It’s just a shame that 'X-Men' was never able to live up to its potential in this form. Drawn of clichés, a tired script and a tired cast, it’s a big wet flop of a film where it looked like the cast were just there to collect their cheques. It’s probably something to wait for a digital release and watch on a rainy Sunday afternoon where you can fall asleep during the exhausting middle section and wake up at the mildly less-exhausting end. If anyone needs me, I’ll be looking for Cyclops, hot choccie, blanket and hug. - Brent Davidson Read Brent's full article... https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-x-men-dark-phoenix-untapped-potential

***A fuller rendition of the Jean Grey Plot of “X-Men 3” with Sophie Turner*** This is another take on the Jean Grey story of “X-Men: The Last Stand” (2006). That movie was good up until the last act with the conventional battle between the good and bad mutants at Alcatraz Island, which diverged from the more interesting core story concerning Jean. “Dark Phoenix” (2019) has a similar problem in that Jean’s inner conflict between good and evil is the most interesting element, along with the other mutants being troubled by her transformation and trying to figure out how to handle it. Unfortunately, as with “X-Men 3,” the filmmakers insist on having everything come down to a big battle sequence that’s overlong and predictable, although it’s better and more moving here. A good example of predictableness is when Magneto (Michael Fassbender) utilizes many rifles to shoot Vuk (Jessica Chastain); you know very well that the bullets are going to be totally useless. The ending’s not bad, just tedious and perfunctory, similar to the big battle sequence in “Avengers: Endgame,” albeit less dull. The original climax of “Dark Phoenix” took place in space and had too many similarities to “Captain Marvel,” which beat “Dark Phoenix” to the theaters. So the creators had to reshoot the ending as a battle sequence involving a train, but it didn’t feel tacked on or inorganic, although the Juk/aliens subplot did. I prefer Sophie Turner to Famke Janssen in the titular role. She’s just an all-around pleasure to behold, although acting-wise she’s not yet up to the caliber of Fassbender, James McAvoy (Xavier) or Jennifer Lawrence (Raven), not even close. In any case, I found the Phoenix story fascinating just as I did with “The Last Stand,” but here it’s more fleshed out, which makes it better in some ways. I just wish the creators would have the gonads to do something fresh rather than strap the conventional “big battle” ending on what could have been a great movie. If you liked “First Class” (2011), “Days of Future Past” (2014) and “Apocalypse” (2016), “Dark Phoenix” is cut from the same cloth in all-around quality. I prefer “Days” and “Apocalypse,” but “Dark Phoenix” ain’t no slouch, despite what detractors might say; and it’s superior to “First Class.” The film runs 1 hour, 53 minutes. GRADE: B+

I don't know if _Dark Phoenix_ is the **worst** entry in the X-Men franchise. I feel like I remember being much more angry walking out of _Last Stand_ than this one. _Dark Phoenix_ didn't really make me "angry"... It didn't make me feel anything I guess. But there was just **nothing** I liked about this. Like, _Apocalypse_ was a bad movie, absolutely, but I really enjoyed that bit in the middle where the young X-Men got to the shopping centre together. That elevated it for me, even if it didn't stop it being a bad movie. _Dark Phoenix_ has no such moment. Nothing. I. Liked. _Final rating:★½: - Boring/disappointing. Avoid where possible._

Not as bad as I feared and the plot in and of itself was fine, as were the performances (outside of accents going in and out depending on the scene), even Sophie Turner was okay, the visual effects were alright and the direction serviceable. However, the biggest problem was the dialogue which ranged from predictable (to the point I could predict lines from time to time) to absolutely atrocious. Not sure where this ranks amongst the "franchise", though initially I'd say it is above Apocalypse, a movie I didn't care much for but a far cry from First Class and Days of Future Past. **2.75/5**

This had the potential to be the best of the franchise; bur sadly it isn't/wasn't/never will be. It's an amalgam of loose acting right from the start with neither James McAvoy's more mobile version of "Xavier" nor Michael Fassbender's anything but magnetic "Erik" managing to inject anything like enough to liven this dreary and repetitive story up. Then there's the mediocre writing and special effects that we have seen so many times before. It goes nowhere, but never quickly enough as the ending seems tantalisingly close, but takes way too long to arrive. It'll be fine on the telly on a dark winter's evening, but that's about it.

Well... I thought The Last Stand was bad. You know, the movie where they took one of the most classic of classic legendary Claremont X-Men stories and merged it with a Joss Whedon X-Men story line that had nothing to do with Dark Phoenix and.... just lost the plot entirely. I mean that was pretty bad. This is worse. This is ultra woke Politically Correct kinda Ghostbusters 2016, they have a message about genderstudies that trumps the story and didn't you know that everyone of a certain race, gender, and sexuality is absolute evil even if they have a long history of being the good guy sort of plot. And, in the end, it even had less to do with the Dark Phoenix Saga than the Last Stand did. Source material... even X-Men story in name only... and I mean that even after X-Men lost the Marvel Flagship marquee status and did the same downward trajectory as, well, as the X-Men reboot did.

I don't understand the point of this movie. It seems to be attempting a copy-paste of Endgame's success, while jumping to making Jean the Phoenix _immediately_, just like the X2 and X3 films, which were both criticized for this very thing! Why make Charles the villain? I think most viewers can agree, blocking Jean's mind was the right thing to do. Sophie Turner's acting in this film was also particularly poor. The performances by McAvoy, Lawrence, Fassbender, and Peters were what keeps this film from the 10% in my books. Trash.

The worst part about this is that (almost) everyone on screen is trying so fucking hard, but the writing completely sinks it. The entire plot relies on everyone in the story acting wildly out of character, it has the worst villain of an X-Men movie, and Quicksilver, the most promising new character introduced in the series, is completely sidelined and wasted. And on top of that, nothing ever comes of him being Magneto's son. Magneto never even finds out. While Days of Future Past was great, the whole idea of this new series set in the past was just so ill-conceived it hurts. It could've been great, but it was squandered by lots of genuinely stupid decisions. Like, why the hell do these movies take place over like forty years? No one ages that entire time and none of the movies past DOFP even make good use of their time periods. So why even do it if all it does is make everything make no sense? That scene in DOFP showing this timelines future is kind of pointless after this one. How could any of these characters convincingly age up to that point from the 90's? It's just such a fucking mess, it's completely baffling. Hopefully whatever Disney has planned for the X-Men is a lot better thought out.