hello everyone welcome to the Dark Phoenix review I am Perri Nemiroff, sitting here with theone and only Coy Jandreau as I knock over everything over here... I'm so happy to bedoing this review with you right now before we even jump into it I need togive a little bit of a disclaimer because if you are following along withsocial media you might be aware of this but during our press screening of themovie the fire alarm did go off in the third act of the movie we are stilldoing the full review of the movie because we stayed to the very end yousaw the whole entire thing but just know that that does affect your viewingexperience so that was something that we couldn't work around sadly but we arestill here to give you our thoughts on Dark Phoenix just in case you don't knowwhat this movie is about of course it's stars sophie Turner as Jean Grey andduring a mission at the very beginning of the movie she comes into contact withwhat they think is a solar flare and that changes the nature of her powersand makes her one of the most powerful mutants out there and she can't controlher new abilities so there's the brief synopsis coy how did Dark Phoenix do inyour book it was better than I expected it to be but I don't know if that'sbecause the sheer outcry of negativity around it so I'm actually veryappreciative for the outcry of negativity around it because I was ableto go into it going like man and then I got a lot out of it I'd forgotten thesheer amount of joy I feel seeing this cast on screen the first few minutes ofthe film I was overwhelmed with excitement because I was like do I havetime for this to do I want oh right like I'd forgotten an x-men movie was out andat the end of the day you do get that feeling and I've been a longtime sailorof they make really good mutant movies but they have yet to make an x-men movieand this has those same problems it was a mutant movie but this is the filmx-men I've grown up with this franchise been around for 19 years I can't not getexcited about a piece of a 19-year legacy and that all was there and thatall felt there and I was very excited throughout the film I enjoyed my twohours I think everyone should absolutely see it I think it is better thanApocalypse I only say that because I didn't want the franchise to end inApocalypse I was really afraid we'd lose everything with that as the last film itis certainly better than Apocalypse it falls in the lower half of the elevenbut certainly not the bottom it's better than x-men or delivery but it isdefinitely a movie with its flaws and it's a movie that hasissues that it shouldn't but it is so watchable it's so something you shouldsee in theaters it is so fun and it's so x-men theatrically I wouldn't say it'sso fun but I like the word that you use watchable because when I think aboutentertainment value with this one I was just entertained enough and Ithink the feeling that came back to me that I appreciated more so than anythingis just the inherent nature and drive to just get back into the thick of thingswith this group of characters it's just a firm reminder of how much they've kindof wedged their way into your heart over the years and I think once you fall backinto step with that group of characters the movie is going to be at a certainlevel if not above yeah this one did Teeter just positive for me I had enoughlike it's hard to say fun I think because also I do think that the pacelulls in the middle to the point that you know I started to feel the heavyeyelids and I wanted to see things pick up a little bit but I was entertainedand invested enough the one thing I can't quite put a finger on though isthis story is supposed to be a very emotional story and even at the verybeginning of the movie in the first act there are some very emotional beats thatif you are invested in these characters you should have an emotional reactionand there was something about it that felt very flat and I can't quite figureout how to articulate why that's the feeling because when I isolate it toperformances I thought the performances were great sophie turner it's not justGame of Thrones she is a star she can command the screen and I think she didgreat great things with this particular role which came across to me as a verychallenging one for me it was the we just met these characters this iterationof these characters so I think the reason that felt Hollow is the DarkPhoenix saga is decades in the making and then it takes a long time to tellthe story they rushed into the story because they had to and they also don'tacknowledge the amount of depth that goes into it we just met these peoplelike a one movie ago and we've also lived through another Jean Grey we werealso I just think they did the best they could with the tools they had and theteam actually nailed what their version of the Phoenix saga was that team madetheir Phoenix saga if I'd never known about the Phoenix saga if I'd never seenx-men 3 if I'd someone never had a comic book
