X-Men: The Last Stand
admonition : Major SPOILERS forDark Phoenix .
Dark Phoenixis estimable thanX - Men : The Last Standbut it still made large mistakes that kept it far from being one of the good X - Men movies . Writer - conductor Simon Kinberg ’s film is a do - over of the Kinberg - co - written , Brett Ratner direct 2006 stab at adapt Marvel Comics’The Dark Phoenix Saga , arguably the most popular ten - Men fib . This time , Sophie Turnerportrays Jean Grey , who is hue with the cosmic Phoenix Force and grows too herculean and evil , forcing the X - Men to take a stand against her .
After the ten - Men flick were rebooted in 2011’sX - Men : First Class , the chance arose to remakeThe Dark Phoenix Saga . The cristal - Men from the original trilogy like Jean Grey , Cyclops , and Storm were recast with younger role player inX - Men : Apocalypseand the timeline had been modify byX - Men : Days of Future Pastso thatThe Last Standnever happened . While many fans groaned at another movie about Jean Grey becoming buy by the Phoenix Force , the Bob Hope was thatDark Phoenixwould do the tale Department of Justice and stick more nearly to the source material , which admit the X - Men fighting aliens , Jean becoming so out - of - control as the Phoenix that she destroys a lead and put interplanetary genocide , and a major showdown on the Sun Myung Moon .
The trailers immediately scud buff ' hopes asDark Phoenix ’s resemblance toX - Men : The Last Standwas too close for comfort . Still , there were nod to the beginning fabric that did n’t exist inX - gentleman : The Last Stand : the mutant heroes do trip into distance , the Phoenix Force ( but not Jean ) does destroy a major planet , and there are aliens in the movie , which were in the beginning rumored to be Skrulls . The final cutting off ofDark Phoenixunderwent extremely publicize reshoots that delayed the release date double and made substantial changes to the third act ( in the last snub , there are no Skrulls in the film ) . As a result of all of the tinkering and second - guessing , Dark Phoenixreceived the lowest Rotten Tomatoes scoreof any X - Men moving-picture show . It also does n’t help that since lover have already seen a badDark Phoenix Sagamovie , they do n’t palpate the substantial urge to see a remaking that also got spoilt inspection .
However , even though it ’s a low barroom to clear-cut , Dark Phoenixis a superior and more satisfying picture thanX - Men : The Last Stand , though it ’s intend to clear far less at the box office . ten - Men : The Last Standis one of the biggest money - earners of the series since it rode off the popularity ofX2 : 10 - Men United . Alternately , Dark Phoenixis the sequel to the ill - regardedX - Men : Apocalypse . Wolverine is also not inDark Phoenixsince Hugh Jackman kip down the X - Men ’s signature zep in 2017’sLogan , so that also hurtsDark Phoenix ’s drafting power . But comparingDark Phoenixto its herald , here ’s how Simon Kinberg fixed some ofX - Men : The Last Stand ’s biggest job while still making decisive mistakes that keptDark Phoenixfrom soaring .
Dark Phoenix Is Properly About Jean Grey
Dark Phoeniximmediately correctsX - work force : The Last Stand ’s biggest sin by making the entire movie about Jean Grey ’s transformation into the Phoenix and how she , in turn , affect the X - Men . After teasingTheDark Phoenix Sagawith Jean ’s death inX2 : 10 - Men United ’s cliffhanger , The Last Standrelegated it to the barn - plot of land while the A - story was a war over a mutant cure . InX - Men : The Last Stand , Famke Janssen ’s Jean kills Cyclops ( James Marsden ) and Professor X ( Patrick Stewart ) - although Cyclops ' decease was kept off - concealment - but otherwise , Jean ’s story was completely pine away ; she mostly support to the side wait for Magneto ’s order to act . Worse , Jean ’s upheaval and the mission to keep her is seen through the eyes of Wolverine .
ToDark Phoenix ’s credit entry , the entire film is about Jean and there is no B - story . Jean ’s action drive the full movie , with the X - Men and theBrotherhood head by Magneto(Michael Fassbender ) take side over what to do about her . But before the Phoenix Force corrupts her , there are scenes of actual intimacy between Jean and Scott ( Tye Sheridan ) , something that was mostly abstracted from the original go - Men trilogy where the audience is told Jean and Scott are a couple but the focusing is on Logan ’s desire for her . Before violence break at Jean ’s childhood home inDark Phoenix , the pleas for Jean to"come home"are about Cyclops , Professor X ( James McAvoy ) , and Mystique ( Jennifer Lawrence ) asking her to recall to her true household , the ex - man . And when Jean lashes out andkills Mystique , this breaks the go - Men apart , but it also shines a light on what Jean meant to the group ( though it ’s all still awkward , underwritten , and does n’t quite demesne ) .
Interestingly , the rap for Jean is for the most part placed on Professor X ’s shoulders . First , Mystique questions Charles ' womb-to-tomb patriarchy(as her surrogate sister since the 1940s , she ’s seen it throughout their lives ) . After Mystique ’s expiry , Beast ( Nicholas Hoult ) criminate Xavier of being at fault for manipulating Jean ’s mind since she was 8 years old . Finally , Professor X admits he was the villainall along for his lie and deceit , despite his undecomposed intentions to protect Jean from her puerility trauma . This is an challenging and crucial shift of blame that builds to the biggest exit fromThe Dark Phoenix SagaandX - Men : The Last Stand : the ending of Jean ’s chronicle .
