The Flickering Myth writing team share their thoughts on the new trailer for X-Men: Dark Phoenix…
Yesterday 20th Century Fox unveiled the latest trailer for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, its twice-delayed Marvel superhero blockbuster, which is expected to serve as the final instalment in Fox’s main X-Men series following Disney’s acquisition of the studio.
Coming off a disappointing entry in X-Men: Apocalypse, Fox will be hoping that first-time director Simon Kinberg – screenwriter on X-Men: The Last Stand – can deliver a fitting adaptation of the classic The Dark Phoenix Saga arc at the second attempt, not to mention a fitting conclusion to the long-running franchise.
We’ll have to wait until June for the answers to those questions, but in the meantime, the Flickering Myth writing team have shared their thoughts on the trailer, and the project as a whole.
Matt Spencer-Skeen: Feels very Batman v Superman to me. They haven’t built any sort of relationship really with this version of Jean, so why are we supposed to care? At least in the first version they built towards this. Also seemingly spoiling Mystique’s death in the trailer feels like a real misstep. I loved First Class and DOFP as even though they had big consequences they felt character driven, so it’s a shame where they’ve taken this since Apocalypse.
Hasitha Fernando: This looks like a blatant retread of X- Men: The Last Stand. Albeit one including a segment set in outer space. I have had a bad feeling about this movie from the get-go.
Harrison Abbott: I’m probably going to be the solitary defender here, but I genuinely thought it looked quite good. Not sure what all the hate is about. It kind of feels like everyone has been against this project from the very second it was announced. Granted, I have a bit of a soft spot for the X-Men, but I still don’t feel like I’ve seen any major cause for concern here.
Matt Rodgers: It certainly looks a lot more appealing than Apocalypse, and there’s no way I’m not going to watch a Sophie Turner-driven X-Men movie with added dollops of Jessica Chastain. However, the biggest problem Dark Phoenix has is convincing an audience invested in a post-Thanos finger snap world to care about this particular set of characters after the mess of the last instalment, and I’m not sure this trailer does enough to make this feel like a must-see. Some of the beats work – Magneto helmet crush – and some don’t – the continued retcon of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Mystique – while the set-pieces look entertaining enough, in a disposable seen-it-all-before kinda way.
EJ Moreno: Loved this trailer and can’t wait to see the film. While I hate the man who brought this franchise to the big screen, they’ll forever be my favorite group of heroes. I’ll miss seeing the X-Men adventures and Dark Phoenix seems like a good sendoff to the franchise. An amazing cast getting to have fun and say good bye to such iconic characters! Thanks for the memories, Fox.
Shaun Munro: This is a much better trailer but the film still looks painfully soulless and generic. Sophie Turner’s American accent continues to be terrible (“W-w-why did you make me dooo thaht?”), they’re not remotely trying to conceal the big death and we still know virtually nothing about Jessica Chastain’s villain. Some neat action beats but that’s it really.
Red Stewart: Yeah, hiding the villain never seems to go well whenever a movie does it – Justice League and Steppenwolf and Doctor Strange and Mads Mikkelsen come to mind.
Tom Beasley: I’ve never had much of an emotional connection to the X-Men movies (with the exception of the masterful Logan) and so I can’t buy the doomy, hefty tone this trailer reaches for. Some of the action looks fun and the cast is obviously impressive, but I am far from sold. I have not been given a single reason to care about this Jean Grey and so this movie has a lot of work to do in order to justify resting this story on her shoulders. This feels less like a final victory lap for Fox-Marvel and more like a contractual obligation.
George Chrysostomou: Since this was announced I’ve cared very little about it. After Apocalypse I was done with X-Men movies. After watching this trailer I’ve got to say…. I’m still not on board. I’ve never felt any kind of connection to these new characters and whilst First Class and Days of Future Past are fun films, they’ve never really had me excited for another one. This trailer needed to do a lot to counteract the recent rumours surrounding Dark Phoenix and I really don’t think I could be any less hyped after watching it.
Allen Christian: It doesn’t look amazing, but it looks like it could be good. Not a lot of weight behind this version of Jean going Dark Phoenix. We were barely introduced to her in Apocalypse. Of course, you can actually build the weight into the movie itself. I thinkthey used to do that in movies. I’m one of the few that has enjoyed all of this prequel series so far. I liked Apocalypse a lot, even if was a bit weaker than the first two. Hopefully this is a nice button on those, and Fox X-Men as a whole.
EJ Moreno: I like how you put it at the end with a “nice button” on the franchise. For fans of the prequels and what not, we should be able to enjoy the finale of this.
Ricky Church: It’s better than the first trailer and doesn’t look as bad as I expected it to be, but it also doesn’t excite me very much. It very much looks like a rehash of The Last Stand with some things swapped – Mystique (most likely) dying in place of Xavier, Jessica Chastain encouraging Jean instead of Magneto, people blaming Xavier for Jean’s actions. They even gave Jean the same coat as she wore as the Phoenix in Last Stand. It is definitely a strange move to be tying the final X-Men movie by Fox so heavily to what is often considered the weakest of the X-Men films. That said, the fact that Dark Phoenix is going to be the final film of a franchise that has last 19 years is crazy. It’s had some ups and downs, but Fox’s X-Men franchise has been pretty consistent and a fixture of the comic book movie genre for the general audience. Hopefully Dark Phoenix will be a worthy enough send off for the franchise until Marvel gets their hands on it.
Gary Collinson: Very underwhelming. It looks like an unnecessary remake of X-Men: The Last Stand rather than a more faithful adaptation of the source material, which is what we were originally promised. I hope I’m surprised and it turns out to be a worthy swansong for a franchise that I’ve enjoyed for the most part, but at this point I’m not optimistic.
Martin Carr: This looks a lot like Last Stand and only Fassbender stands out for all the screen time others gets – you get the impression that this is a contract fulfilling gig, at least for Lawrence, McAvoy and Fassbender, which I suspect is the case. As Brick would say ‘LOUD NOISE – nonsensical, bursting at the seams with pyrotechnics but lacking substance….I’d rather watch Days of Future Past.
So, our writers certainly seem split on Dark Phoenix, but let us know what you made of the trailer, and whether you’re looking forward to the film…
In Dark Phoenix, the X-Men face their most formidable and powerful foe: one of their own, Jean Grey. During a rescue mission in space, Jean is nearly killed when she is hit by a mysterious cosmic force. Once she returns home, this force not only makes her infinitely more powerful, but far more unstable. Wrestling with this entity inside her, Jean unleashes her powers in ways she can neither comprehend nor contain. With Jean spiraling out of control, and hurting the ones she loves most, she begins to unravel the very fabric that holds the X-Men together. Now, with this family falling apart, they must find a way to unite — not only to save Jean’s soul, but to save our very planet from aliens who wish to weaponize this force and rule the galaxy.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix sees Simon Kinberg directing a cast that includes franchise veterans Michael Fassbender (Magneto), James McAvoy (Professor X), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Sophie Turner (Jean Grey), Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler) and Evan Peters (Quicksilver) alongside new additions Kota Eberhardt (The Persian Connection) as Selene, Andrew Stehlin (Hacksaw Ridge) as Red Lotus, and Jessica Chastain (Molly’s Game) and Lamar Johnson (Kings). It is set for release on June 6th 2019.