but that's a lot of if I hadn'tthat I can't separate but what I did appreciate was the fact that you can gointo the movie not having seen another x-menmovie and you might not get as much out of it but I definitely felt like theytold a full story it wasn't my Phoenix by any means but itwas a story and they gave characters that I've loved other iterations of newfun like Nightcrawler next to is one of the most incredible opening sequences ofall and Nightcrawler and this is just a powerhouse like there are some fightscenes with Nightcrawler that are amazing and looks great he Nightcrawlerhe's always looked great they don't think about Kodi smit-mcphee has likethat natural charisma no matter what's happening around him your eyes justimmediately drawn to him and it I'm not just saying it because this is anythingto do with the way he looks there's something about his on-screen charismathat always catches my eye and I need to give some love and there'sa bias here because the comic-book shopping but Alok ship every minute thatshe is on screen I was in an x-men movie I think and this is not a jab at anyother cast members I felt like the x-men movie that I saw in the frames withstorm was an x-men and I've wanted an ice storm origin movie forever I wantAlex ship to play storm for the next 20 years but for me every time storm was onscreen the way they did her power set the way they had her presence hercommand the way they had her interact with other characters was alsoauthentically Aurora Monroe that I needed that character to exist more so Iwas I fell in love with storm in this movie I needed more of her I think thisis the first time they've really kind of chipped away at that where it's gettingme more invested in her storm finally but it still didn't really do thatcharacter just know we normally needed more but you know going back to what youwere saying before about not spending enough time with the new class I meannot even the first class were well beyond that this new group of charactersI kept thinking about the relationship between ty Sheridan and sophie Turnerand I think it had nothing to do with poor performances or lack of chemistrybut I can't compare that connection with the connection that I knew that fomkaJanssen and James Marsden had in the other movies it didn't feel the same Ididn't care enough about it and there were certain elements in this moviewhere I sat there thinking to myself why don't I care enough that this ishappening to a character because even with characters that were let's say apart of the first class there's something about Dark Phoenix in the waythat it's constructed and I'm not talking about all the behind the scenesstuff because we that this is this is the end a lot hashappened there's something about this movie that feels separate and I think itstarted to happen in particular post probably post Days of Future past whereeverything is felt too disconnected from the foundation that we had establishedbefore and I just think apocalypse is a not-so-great movie overall but here Ithink it had a lot of potential but I felt I felt the flaws and that specificthing that I just mentioned here even more so than I did thereI completely agree this is a very superior film to Apocalypse but thereare more feelings of like you're just wrapping it up and like something wasoff but I do want to give credit to first-time director Simon Kinbergbecause I wasn't expecting the directing to be as good as it was here there aresome fight scenes that are a little rough and there are some moments thatfeel a little like figuring this out but overall the way he directed was supercomic book II there were there were insert closed panel frames that feltlike Gimli there were broad scope shots that fell like John Cassaday there weremoments that felt like there a rip right off a friend quietly Grant Morrison likethese are all common if you're if you're not a comic book fan these are iconicartists and writers that shape these worlds and there were even Gimli momentsof action and the way they translated that you could tell he read the comicsthe way he framed things felt like comic-book friends and especially nospoilers there is a close-up between two characters that is so powerful and soimpactful because it looked like a comic book frame and then later on he usessome of those same frames again with another character you loved and I keptgoing like this guy reads comics man so I really appreciated Simon Kinbergframing it like a comic book even when it for better and worse yeah I mean withthat and even just the regular everyday moviemaking skills I think he shows inthis movie that he is fully capable of directing a future film very curious toknow where you stand on Jessica Chastain because obviously you have much moreknowledge of the comics in the source material than I do and coming in as anoutsider that character did not work for me whatsoever it's one thing to statesomeone's motivation and say this is my intention with my plan and it's anotherto make a viewer actually feel it and I felt nothing I use spoiler free will saythat that entire character set wasn't necessary tothey could have done the movie of the characters during that and I feel likethey were trying for a thing that didn't come across and I like Jessica Chastainso the fact that it's not a her a fault of hers and they added a substantialamount of her she was in the movie even less the last kind so like it just itjust didn't land and it was it didn't feel necessary especially because I keptbeing like but over there over there and they're like it just felt supplementalyeah so I I didn't fall in love with her like I wanted to if I like I needed to Ialso think it speaks to Sofie Turner's ability as an actor as well becausethere was so much going on in her head with her push and pull with her tryingto assess what just happened to her her past her present her future what she'sfeeling inside with her powers that I think she almost could have commandedthe screen from every single perspective used the solo instead like I could haveused