Fox’s X-Men goes out with a fizzle.

So, this is how it ends then, eh? Not quite the blaze of glory everyone hoped, I’m sure. It’s been a messy, messy conclusion to Fox’s 19-year X-Men run, yet this chaotic finale shouldn’t overshadow the incredible impact the franchise has had.

The superhero movie landscape really was a different proposition back in 2000. Still considered a joke, superheroes were nothing more than childish gimmicks in many people’s eyes. Then X-Men happened and things were never the same again. Almost two decades later, the film’s impact can still be felt on a genre that’s in a healthier place than it has ever been, yet this influence shouldn’t gloss over just how low the franchise has sunk at times.

Embodying both the best and worst of the superhero movie, the X-Men franchise hasn’t been a smooth ride at all, with a severe lack of consistency and continuity wearing audience’s patience very thin at times. Then came the news that the mutants were on their way home to Marvel following Disney’s purchase of Fox and the relief that it was all over was palpable. 

So, this is it. The end of an era. But can Dark Phoenix see the iconic franchise out in the heroic fashion it deserves?

Almost killed during a space rescue mission, Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) discovers that the mysterious cosmic entity she encountered has made her both infinitely more powerful and more unstable than she could ever imagine. Wrestling with the formidable force inside her, Jean begins to unravel as she unleashes her powers in ways she cannot comprehend. Spiralling out of control and threatening those she loves the most, Jean begins to tear the X-Men apart, forcing Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and his team to overlook their disagreements in order to save Jean’s soul and the entire planet from obliteration.

Widely regarded as one of the most iconic storylines in comic book history, the ‘Dark Phoenix Saga’ has certainly had a rocky relationship with the big screen. The first attempt at a live-action adaptation in 2006’s X-Men: Last Stand missed the mark quite dramatically and its jinx continues as the franchise’s second stab at the story fails just as badly.

Spanning ten months and multiple issues, the original story run is a true comic book epic. To adapt it for the big screen with any success requires the kind of care, patience, and dedication that X-Men under the eye of Fox and director/producer/writer Simon Kinberg just can’t muster.

Clearly feeling responsibility for dropping the ball on Last Stand as a producer, Kinberg has stuck his director hat on this time and taken his second swing at the storyline; however, the results are just as disappointing. If you’re going to return to a plot you’ve already tackled, you best be prepared to step up your game, yet Dark Phoenix finds Kinberg criminally repeating the same old mistakes.

Despite his extensive experience as a writer and producer, Dark Phoenix marks Kinberg’s directorial debut and while there are certainly flashes of potential, the film badly exposes his deficiencies as a filmmaker.

At its worst, Dark Phoenix feels like a pure vanity project for Kinberg – and a massively expensive one at that. The entire film appears like a do-over for the rookie director as he laboriously runs through all his previous errors to give it another go. Which would be fine if there were a marked improvement. As it stands, however, the glaring lack of progress is hugely disappointing.

Kinberg’s complete lack of experience behind the camera is left agonisingly exposed and his bloody-minded attempt to tackle the ‘Dark Phoenix Saga’ again leaves him blind to the real needs of the story. The result is a superhero movie as bland as they come.

As a movie in its own right, Dark Phoenix isn’t awful, yet, taken in the context of an X-Men film, it just doesn’t gel. While it’s definitely not the worst X-Men instalment there’s been, it ends up the very definition of mediocre. Far less bloated than either Last Stand or Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix goes for a condensed approach which thankfully shrinks the narrative and action down to a far more manageable size, yet this streamlined tactic ultimately leaves it feeling hollow.

To truly do the source material justice, you’d need far more than one movie and surely Kinberg and Fox know this, yet they head off in the opposite direction as the narrative is ruthlessly stripped down to the bare bones. It’s a tact that inevitably sacrifices build-up, emotion, and logic to skip through the plot in what equates to a cinematic join-the-dots exercise.

Racing to get from plot point A to plot point B in the least amount of time possible, things move at a swift pace, however, the complete lack of thought behind it all leaves Dark Phoenix devoid of emotion. Zipping through the narrative like he’s in a rush, Kinberg’s writing is unforgivably lazy and completely unable to inject dramatic heft into proceedings.

