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drwexJames McAvoy's Professor Charles Xavier has been a narcissistic, self-indulgent prick through too many movies. I frankly don't give a f*ck about him, resent that he gets top billing and screen time and mostly just want him to go away. Unfortunately for all concerned, he's central to the Dark Phoenix story, which this movie attempts to portray. That it doesn't utterly F everything up makes it better than I feared, but it's not the story I wanted and it's majorly flawed. 2/5 stars, and that's being generous.
The Dark Phoenix story is my favorite X Men story of all time. It's classic Chris Claremont writing and I have not seen much like it in major-title comics. Part of it is standard "fall of a hero" stuff and partly it's a story in which the writers faced up to the dictum that "major characters can't die" and dealt with consequences in a moral way. Things I've read indicated that the writers struggled with the impact of what they were writing and about how to manage/end things. It's well thought-out and meaningful. That it sticks with me nearly forty years later is a testament to the story's power.
To its credit, the movie tries to keep to these themes, but without the extended time and rich universe of the comics it ends up feeling forced. In the comics, Jean Gray's relationship with Scott Summers is much better developed and is a focal point of the story. In the movie you kind of know that they're together but it hasn't been explored. Crucially, this changes a set of actions where a female character makes volitional choices about her own fate because of her own feelings into a generic "women as mother-protectors story."
I think the actors do well with the roles as written. Fassbender's take on Magneto continues to evolve and to be one of the most interesting elements of this movie arc. I hope he sticks around in whatever comes next. The directing is competent if not exciting and the movie kind of moves along. Its core problem, though, is that there's nothing really to care about, nothing to hang your hat on, and the person occupying the screen too much of the time is someone I just want to smack. Hard, and not in a fun way.
In the comics, the Hellfire Club is well established and it plays a major role in the Dark Phoenix storyline. Here it's not even mentioned and Jessica Chastain, playing a character everyone watching knows is supposed to be Emma Frost, is just referred to by a made-up alien name. Like... what? Did they not have the rights to those characters or something? It feels like an homage attempt that just becomes another "yadda yadda" moment. Chastain does a good job with what she's given, but I feel like the entire thing is lacking.
Major spoilers below the cut. No, seriously, in a movie with effectively zero surprises or twists you don't want to know this beforehand.
In the movie, we get some back story in which Professor X has taken in and raised Jean. We find out he's lied to her, manipulated her mind (literally), and generally been a complete jerk. In the era of #MeToo that is some major shit and at one point I really thought he'd get called out on it. Jennifer Lawrence's Raven is one of the few who've been able to call Xavier on his shit and she has one great scene here, excoriating him for putting people in danger so he can look good on a publicity shot and flat-out telling him that the team should be named "X Women" because it's the women saving the men... again.
But no, instead she gets fridged. Look, I get it. In the comics, Dark Phoenix's crime is that she commits planetary genocide. Like, casually. She (it - the Phoenix entity) needs energy so it eats a sun that... whoops, used to have a planet around it inhabited by an intelligent race and they are now all dead. That is super-impactful in a comic setting where the entire storyline is about discrimination, with mutants standing in for marginalized groups in our society. In the comics, Magneto is canonically a survivor of Nazi concentration camps and his belief in humanity's core cruelty comes out of his own scarred youth experiences. So when a character in the X Men comics commits genocide it has a context and meaning the film can't match.
Instead, Phoenix kills a single person, but it's someone important, someone close. The movie audience is intended to feel this death as a personal thing. But unfortunately, by taking out Raven, we have an excuse for three men to go on breast-thumping, alcohol-drinking rampages, and one to go 'save' her from the other men. I don't even.
Like, who thought that was a good idea?
Then, at what should be the climactic moment when Charles has to admit that he fucked up. Yay! Admit you did a very bad thing - he does. First step, bravo... err, wait, suddenly all is forgiven? That's it? Uh, no. Like, just... no.
In particular, the line "I know you did it out of love" is FUCKING HORRIFYING. No. No no no no no. I want whatever scriptwriter is responsible for making Sophie Turner say that line never to work in Hollywood again. Even if it was true (which I don't believe for a second) then it's still a terrible excuse we've heard from men over and over again and it doesn't make a difference. Impact >> intent. Xavier did a horrible thing, an abusive thing, and lied to perpetuate and cover up his abuse. That should have consequences every much as Phoenix's actions should have consequences. You absolutely cannot brush off one of these things.