those moments just as a single and I also again not giving in their waywhenever characters we'd already established were on screen doing similarthings I was more invested in them because we know these characters like myFassbender cannot be like there's there's like five people that think hecan't act the man is a powerhouse he is incredible and there were moments wherehe said lines of dialogue that that summarized entire like years and I wasalways a guy damn this guy like he's just so good and there's just like thescene in in first class raising her there's that in this movie and I'm justlike this man yeah and therefore opposite that when you're not asinvested in Jessica Chastain you're like can I go back to that and that's that isanother issue is this this cast is too big is what I think goes back to whatyou were saying about it feeling like an x-men movie because this movie isessentially about you know Jean Grey as an individual being turned being a tornapart but also the x-men family torn apart and how they navigate thatsituation within themselves and that's what I wish the entire movie was focusedon just because that was the strongest bits that I saw and there were momentsthat were straight out of the comics but there are also so many moments thatcould have been strained in the comics that worked like I thought of like 10comic book references every act that could've been like sprinkle sprinklesprinkle that could have been added very easily and that's not to say they shouldbecause that can get distracting but there were moments I was like but theyhave these rights still and there were moments that felt like they could haveleaned more into the thing i I don't know what angle they were trying toappeal to but that I think it's another thing I felt hollow for me was it wasquite calming enough but also wasn't not comma key yeah but it is way moreenjoyable than I expected because of the amount that went into it that felt likeit did have heart like the actors were all there and the director was certainlythat that was all in so I think overall it's a very summer movie it's just thebar is so high in these type of films now if this had come out in 2006 orearlier this would have been groundbreaking holy crap I can't believethat exists but since it came out in 2019 it is a different like that thebars been moved that might have been a very high bar to to set for it even in2006 cuz I do think there's some stories some serious storytelling flaws andcraftsmanship issues here that probably couldn't put it above a certain leveleven back then but it's better than last and I think that was 2006 so that's mybelieve okay I don't know what year that was butunderstand well the last stand comparison now that we've hit an overallterritory do you want to give your score first I gave it a 6.8 I hadoriginally given it a 7 but I felt like it's at that about C- levels around 6.8 to 7, it definitelyhad some flaws that I couldn't excuse but overall it was much moreentertaining than I expected and I did have moments of going god I love thex-men and that's what I wanted out of this movie I go with a 6 out of 10again like I said before it has some pacing issues in the middle thatdefinitely affected me quite a bit I think the most disappointing thing forme overall was just the lack of emotional response I had I found thatstrange I couldn't quite put a finger on why I was feeling that way I think thedisconnect between this movie and prior movies as part of the thing here andalso the fact that it's so rushed which is unfortunate cuz then I turnedmy attention back to sophie turner and it's just it's unfortunate that shedidn't get to do as much as they possibly could with this particular roleand it saddens me a little that this is the end of the Fox x-men because thereare certain performances in this group of characters and I'm not just talkingabout the ones that have been around for a while with concept contracts windingdown I'm talking about other ones that have so much more to explore sophieturner cody mix my Kodi smit-mcphee Alexandra Shipp we need more time withthem it saddens me that we're not getting it but the fact that DarkPhoenix left me in a place that made me long for them I think I'm okay withsaying goodbye it and I am kind of pleased that I at leasthave this to look back on as we move forward with another studio I thinkleaving on a good note is great I think not ending an apocalypse which waspretty universally not enjoyed and like Days of Future past is incredible butnow we have another good movie and I'm seeing again tonight I'm looking forwardto seeing it again and that it's not action again and that's not something Ifeel about every movie I want to watch it again without listening to a siren onfire and I can't wait to see the third act in a complete exciting way becausethat was very distracting that's hard that's not the movies fault so it's alsohard to judge I mean it's yeah it is no fault of the studio or the movie thingshappen we made it through we watched the whole thing it's fine but it issomething you should be aware of whenever we formally review a movie sothat's it guys that is where we landed on Dark Phoenix you're gonna have a lotmore Dark Phoenix material coming your way
