With the conclusion of “Game of Thrones,” for Sophie Turner and the rest of the cast, the show must go on. And so does for Turner who plays Jean Grey in “X-Men: Dark Phoenix.”
While “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” is the conclusion of the franchise, it is the origin story of Jean Grey. It helps fans better understand Jean. It takes the audience back to 1975 when Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) first met Jean – who was eight at the time – and took her into his school for gifted youngsters.
Because of her inability to control her powers, Xavier blocks her memory. All is well and good until 1992. The X-Men go to rescue some astronauts in space whose space shuttle has been destroyed by solar flare-like energy. Jean absorbs a lot of the solar flare-like energy. And becomes known as the Dark Phoenix.
The event also it amplifies her psychic powers, causing her to remember her past. Consequently, she leaves Xavier’s school and returns to her childhood hometown of Red Hook in New York. The audience also learn how Jean earned the nickname Dark Phoenix.
The story becomes even more disturbing when she goes to the mutant refugee island of Genosha to ask Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto (Michael Fassbender) for help. But without being provoked, she almost wreaks havoc. It became more difficult to sympathise with her. That encounter sees her ending up on the wrong side. As she meets Vuk, the leader of an alien race known as the D’Bari, who wants to manipulate her to use her power for evil.
While it is true that Jean is a conflicted character with uncontrollable powers, her back story does not make her a likeable superhero. Rather, we are told that she is a tantrum-throwing and self-centred brat. Additionally, the film’s plot is cliché. Haven’t we seen that opening scene before? Most recently in the DC film, “Shazam?”
The dialogue is nothing out of the ordinary as such it is not memorable. And so “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” ends up an average movie. Nonetheless, Turner, Fassbender, James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain give it all they have got.
Professor Xavier’s story of selflessness is one to take away. And not that it did anything to advance the story but Jean’s show-off when she got Xavier out of his wheelchair and McAvoy’s performance thereof, was very enjoyable. Yet, for the last instalment in the “X-Men” franchise, “Dark Phoenix” could certainly have been better.