The Dark Phoenix story is my favorite X Men story of all time. It's classic Chris Claremont writing and I have not seen much like it in major-title comics. Part of it is standard "fall of a hero" stuff and partly it's a story in which the writers faced up to the dictum that "major characters can't die" and dealt with consequences in a moral way. Things I've read indicated that the writers struggled with the impact of what they were writing and about how to manage/end things. It's well thought-out and meaningful. That it sticks with me nearly forty years later is a testament to the story's power.
To its credit, the movie tries to keep to these themes, but without the extended time and rich universe of the comics it ends up feeling forced. In the comics, Jean Gray's relationship with Scott Summers is much better developed and is a focal point of the story. In the movie you kind of know that they're together but it hasn't been explored. Crucially, this changes a set of actions where a female character makes volitional choices about her own fate because of her own feelings into a generic "women as mother-protectors story."
I think the actors do well with the roles as written. Fassbender's take on Magneto continues to evolve and to be one of the most interesting elements of this movie arc. I hope he sticks around in whatever comes next. The directing is competent if not exciting and the movie kind of moves along. Its core problem, though, is that there's nothing really to care about, nothing to hang your hat on, and the person occupying the screen too much of the time is someone I just want to smack. Hard, and not in a fun way.
In the comics, the Hellfire Club is well established and it plays a major role in the Dark Phoenix storyline. Here it's not even mentioned and Jessica Chastain, playing a character everyone watching knows is supposed to be Emma Frost, is just referred to by a made-up alien name. Like... what? Did they not have the rights to those characters or something? It feels like an homage attempt that just becomes another "yadda yadda" moment. Chastain does a good job with what she's given, but I feel like the entire thing is lacking.
Major spoilers below the cut. No, seriously, in a movie with effectively zero surprises or twists you don't want to know this beforehand.
In the movie, we get some back story in which Professor X has taken in and raised Jean. We find out he's lied to her, manipulated her mind (literally), and generally been a complete jerk. In the era of #MeToo that is some major shit and at one point I really thought he'd get called out on it. Jennifer Lawrence's Raven is one of the few who've been able to call Xavier on his shit and she has one great scene here, excoriating him for putting people in danger so he can look good on a publicity shot and flat-out telling him that the team should be named "X Women" because it's the women saving the men... again.
But no, instead she gets fridged. Look, I get it. In the comics, Dark Phoenix's crime is that she commits planetary genocide. Like, casually. She (it - the Phoenix entity) needs energy so it eats a sun that... whoops, used to have a planet around it inhabited by an intelligent race and they are now all dead. That is super-impactful in a comic setting where the entire storyline is about discrimination, with mutants standing in for marginalized groups in our society. In the comics, Magneto is canonically a survivor of Nazi concentration camps and his belief in humanity's core cruelty comes out of his own scarred youth experiences. So when a character in the X Men comics commits genocide it has a context and meaning the film can't match.
Instead, Phoenix kills a single person, but it's someone important, someone close. The movie audience is intended to feel this death as a personal thing. But unfortunately, by taking out Raven, we have an excuse for three men to go on breast-thumping, alcohol-drinking rampages, and one to go 'save' her from the other men. I don't even.
Like, who thought that was a good idea?
Then, at what should be the climactic moment when Charles has to admit that he fucked up. Yay! Admit you did a very bad thing - he does. First step, bravo... err, wait, suddenly all is forgiven? That's it? Uh, no. Like, just... no.
In particular, the line "I know you did it out of love" is FUCKING HORRIFYING. No. No no no no no. I want whatever scriptwriter is responsible for making Sophie Turner say that line never to work in Hollywood again. Even if it was true (which I don't believe for a second) then it's still a terrible excuse we've heard from men over and over again and it doesn't make a difference. Impact >> intent. Xavier did a horrible thing, an abusive thing, and lied to perpetuate and cover up his abuse. That should have consequences every much as Phoenix's actions should have consequences. You absolutely cannot brush off one of these things.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-19 05:36 pm (UTC)