X-Men: Dark Phoenix

The X-Men's descent from the best comic book adaptation ever (Volume 2) to utter forgettable sh*t. And sad be the day Sophie Turner believed she was an actress. Well, perhaps she is an actress, but she’s certainly the least charismatic being to appear in the entire series. Fassbender, Lawrence and McAvoy must have been terribly relieved that they got off the hook with this latest installment and don't have to keep plugging away. (03.09.2019)

After watching the film, I was surprised at how badly this final episode of modern X-Men is rated. It didn’t seem so bad to me, but I have some comments on the film. The thing that intrigued me the most was the fact that the film was entrusted to an inexperienced director. This mostly shows in the action sequences. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s the most furious action I’ve ever seen. The strange thing, however, is that this weird action looks incredibly epic in the end. I really don’t know how to put in the words, but I guess these are the best furious action scenes I’ve ever seen. The camera is not shaky, it performs such maneuvers that it boggles your mind, and even though I was quite dubious the entire time, it turned out that it’s the best feature of the whole flick. Together with Hans Zimmer’s music, which is once again epic and memorable. The plot, however, is worse, as it’s often the case with X-Men movies. Sophie Turner makes the same puppy eyes as she did in Game of Thrones, but this time it doesn’t work. During the entire movie, which was supposed to be about her, I was incredibly annoyed by her character. The best parts were as usual James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, thanks to whom I enjoyed the ending. This instalment deserves definitely better rating then 59 out of 100. It is controversial, true, but it is also entertaining, which is exactly what I wanted from it. (14.01.2020)

Jean Grey has become the Dark Phoenix, and the other X-Men can't tame her the easy way. But do they stand a chance against their former partners? And what if someone far more dangerous is after her new powers? The new X-Men return to their roots and try to rely on interesting characters and character development more than action. It succeeds only halfway. Unfortunately, Simon Kinberg's surprisingly solid direction is tripped up by the often not-so-good actors and an overly rushed story. There are some strong emotional moments, though, and the finale on the train is among the best action we've ever seen in X-Men. I was expecting a lot worse. (06.06.2019)

Considering the reviews so far, I was expecting crap and I went to the cinema rather out of boredom, but I was very pleasantly surprised and after a long time I enjoyed the cinema. The line-up of James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain entertained me a lot, and although Sophie Turner is still an underdeveloped actress, I didn't mind her. Story-wise, the film doesn't really grab you, but I really enjoyed the action – the half-hour finale on the train is one of the best I've seen this year and Magneto gives it his all in style (I hope a solo movie is in the works!). Shame about the smaller space for Quicksilver, who has stolen the highlights for himself for the last two episodes, so maybe next time. Satisfaction for me and I probably won't see Phoenix in the blue skies again. 80% (20.06.2019)

Due to the public's zero to negative expectations, a clear critical and commercial defeat was anticipated long in advance, breaking my heart with how much it reaches out to me and how well I understand it. It is, in fact, split exactly halfway between honoring all conceivable references and the existing film legacy. It emphasizes teamwork, without the naiveté of classic comic book adventures, and shamelessly points out that it more or less repeats X-Men: The Last Stand, with several plot twists that wink at the viewer – then goes in a different direction. Sophie Turner surprisingly masters the conflicted Jean and thus pays greater homage to the entire Phoenix saga (thanks in part to thirteen years of advancements in CGI) than Famke Janssen did in her time (iconic though she was). Moreover, when Magneto is fully immersed in the story, once again proving that Michael Fassbender is the best cast member, I forget about the slightly conflicting motivations of the individual characters and gladly submit my final rating to the complex message that symbolically resonates with the original ideas from the first films. Simon Kinberg understands mutants and loves them unconditionally, occasionally forgetting about viewers who haven't seen most of the previous films backwards and forwards. Nonetheless, the farewell to this separate form of the righteous X-Men manages to remain firmly grounded, even though its scale reaches to the stars. (15.06.2019)

It is the year 1992, the space shuttle Endeavour ends up in a cosmic cloud in our planet’s orbit, the X-Men come to help, and something goes wrong. This space plot introduces a non-mutant/non-human enemy, while at the same time dropping the storyline with GLBT/LGBT hatred that they were so fond of in this series for so many years. Some members of the team have stopped enjoying their blind subservience to mankind. The team is slowly falling apart and Jean becomes Phoenix again, but this time around we don’t have the sexy Famke Jannsen to play the part convincingly. The younger actors generally can’t compete with high-calibre performers like McAvoy or Fassbender, so the movie relies a little more on the latter's performances. Even so, Kinberg is a capable storyteller and serves up dynamic action scenes and good ideas. The climax on the train, where everybody goes ape-shit, is full of memorable scenes. All this accompanied by Hans’s outstanding music. In the end, this is quite a solid ending to the X-series. Those were good years. P.S: The end conflicts with what was hinted at in Days of Future Past. (08.06.2019)

