[Review] X-Men: Dark Phoenix (7.5/10)

Title - Dark Phoenix
Studio - 20th Century Fox
Starring - James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Sophie Turner, Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp, Tye Sheridan, Codie Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters
Writer - Simon Kinberg
Director - Simon Kinberg
Release - 7 June 2019

I don't know what the rest of the world was watching, but I saw an X-Men movie.

Pros:

- Simon Kinberg's directorial debut was solid. I thought he planned the scenes well and knew exactly how to portray every character onscreen.

- Every time the X-Men were in action sequences, I couldn't tear my eyes away because it's like the comic book pages came to life. The set pieces were great.

- I loved Tye Sheridan's Cyclops even though he didn't have too much to do, but his worry face looked exactly like from the comics.

- Jessica Chastain's performance was stellar, though she didn't have a lot of action scenes.

- The classic arc of Charles versus Erik was still present.

- There was good drama to be had in the second act, particularly pushing Xavier's character arc to the limit. I guess you would either like it or hate it, and I really did not mind it at all.

- The score by Hans Zimmer worked perfectly with every scene.

Cons:

- The antagonists in this movie were vague in terms of their superpowers, although their motivations could also have been clearer. We could have at least gotten a name of the species.

- Kinberg should have had another five to 10 minutes worth of scene showing Jean Grey going on a rampage before sitting by the dumpster crying. Because when the police showed up at Jean's old home, they had no reason to be there.

- The final battle was a little underwhelming, but what else could you do given how powerful Jean became?

- A minor complaint, but like all X-Men movies, it seems the producers are very afraid of putting more well-known mutants in the background. Hence, we got some unknown mutants in the mix and they were unsatisfying.

- Once again shows that they have no idea what to do with Quicksilver as he was quickly sidelined.

Conclusion:

With 19 years of history, I believe Kinberg tried to conclude the saga; just that no matter what, it would not be satisfying. This definitely wasn't Avengers: Endgame caliber of a conclusion.

But as a standalone movie, it was good.