but that's a lot of if I hadn'tthat I can't separate but what I did appreciate was the fact that you can gointo the movie not having seen another x-menmovie and you might not get as much out of it but I definitely felt like theytold a full story it wasn't my Phoenix by any means but itwas a story and they gave characters that I've loved other iterations of newfun like Nightcrawler next to is one of the most incredible opening sequences ofall and Nightcrawler and this is just a powerhouse like there are some fightscenes with Nightcrawler that are amazing and looks great he Nightcrawlerhe's always looked great they don't think about Kodi smit-mcphee has likethat natural charisma no matter what's happening around him your eyes justimmediately drawn to him and it I'm not just saying it because this is anythingto do with the way he looks there's something about his on-screen charismathat always catches my eye and I need to give some love and there'sa bias here because the comic-book shopping but Alok ship every minute thatshe is on screen I was in an x-men movie I think and this is not a jab at anyother cast members I felt like the x-men movie that I saw in the frames withstorm was an x-men and I've wanted an ice storm origin movie forever I wantAlex ship to play storm for the next 20 years but for me every time storm was onscreen the way they did her power set the way they had her presence hercommand the way they had her interact with other characters was alsoauthentically Aurora Monroe that I needed that character to exist more so Iwas I fell in love with storm in this movie I needed more of her I think thisis the first time they've really kind of chipped away at that where it's gettingme more invested in her storm finally but it still didn't really do thatcharacter just know we normally needed more but you know going back to what youwere saying before about not spending enough time with the new class I meannot even the first class were well beyond that this new group of charactersI kept thinking about the relationship between ty Sheridan and sophie Turnerand I think it had nothing to do with poor performances or lack of chemistrybut I can't compare that connection with the connection that I knew that fomkaJanssen and James Marsden had in the other movies it didn't feel the same Ididn't care enough about it and there were certain elements in this moviewhere I sat there thinking to myself why don't I care enough that this ishappening to a character because even with characters that were let's say apart of the first class there's something about Dark Phoenix in the waythat it's constructed and I'm not talking about all the behind the scenesstuff because we that this is this is the end a lot hashappened there's something about this movie that feels separate and I think itstarted to happen in particular post probably post Days of Future past whereeverything is felt too disconnected from the foundation that we had establishedbefore and I just think apocalypse is a not-so-great movie overall but here Ithink it had a lot of potential but I felt I felt the flaws and that specificthing that I just mentioned here even more so than I did thereI completely agree this is a very superior film to Apocalypse but thereare more feelings of like you're just wrapping it up and like something wasoff but I do want to give credit to first-time director Simon Kinbergbecause I wasn't expecting the directing to be as good as it was here there aresome fight scenes that are a little rough and there are some moments thatfeel a little like figuring this out but overall the way he directed was supercomic book II there were there were insert closed panel frames that feltlike Gimli there were broad scope shots that fell like John Cassaday there weremoments that felt like there a rip right off a friend quietly Grant Morrison likethese are all common if you're if you're not a comic book fan these are iconicartists and writers that shape these worlds and there were even Gimli momentsof action and the way they translated that you could tell he read the comicsthe way he framed things felt like comic-book friends and especially nospoilers there is a close-up between two characters that is so powerful and soimpactful because it looked like a comic book frame and then later on he usessome of those same frames again with another character you loved and I keptgoing like this guy reads comics man so I really appreciated Simon Kinbergframing it like a comic book even when it for better and worse yeah I mean withthat and even just the regular everyday moviemaking skills I think he shows inthis movie that he is fully capable of directing a future film very curious toknow where you stand on Jessica Chastain because obviously you have much moreknowledge of the comics in the source material than I do and coming in as anoutsider that character did not work for me whatsoever it's one thing to statesomeone's motivation and say this is my intention with my plan and it's anotherto make a viewer actually feel it and I felt nothing I use spoiler free will saythat that entire character set wasn't necessary tothey could have done the movie of the characters during that and I feel likethey were trying for a thing that didn't come across and I like Jessica Chastainso the fact that it's not a her a fault of hers and they added a substantialamount of her she was in the movie even less the last kind so like it just itjust didn't land and it was it didn't feel necessary especially because I keptbeing like but over there over there and they're like it just felt supplementalyeah so I I didn't fall in love with her like I wanted to if I like I needed to Ialso think it speaks to Sofie Turner's ability as an actor as well becausethere was so much going on in her head