Dark Phoenix is muddled and directionless… it’s the perfect send-off for Fox’s X-Men series

Someone once pointed out that Fox’s X-Men series is the perfect series of comic book movies because its complete disregard for continuity and wildly fluctuating quality are pretty accurate reflections of the source material. If that’s the case, Dark Phoenix is a fittingly baffling send-off.

To its credit, this final Fox X-Men film is the most character-driven since First Class - Matthew Vaughn’s 60s-set origin story that focused on a young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender), aka Professor X and Magneto.

The focus here is on Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey, in what is writer (and first-time director) Simon Kinberg’s second crack at adapting the famed Dark Phoenix saga for the big screen. The first being 2006’s disastrous X-Men: The Last Stand.

While on a space-faring mission to save NASA astronauts with her fellow X-Men, Grey encounters a mysterious cosmic force that becomes part of her. She should be dead, but having absorbed this power she returns to Earth seemingly unharmed.

The power gives her telepathic and telekinetic mutant abilities a huge boost, manifesting as uncontrolled bursts of energy that end up hurting her friends and loved ones.

As this is happening, Jean she uncovers some tragic memories hidden from her by mental blocks put her head at a young age by Professor X. Xavier was trying to protect an 8-year-old child from her trauma, but that trauma is also the truth. This feeds into the most unexpected aspect of Dark Phoenix: how it also focuses on Xavier at his most arrogant and manipulative.

Set in 1992, at the start of the film the X-Men are revered, with their heroic actions keeping the peace between mutant and humankind. As their leader Xavier enjoys the attention and adulation, taking all the credit for the good putting these young mutants in harms way has done. The ego on display speaks to a darker side of the character rarely seen in the films before, and it’s arguably a truer reflection of the character than we’ve seen before too.

Dark Phoenix is set up as a story about a powerful young woman being manipulated by an arrogant man capable of literally rewiring her brain. It’s a little on the nose maybe , but certainly interesting enough as the basis for a blockbuster film.

It’s also why the first half of Dark Phoenix works pretty well. It’s in the second half however, where everything falls apart.

After a decent set-up, the finished film doesn’t know what to do. An earlier draft may have, but it’s clear Dark Phoenix has been pulled in all sorts of directions by the studio and its filmmakers. Whether this was due to poor test screenings, creative doubts or something else, the result is messy and unfocused.

It’s like someone spilled coffee on the second half of the only available script and the filmmakers had no choice but to pull a third act together from memory.

The focus shifts from character to a thin plot involving shape-shifting aliens and a trigger happy government all-too-keen to starting rounding up mutants into camps again after Jean goes rogue.

This inability to strike a fine balance between character and plot is indicative of the entire franchise.

Unlike most comic book series, X-Men has never had one lead character. The stories can focus in on different characters at different times, but broadly they’re about the ensemble, and how these many, disparate heroes and villains bounce off each other.

X-Men’s success on the page has always been rooted in this character-driven soap opera dynamic, so it stands to reason that when the films have turned to busy plot nonsense instead, or told stories that aren’t rooted in character, they’ve suffered.

X2 delved into Wolverine’s origins, First Class explored Xavier and Magneto’s relationship and Days of Future Past put the focus on Mystique’s constantly-changing allegiance. These were the emotional cores around which their stories moved, and that’s why these are the best X-Men films*.

Dark Phoenix’s inability to strike a balance between character and plot is indicative of the entire franchise. So really,it’s the perfect send-off.

*The best team-focused X-Men films. Obviously Logan is the best film in the whole series. Here’s my ranking just for the hell of it.

1. Logan
2. X2
3. Days of Future Past
4. First Class
5. Deadpool
6. The Wolverine
7. Deadpool 2
8. X-Men
9. Dark Phoenix
10. The Last Stand
11. Apocalypse
12. X-Men Origins: Wolverine