicholas Hoult’s performances, in particular, are superb and believable, as their characters struggle with great loss and battle for what they truly believe is right.
There aren’t many laughs in Dark Phoenix, but it’s not that kind of superhero movie, focusing instead on the characters’ struggles and zooming the audience along through the fast-paced action and impressive visual effects.
The third act was particularly impressive considering it was entirely reshot, with the original taking place in outer space.
Hans Zimmer’s exhilarating score thunders along throughout, adding to the thrills amid all the fighting and destruction.
However, Dark Phoenix isn’t perfect, being smaller in scale than its previous outings and a tad too long, but it’s still an impressive feat all the same.
Now the X-Men are joining Disney’s Marvel Studios, so it’ll be exciting to see where the rebooted characters will go next. But in another sense, it’s a shame, after seeing just how good they can be on their own.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is out now.