with her push and pull with her tryingto assess what just happened to her her past her present her future what she'sfeeling inside with her powers that I think she almost could have commandedthe screen from every single perspective used the solo instead like I could haveused those moments just as a single and I also again not giving in their waywhenever characters we'd already established were on screen doing similarthings I was more invested in them because we know these characters like myFassbender cannot be like there's there's like five people that think hecan't act the man is a powerhouse he is incredible and there were moments wherehe said lines of dialogue that that summarized entire like years and I wasalways a guy damn this guy like he's just so good and there's just like thescene in in first class raising her there's that in this movie and I'm justlike this man yeah and therefore opposite that when you're not asinvested in Jessica Chastain you're like can I go back to that and that's that isanother issue is this this cast is too big is what I think goes back to whatyou were saying about it feeling like an x-men movie because this movie isessentially about you know Jean Grey as an individual being turned being a tornapart but also the x-men family torn apart and how they navigate thatsituation within themselves and that's what I wish the entire movie was focusedon just because that was the strongest bits that I saw and there were momentsthat were straight out of the comics but there are also so many moments thatcould have been strained in the comics that worked like I thought of like 10comic book references every act that could've been like sprinkle sprinklesprinkle that could have been added very easily and that's not to say they shouldbecause that can get distracting but there were moments I was like but theyhave these rights still and there were moments that felt like they could haveleaned more into the thing i I don't know what angle they were trying toappeal to but that I think it's another thing I felt hollow for me was it wasquite calming enough but also wasn't not comma key yeah but it is way moreenjoyable than I expected because of the amount that went into it that felt likeit did have heart like the actors were all there and the director was certainlythat that was all in so I think overall it's a very summer movie it's just thebar is so high in these type of films now if this had come out in 2006 orearlier this would have been groundbreaking holy crap I can't believethat exists but since it came out in 2019 it is a different like that thebars been moved that might have been a very high bar to to set for it even in2006 cuz I do think there's some stories some serious storytelling flaws andcraftsmanship issues here that probably couldn't put it above a certain leveleven back then but it's better than last and I think that was 2006 so that's mybelieve okay I don't know what year that was butunderstand well the last stand comparison now that we've hit an overallterritory do you want to give your score first I gave it a 6.8 I hadoriginally given it a 7 but I felt like it's at that about C- levels around 6.8 to 7, it definitelyhad some flaws that I couldn't excuse but overall it was much moreentertaining than I expected and I did have moments of going god I love thex-men and that's what I wanted out of this movie I go with a 6 out of 10again like I said before it has some pacing issues in the middle thatdefinitely affected me quite a bit I think the most disappointing thing forme overall was just the lack of emotional response I had I found thatstrange I couldn't quite put a finger on why I was feeling that way I think thedisconnect between this movie and prior movies as part of the thing here andalso the fact that it's so rushed which is unfortunate cuz then I turnedmy attention back to sophie turner and it's just it's unfortunate that shedidn't get to do as much as they possibly could with this particular roleand it saddens me a little that this is the end of the Fox x-men because thereare certain performances in this group of characters and I'm not just talkingabout the ones that have been around for a while with concept contracts windingdown I'm talking about other ones that have so much more to explore sophieturner cody mix my Kodi smit-mcphee Alexandra Shipp we need more time withthem it saddens me that we're not getting it but the fact that DarkPhoenix left me in a place that made me long for them I think I'm okay withsaying goodbye it and I am kind of pleased that I at leasthave this to look back on as we move forward with another studio I thinkleaving on a good note is great I think not ending an apocalypse which waspretty universally not enjoyed and like Days of Future past is incredible butnow we have another good movie and I'm seeing again tonight I'm looking forwardto seeing it again and that it's not action again and that's not something Ifeel about every movie I want to watch it again without listening to a siren onfire and I can't wait to see the third act in a complete exciting way becausethat was very distracting that's hard that's not the movies fault so it's alsohard to judge I mean it's yeah it is no fault of the studio or the movie thingshappen we made it through we watched the whole thing it's fine but it issomething you should be aware of whenever we formally review a movie sothat's it guys that is where we landed on Dark Phoenix you're gonna have a lotmore Dark Phoenix material coming your way