X-Men: Dark Phoenix Review

X-Men: Dark Phoenix

Release Date: 6th June 2019 - Australia

Production Companies

20th Century Fox (presents)
Marvel Entertainment (in association with)
TSG Entertainment (in association with)
Bad Hat Harry Productions
Donners' Company
Kinberg Genre

Distribution

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Australia

Genre: Action

Rating: M

Runtime: 114 minutes

Budget: $200,000,000

Box Office Gross: $252,442,974 (Worldwide)

Plot Summary

When Jean Grey starts to develop powerful psionic abilities, which corrupt her and threaten to eradicate the universe, the X-Men must decide if her life is worth more than all the other living beings.

Cast

James McAvoy - Charles

Xavier/Professor X

Michael Fassbender - Erik

Lensherr/Magneto

Jennifer Lawrence - Raven

Darkholme/Mystique

Nicholas Hoult - Dr. Hank

McCoy/Beast

Evan Peters - Peter

Maximoff/Quicksilver

Sophie Turner - Jean Grey

Tye Sheridan - Scott Summers/Cyclops

Kodi Smit-McPhee - Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler

Alexandra Shipp - Ororo Monroe/Storm

Jessica Chastain - Vuk

Scott Shepherd - John Grey

Ato Essandoh - Jones

Brian D'Arcy James -

President of the United States

Halston Sage - Dazzler

Lamar Johnson - Match

Summer Fontana - Young Jean Grey (8 Years Old)

Hannah Emily Anderson - Elaine Grey

Josh McLaglen - Hospital Doctor (Cameo)

Todd Hallowell - Hospital Doctor (Cameo)

Chris Claremont - White House

Guest (Cameo)

Andrew Stehlin - Ariki

Kota Eberhardt - Selene Gallio

Crew

Writer/Producer/Director - Simon Kinberg

Associate Producer/Production

Manager - Daniel Auclair

Executive Producer - Stan Lee

Executive Producer/First

Assistant Director - Josh McLaglen

Producers - Hutch Parker and Lauren Shuler Donner

Producer/Second Unit Director: Splinter Unit - Todd Hallowell

Co-Producer - Kurt Williams

Co-Producer/Unit Production Manager - Kathleen McGill

Casting - Alyssa Weisberg

Production Designer - Claude Paré

Production Designer: Additional Photography/

Supervising Art Director - Michele Laliberte

Set Decorator - Elizabeth Wilcox

Decorator/Set Decorator: Additional Photography -

Eve Boulonne

Decorators - Elise de Blois,

José Varela and Ann Victoria Smart

Pierre Antoine Rousse

and Elizabeth Wilcox

Property Master - Claire Alary

Costume Designer - Daniel Orlandi

Special Effects Head Makeup - Adrien Morot

Legacy Effects - Brian Sipe, Scott Stoddard,

Michael Ornelaz, Alexei Dmitriew,

Marilyn Chaney, Tracey Roberts,

Ilona Muschenetz, Kristen Willet,

Damian Fisher, Corey Czekaj,

Constance Grayson Criswell, Mario Torres,

Walter Phelan, Kayla Jo Holland,

Larry Robertson, Gary Yee, Jeff Deist,

A.J. Venuto, Chris Grossnickle,

Aimee Macabeo, Phannin 'Jinni' Jiravilaivudi,

Rapeeporn 'Toi' Rodchumpu, Kenneth Calhoun,

Nyssa Grazda, Kelly Zak, Jaime Siska,

Daniel Driscoll, Lou Diaz, Michelle DeVille,

Tom Ovenshire, Lindsay McGowan,

J. Alan Scott, Shane Mahan, Damon Weathers,

Irvine Green, John Cherevka, Andrea Wiersma,

James Spinner and Steve Adkins

Director of Photography - Mauro Fiore

Director of Photography: Second Unit -

Josh Bleibtreu

Director of Photography: Additional

Photography, Second Unit - Jonathan Taylor

First Assistant Director: Second Unit -

Andrew M. Robinson

Second Unit Director - Guy Norris

Train Sequence/Second Unit Director - Brian Smrz

Stunt Coordinators - Tim Wong and

Michael Scherer

Stunt Coordinator: Additional Photography -

James M. Churchman

Fight Coordinator - Richard Norton

Special Effects Supervisor - Cameron Waldbauer

Special Effects Coordinator - Cara E. Anderson

Special Effects Supervisor: 2nd Unit -

Tom Blacklock

Legacy Effects Supervisor - John Rosengrant

Visual Effects Supervisor - Phil Brennan

Visual Effects Supervisor: Scanline VFX -

Bryan Grill

Visual Effects Supervisor: MPC/On-Set Visual

Effects Coordinator - Greg Butler

Additional Visual Effects Supervisor - Zachary Tucker

Visual Effects: Mels VFX - Jonathan Piche-

Delorme, Frédéric Breault, Cynthia Mourou,

Alexandre Tremblay, Sebastien Cache,

Ramon Ramos, Antoine Rouleau,

Francois Trudel, Benoît Gagnon,

Danielle Taillefer, Reine Bourgault,

Annie Dufresne, Maxime Ducharme,

Francis Bernard and Emmanuel Brassard

Visual Effects Producer: Soho VFX -

Kelly McCarthy

Visual Effects Art Director: Scanline VFX -

Claas Henke

Visual Effects Consultant - John Dykstra

Animation Supervisors: MPC - Wesley Chandler

and Michael Langford

Film Editor - Lee Smith

Associate Editor - John Lee

Sound Designer/Supervising Sound Editor -

Richard King

Supervising Sound Editor - John A. Larsen

Re-Recording Mixers - Paul Massey

and Beau Borders

Music/Score Producer/Synth Programming -

Hans Zimmer

Composers: Additional Music/Score Producers -

David Fleming and Steve Mazzaro

Score Recordist - Alan Meyerson

Review

It's the moment that has finally come in the X-Men film series where we got to see its closure. This closure comes in the form of DARK PHOENIX. Unfortunately, the film wasn't the proper grand finale that it was supposed to be. DARK PHOENIX retells a story previously told in The Last Stand, only without the numerous subplots and excessive characters. DARK PHOENIX is slightly better, though a bit disappointing. However, I admit that the film's ending confused me. The conclusion fails to connect with the mutant uprising in the other X-Men movies. The situation would have been much more effective if it had ended with Logan. I don't see how DARK PHOENIX maintains the same continuity that had started in the first X-Men movie.

While the film tries to surpass our lofty expectations, its tepid reception and Disney's takeover of the 20th Century Fox studio were instrumental in its defeat at the box office. Several plot points are unresolved in the plot of DARK PHOENIX, such as Magneto figuring out that Quicksilver is his son. What makes things worse is that the writer/director Simon Kinberg tries to make everything he previously wrote irrelevant in The Last Stand. If it were up to me, I would improve DARK PHOENIX. I would go with changes in the plot as it better concludes this epic series.

The cast is impeccable, with returning players like James McAvoy as Xavier and Sophie Turner from Game of Thrones as Jean Grey. Turner gives a fiery performance that almost saves the movie metaphorically extinguished.

DARK PHOENIX was an unfitting and anti-climactic end of the original superhero team. This film barely proves anything but for Disney to reboot the characters for the MCU shortly. X-Men fans will watch this movie, even if it is a mediocre conclusion to the film series.

Star rating: (4/10) Below Average

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