Ich habe auch nach 20 Jahren noch einen gewissen Respekt vor der Reihe X-Men. Ich schaue mir all diese Filme und Fernsehsendungen an, und ich lese immer wieder neue Comics, aber das hält mich nicht davon ab, gelegentlich fröhlich zu alten Bekannten zurückzukehren. (10.01.2022)

The revelry continues with hollow material from which absolutely nothing can be milked, even if Fassbender and co. were standing on their heads. The X-Men are long past their sell-by date for many reasons. A story that’s too convoluted, the time jumping, the clichéd scripts. This episode not a hit with a tight grip. The last really good episode thus remains First Class, which was fresh, original and with extremely skilled direction, the other films have been a mess. Maybe standalone spin-offs have a chance, but this bunch is otherwise way past its prime. (07.09.2019)

Die X-Men sind dorthin zurückgekehrt, wo sie angefangen haben. Dark Phoenix achtet so wie die ersten zwei Filme von Singer sehr auf die Figuren. Deshalb ist er so super. Das Wichtigste sind wieder die Dialoge und die Emotionen. Die Actionszenen dienen vor allem als ein effektvoller Weg zu dem, wodurch sich die Mutant-Saga einst von den anderen Comic-Filmen abgehoben hat und was aus ihr erwachsene Filme mit einem Raum fürs Nachdenken gemacht hat. Wenn es gelungen wäre, das Drehbuch von Dark Phoenix im Jahr 2006 anstatt von Der letzte Widerstand zu schreiben und zu drehen, wäre es ein ausgezeichneter Abschluss der Trilogie. So ist es ein toller Abschluss einer ein wenig wankenden und verwirrten Saga, die zwar allmählich irgendwie in sich selbst verloren ging, sich aber immer gefunden hat. Bei den Schauspielleistungen habe ich nichts zu beanstanden. Was die Geschichte betrifft, da würde ich außer Jean gerne den Professor X, der Fehler macht, hervorheben. Der Regisseur Simon Kinberg hat mich so wie der Drehbuchautor erfreut – jetzt spreche ich nicht nur über das tolle Zugfinale, sondern vor allem über die allgegenwärtige Spannung und das Gefühl der Schicksalhaftigkeit, das er (auch dank Zimmers Musik) hervorgerufen hat. (12.06.2019)

Bei dem Versuch, das epische Finale der gesamten bisherigen X-Men-Saga zu sein, handelt es sich eher um ein langsames und müdes Ausklingen ins Leere. Es scheint, dass die Entscheidung, den finalen Film der Serie einem durchschnittlichen Drehbuchautor, aber einem völlig unerfahrenen Regisseur wie Simon Kinberg anzuvertrauen, ihren Tribut gefordert hat. Ohne jegliche Übertreibung könnte es nicht langweiliger und ermüdender sein. Es ist ein Film, dessen Entwicklung Ihnen völlig gleichgültig sein wird. (03.02.2020)

X-Men: Dark Phoenix hat im Vergleich zu Erste Entscheidung und Zukunft ist Vergangenheit nicht viel Überraschendes zu bieten und bietet keine besonders durchdachte Geschichte mit Wendungen. Leider konnte mich Sophie Turner auch nach diesem Film nicht davon überzeugen, dass sie ein starker "Dark Phoenix" ist. Im Allgemeinen kamen mir alle jungen Schauspieler eher wie Lakaien vor, und ich mochte die schnellen Wechsel in ihrem Denken nicht. Die Figur mit dem Gesicht der dämonischen Jessica Chastain hat mir am besten gefallen. Andererseits muss ich die Schlusssequenz im Zug loben, die von vorne bis hinten voller Action war. Er kommt nicht an die alten und ersten neuen X-Men heran, aber es hätte schlimmer kommen können. (09.06.2019)

Two-thirds of the film deal with problems that no one really cares about, be it an alien invasion or the story of Jean Gray, rendered by the incredibly unlikeable Sophie Turner (my bet is this was her first and last major role in a big-budget movie, as I really can’t think of many people who would at least partially like her, not to mention the fact that she just can’t act). But then, as if the creators realized that this part wasn’t engaging enough for the story to end in a satisfactory way, the finale appears out of nowhere as if from another movie, packed with original action, making great use of the mutants' abilities. It's filmed in a well-structured way, accompanied by Zimmer’s epic soundtrack and you almost feel sorry that you probably won’t be seeing McAvoy and Fassbender in their iconic roles anymore. All things considered, it's not such a bad movie, especially after the problems during the shooting, but you can already notice some wear and tear and Disney's mutants might as well get a (well-deserved) rest. (02.09.2019)