Dark Phoenix Solves The Last Stand’s Ending Problem
hug drug - Men : The Last Standended with Wolverine kill Jean - a major change fromThe Dark Phoenix Sagacomics , which ended with Jean sacrificing her own sprightliness to winnow out the terror of the Dark Phoenix . But sinceX - Men : The Last Standis Wolverine ’s tale , the POV is Logan ’s and the sacrifice he had to make by being forced to execute the woman he loved to save the humanity . In the terminal , Logan ' did the right thing ' , though Jean ’s death would haunt him inThe Wolverineand until he fixed thetimeline , which inadvertently fix her to biography at the end ofX - Men : Days of Future Past .
Dark Phoenix ’s biggest surprise is plausibly is its ending , which is a major deviation from bothX - Men : The Last Standand the Marvel comics : Jean gets to see her own destiny . Despite being keep in line by analien shapeshifter name Vuk ( Jessica Chastain)and the corrupting influence of the Phoenix Force , Jean eventually occur to the financial aid of the X - Men and fights off the exotic invader . To defeat Vuk , she sailplane into orbit and sheds her mortal build , becoming the impassioned DOE of the Phoenix . This version of Jean Grey does n’t have to die and does n’t need to be saved . Rather , Jean not only take control of her mogul and do the heroic thing at the end , but she also evolve into a high form of life . This ties into the X - Men ’s overall theme of evolution - Jean becomes more than a mutant and is free to seek her fate in the stars . Through it all , Sophie Turner proves up to the challenge of depict Jean ’s fracturing psyche .
Dark Phoenix ’s ending may be sacrilege to comics die - hards but at least Jean does n’t have to dieyet againand she fittingly emerges as the sub of her own story . And yet , even thoughDark Phoenix’sending ' empowers ' Jean , the woolly-headed execution still feels unsatisfying and incomplete . bad , Dark Phoenixseems to set up another continuation that ca n’t happenbecause of the Disney / Fox sale , so the photographic film caps off the total ten - Men saga with a somber and muted conclusion .
Dark Phoenix Changes Who The Threat Really Is - And It Doesn’t Work
Dark Phoenix ’s marketing forebode " The X - Men will face their greatest foeman " , involve it ’s Jean , but the film actually pull a bait - and - switch . Jean does pop and is a scourge in the film , but the real enemy is Vuk and her race , the D’Bari . As a nod to the cosmic aspects of the laughable book report , inDark Phoenix , the D’Bari ’s homeworld is destroyed by thePhoenix Forceas it traveled to Earth to bond with Jean as its host . Vuk leads the few persist D’Bari to Earth with a plan to manipulate and ensure Jean or take the Phoenix Force for herself . Ultimately , the D’Bari need to use the Phoenix to pass over out world so they can take over the Earth .
However , despite the icy threat Chastain brings to Vuk , the D’Bari never really go forth as a credible threat . The X - Men do n’t even regain out about the stranger until well into the third act and , despite the D’Bari ’s shapeshifting power , the mutants are more than a match for them even before Jean steps in and wipe out the encroacher as the Phoenix . It ’s also unclear how Vuk was able to steal the Phoenix Force from Jean and why she somehow has the ability to be its emcee when the cosmic index traveled to Earth specifically to bond with Jean . disregarding , the D’Bari amount off as drinking straw villains with an ill - conceived scheme that could never succeed .
Sadly , this ending is a result ofreshoots that changedwhat was potentially a more prominent third act : Dark Phoenixwas going to originally stop with a battle at the United Nations followed by Jean soaring into the heavens as the Phoenix and single - handedly repel a full - scale invasion . However , this stopping point was reportedly changed because it was"too similar to a different superhero film"(likelyCaptain Marvel ) . The X - Men would have also suffered a schism , not unlike theAvengers ' inCaptain America : Civil War . Instead , Dark Phoenixended with a scale - down gearing scrap when it should have memorably go for broke - especially since it ’s the terminal film of Fox ’s 10 - Men dealership and they had nothing left to lose .
The Last Stand Felt Like A Movie, Dark Phoenix Feels Like TV
ecstasy - man : The Last Stand ’s flaws are legion ; for example , Brett Ratner ’s film is overstuffed with poorly - write reference , insipid dialogue , lowbrow humour , and its frantic gait robs major dramatic minute of proper encroachment . However , eventhough it leaves fans disappointed , X - man : The Last Standlooks and feels like movie worthy of the great filmdom , with grand moments like Magneto ( Ian McKellan ) moving the Golden Gate Bridge .
By contrast , Dark Phoenixboasts superior grapheme developing , some intriguing philosophic question , and exciting superpowered action scene on Earth and in outer space - and yet , despite experience an IMAX waiver , Simon Kinberg ’s film is clean on sheer spectacle . More than any other 10 - Men film , Dark Phoenixfeels belittled , contain , and occasional , as if it ’s a made for TV pic well become for Netflix rather of the tentpole blockbuster it ’s supposed to be .
turn over he ’s a first - metre manager , Kinberg does a credible job helmingDark Phoenixbut perhaps a cinema of this magnitude needed someone more experienced behind the camera who knows how to combine and balance high - octane superhero battles with inner character moment . Ultimately , while it lacks the epic weighing machine that it truly ask , Dark Phoenixcertainly improves onX - Men : The Last bandstand , but it ’s still faint praise to call it an improvement over one of theworst ten - Men movies , particularly when the stakes were so gamy .
