Posted By Kathleen David on June 8, 2019
I remember reading my way through the Phoenix Saga as it came out. It was about that point when I started buy comics on a monthly basis. I had to wait month to month for the unfolding of the story and some months we would speculate on how this would all fall out.
Once it did, the rumors of why it ended the way it did spread around by word of mouth based on what people heard or said that they heard at conventions. Yes, this was before the Internet so we got our information a lot slower. What did happen depends on who you talk to and what they remember or choose to remember. I got my version first from a Q&A with Chris Claremont at an Atlanta Fantasy Fair. Over the years I have heard from other people who were there in various departments or in the actual meetings where it was discussed.
I have no idea how it would have played out in current times with the Internet and instant Information along with the spoiler pack getting bits and piece out there with no context to make their point.
What I do know is that the Phoenix saga was a very well written and well drawn work. It was a good story that kept you guessing. And if you knew the Avengers episode entitles “A Touch of Brimstone”, which had been censored in the US, you had an idea how this might go and at least you knew where they got the costumes.
This is the second time on film that the Phoenix saga has been used as the main plot in the film. The first was X-men: The Last Stand or X-3 or another example of the 3rdfilm in a trilogy totally sucking. Considering all the problems that film had from script to the rotating director’s chair to the interference of the suits, it is amazing it was as good as was.
That basically killed the X-Men films at Fox until five years later, yes, I know about the Wolverine film in 2009 but I not counting that as an X-men film, with X-Men First Class that was a desperation move by Fox to hold onto the X-license and ended up becoming a huge hit. This lead to X-Men Days of Future Past and X-men Apocalypse.
Now we have Dark Phoenix that has been declared the end of the set of films that started with First Class.
In that time Disney has bought 20thCentury Fox along with the X-men. The film had to have chunks re-filmed because of other Marvel films being too close to what they were doing and the opening date kept being pushed back. This along with all the rumors of how it was received by the test audiences and other things, this film opened with a lot of baggage.
How was it? Perfectly good film and a decent summer pop corn flick but a little less than I expected from an X-men film.
It is not a film to introduce someone new to these characters and their lives. There is a lot of assumed knowledge about who the various mutants are and the back-story of how we got to this place. It is a complete story but parts will leave you scratching your head.
As an adaptation of Chris, Dave, Terry, and John’s work, it is OK and more faithful than the previous cinematic try but still it goes far afield from the original which was probably best interpreted in the animated series.
As a superhero/mutant film, it is good, enjoyable, turn-your-brain-off fun. The story is engaging. The acting is solid and what we have come to expect from this cast. Under utilized is Quicksilver but they give an in story reason why. I missed the quips and the visual effect of his movement.
And that might be my biggest problem for the whole film over all. Yeah, it is called Dark Phoenix but that doesn’t mean that every moment has to be serious and dark. The other X-men films had their moments of silliness and humor. There was little to none in this film. I will give them credit for allow most of the film to take place during the day so we could see what was going on but the tone was oppressive. It was like watching a dirge in slow motion.
Sophie Turner really had all the heavy lifting in this one as Jean Grey. She does a great job with what she is given to work with. Fassbinder and McAvoy pretty much do what they have been doing except the characters are much sadder and world-weary. Where Days of Future Past was the Magneto WTF film this was Xavier’s equivalent.
The younger X-men are front and center on this one. We met them in Apocalypse and they have grown up to become X-Men in the intervening time. The actors did fine with the material they were given.
And that I think is the problem I have with this entire film is the script was OK but not great. I have no idea how much of that is due to the last minute rewrites and the like or the writers themselves. I still want to see the saga the way that Chris wrote it back in the 70s and early 80s.
This has been declared by Disney to be the last of this set of X-men films so there may be a reboot or mutants might get folded into the current Marvel Film universe.
Either way it was better than X-men the Last Stand.
It does need to be seen on the big screen because some of it will be lost on even the biggest TV screen. They did use shaky cam for pieces but I didn’t get motion sick like I did with Endgame.
If they reboot, they need to give Claremont a crack at writing the script for the Phoenix saga because I believe that only then I will get the movie I want to see out of this material.
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