With such a condensed storyline, nothing at all feels earned as major events are thrown at us with little to no build-up. Touching on enormous subjects like fear, bigotry, and social exclusion, the X-Men franchise was once a bastion for thought-provoking blockbuster filmmaking, yet Dark Phoenix, despite a half-baked attempt to tackle Professor X’s questionable mind control tactics, lets it all slip away as the gravitas the series once had disappears before our eyes.

However, the biggest disappointment isn’t just how weightless the film is but how great the story could’ve been if more care was taken to utilise the source material to its full potential. Suiting up and blasting off on a heroic rescue mission in the film’s opening, for the briefest of moments it feels like we have the X-Men team we’ve been yearning for, yet all that promise rapidly melts away to expose Dark Phoenix for the basic, unambitious superhero flick it is.

This complete lack of impact isn’t helped by a cast that look as if they’d rather be anywhere else. Shuffling about like they’re all there purely to run down their contracts, everyone in the ensemble appears stuck on autopilot, sucking the life right out of the whole thing in the process.

Charged with leading much of Dark Phoenix’s action, Sophie Turner does her best with the flimsy material she’s been given, yet struggles to sell what should be a complex and powerful role. There are certainly moments when she comes close to nailing it, yet it never quite clicks as she eventually succumbs to the awfulness of the script.

Alongside her, a veritable smorgasbord of acting talent is squandered, as a cast containing – but not limited to – James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Holt, and Jessica Chastain are either criminally underutilised or clearly beyond caring. Of them all, the biggest disappointment is Chastain, who’s abilities are completely wasted with one of the blandest villains you’re ever likely to come across.

Briefly promising to resurrect Dark Phoenix from the flames, the film’s action offers plenty of solid blockbuster entertainment with the odd flash of brilliance thrown in. Occasionally eye-catching and set to a typically stirring Hans Zimmer score, the action provides adequate thrills with fan favourites like Quicksilver and Nightcrawler showing off their impressive power set, culminating in a final showdown that, while far from mind-blowing, certainly has its moments.

Everything, however, feels a little tired and, despite the action offering a mild diversion to the mediocrity, it never feels like enough. Dogged by an overriding sense of going through the motions, the film never lifts itself above bang-average. And in a summer where Endgame blew the superhero genre apart, average just doesn’t cut it.

Over the best part of two decades, Fox’s X-Men has never truly felt like THE X-Men. They’ve come pretty damn close on occasion, yet even their best efforts have felt more like good to great mutant/Wolverine/Deadpool movies than genuine, bona fide X-Men ones, and Dark Phoenix is about as far away as this has ever been. 

Not only is Dark Phoenix rather insensitive to its iconic source material, Simon Kinberg is clearly terrified to embrace the essence of who the X-Men are. While the focus on Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey is perfectly understandable, it comes at the cost of everyone else, with the team dynamic and chemistry at an all-time franchise low as none of the extended group receive any significant character development.

While Logan felt like both the pinnacle and a poignant finale to the entire series, Dark Phoenix is an utterly underwhelming epilogue in comparison. It doesn’t quite send the franchise down in flames like Last Stand almost did back in the day, yet there’s certainly something of a fizzle about the way it has all played out.

With the Disney-Fox merger now complete, Dark Phoenix had become a lame duck and the results certainly feel like it. Like a long term relationship where both sides wearily accept that it’s dragged on far too long, this really does feel like the right time for us and the Fox X-Men to go our separate ways. 

For all the highs the X-Men franchise has given us over the past 19 years, there have been just as many lows and while it has certainly sunk lower in its time, the series has rarely been so tedious. Despite some brief flashes of brilliance, Dark Phoenix is the very definition of mediocrity as it stumbles along with little desire to offer anything remotely new. Let down by awful writing and Simon Kinberg’s uninspired direction, Dark Phoenix’s cast constantly look like they’d rather be anywhere else as the embers of a once great superhero franchise weakly die out in front of them.