‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ ends an era

It’s been 19 years since the live-action X-Men burst onto our screens in a flash of incredible mutant powers, discrimination and nostalgia.

Ending the original franchise is ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ (2019), which sees Sophie Turner reprise her role as Jean Grey and follow the dark alter ego saga of the comic books as first seen in ‘Last Stand’ (2006). Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult, the film finds the mutants lauded by the world thanks to Professor X’s incredible PR paired with his willingness to send them into increasingly more dangerous situations. On one such rescue mission to outer space, Jean is struck by a cosmic force which releases both Dark Phoenix and her previous trauma. The results are catastrophic and include a battle with what’s left of a race of shapeshifting treelike aliens led by an icy Jessica Chastain. Lukewarm, a little rushed and too familiar a storyline to make for a compelling film, where ‘Dark Phoenix’ wins is in its excellent casting and during action sequences where the team’s dynamic and reliance on each other’s super powers really come into play. This doesn’t entirely solve the lacklustre script and intermittently cringingly bad dialogue. Not the end the Marvel franchise deserves, especially in a year where we just got off the trauma coaster that was ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (2018) and ‘Endgame’ (2019), ‘Dark Phoenix’ wraps things up competently but forgettably.