shallowness (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shallowness) wrote2019-06-09 12:42 pm
shallowness) wrote2019-06-09 12:42 pm
Entry tags:
Do you know what the kids call you? Yes, from the trailer.
So, I’ve seen X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
I had mixed feelings upon going in. My excitement at a do-over of the Dark Phoenix saga on the big screen has diminished since they cued it up in Apocalypse, although I expected this film to be better than X-Men: The Last Stand, which I do not think is an unreasonable ask. I was also unenthused that Mystique and Magneto would be in it, worried that the plot would have to accommodate them and Lawrence and Fassbender’s wattage, but pleased about Chastain playing the baddie. And then, as more news came out about Singer, it seemed like a good thing that Simon Kinsberg was writing and directing, except he’d never directed before and…
Non spoilery reaction: 'eh'.
I thought it did handle the Phoenix storyline better – which is not hard – but Jean had more agency, and though she spent a lot of time travelling around and flailing about how she couldn’t control ‘it’, the film admitted Charles had done a bad thing by lying to her as a child. Mystique called him out on it and being an arrogant old so-and-so, and he apologised for it. But I wasn’t all that emotionally involved. My strongest feelings were of dislike for the soundtrack – too loud about what I should be feeling and quelle surprise, it was Zimmer, the number of soundtracks by him I like is smaller than the opposite.
Mystique, who wanders around looking like Raven because JLaw doesn’t like being blued up (or in canon, let’s pretend it’s to make Hank happy, which is annoying in a different way) spoke a lot of sense, in fact. I liked her as general, her instincts and her stepping in as an almost maternal figure for Jean. And then she got killed, which worked for me in the franchise, because I think Lawrence got too big for the role a film and a half ago. BUT this is after we lost Black Widow so recently (and though Jean’s discussions with Vux continued the Bechdel test passing). So, Mystique’s accidental killing galvanised Hank and later Erik to look for revenge (it also drove Jean, who had previously killed her actual mther). And the film was not gutsy enough to have Jean go dark enough to kill Erik – this might have been a better film if it had had a 15 certificate and they’d known for sure the sale to Disney was going through so they’d have known this was the end of this iteration. It’s hinted that this is the end, rather than sequel baiting (though the Phoenix is still around and so all the main mutants bar Mystique is still alive.) (Did we even get a name for the lady telepath on Magneto’s island?)
I thought Mystique’s line about women saving the men all the time was kind of true, as in Jean and Storm have amazing powers, but not really warranted (and the line about how it should be X-Women, just felt facile), because Kurt was crucial to everything. But there was some awareness of men controlling women, except…a lot of it was about men trying to control/destroy Jean until they realised she was carrying about an alien Macguffin power source and the destruction still wasn’t her fault.
Mainly, I sat there thinking ‘That is a stupid plan.’ Hank and Erik knew how powerful she was and they were going to kill her? Charles had a better idea in letting Mystique talk to her, but I still thought nobody had a good plan for dealing with Jean. You too, Scott.
AND WHY DID THE COPS TURN UP? Did Mr Grey call them? They couldn’t have known about Jean’s first power surge.
Despite being stupid sometimes, (don’t worry kids, Jean is an accidental killer and we’re bringing her home), Scott Summers is still the X-Man you’d want to marry, right? And the film was blissfully free of Jean/Wolverine.
Storm had some extra cool moments, and they’d styled her to echo DoFP Storm – a good look. I liked it whenever they combined powers – though they used Nightcrawler a lot. I was a little sad for Kurt when he too became ragey and violent towards the end of the Mutants vs Aliens section, of which what happened when Magneto shot a lot at the Alien in their Stilletos was the goriest bit.
There were callbacks to several films but the timeline is so broken even though it involved no time travel.
James Macavoy was great. Sophie Turner, even allowing for the fact she was in glowy Phoenix mode a lot and that Jean was all over the place, not so much, not compared to Lawrence, Hoult (mind the accent) and Fassbender’s intensity. Chastain had her moments where she was eerie and alien.
But it traded a lot on me caring because of the past, which worked for Raven and Hank watching the kids and remembering their fallen classmates (let’s choose to ignore the whole surveillance aspect). Erik and Charles playing chess in Paris did nowt for me – and it’s irritated me now that I’ve remembered Raven was the one who wanted to travel. I only had a certain amount of sympathy for Jean – coming into her powers in an awful way, then being lied to, yes. She did try to save the X-Jet before getting gobbled up by The Spark of Life (isn’t that a Transformer thing). And then she sacrificed herself for her family, because women do that in these films these days. TIRED. But at least she wouldn’t have to go to jail for police killing.
Wow, that ended up snarky, but as I wasn't feeling much whilst watching it, that's what grew. I would like to read other women’s thoughts about it.
I had mixed feelings upon going in. My excitement at a do-over of the Dark Phoenix saga on the big screen has diminished since they cued it up in Apocalypse, although I expected this film to be better than X-Men: The Last Stand, which I do not think is an unreasonable ask. I was also unenthused that Mystique and Magneto would be in it, worried that the plot would have to accommodate them and Lawrence and Fassbender’s wattage, but pleased about Chastain playing the baddie. And then, as more news came out about Singer, it seemed like a good thing that Simon Kinsberg was writing and directing, except he’d never directed before and…
Non spoilery reaction: 'eh'.
I thought it did handle the Phoenix storyline better – which is not hard – but Jean had more agency, and though she spent a lot of time travelling around and flailing about how she couldn’t control ‘it’, the film admitted Charles had done a bad thing by lying to her as a child. Mystique called him out on it and being an arrogant old so-and-so, and he apologised for it. But I wasn’t all that emotionally involved. My strongest feelings were of dislike for the soundtrack – too loud about what I should be feeling and quelle surprise, it was Zimmer, the number of soundtracks by him I like is smaller than the opposite.
Mystique, who wanders around looking like Raven because JLaw doesn’t like being blued up (or in canon, let’s pretend it’s to make Hank happy, which is annoying in a different way) spoke a lot of sense, in fact. I liked her as general, her instincts and her stepping in as an almost maternal figure for Jean. And then she got killed, which worked for me in the franchise, because I think Lawrence got too big for the role a film and a half ago. BUT this is after we lost Black Widow so recently (and though Jean’s discussions with Vux continued the Bechdel test passing). So, Mystique’s accidental killing galvanised Hank and later Erik to look for revenge (it also drove Jean, who had previously killed her actual mther). And the film was not gutsy enough to have Jean go dark enough to kill Erik – this might have been a better film if it had had a 15 certificate and they’d known for sure the sale to Disney was going through so they’d have known this was the end of this iteration. It’s hinted that this is the end, rather than sequel baiting (though the Phoenix is still around and so all the main mutants bar Mystique is still alive.) (Did we even get a name for the lady telepath on Magneto’s island?)
I thought Mystique’s line about women saving the men all the time was kind of true, as in Jean and Storm have amazing powers, but not really warranted (and the line about how it should be X-Women, just felt facile), because Kurt was crucial to everything. But there was some awareness of men controlling women, except…a lot of it was about men trying to control/destroy Jean until they realised she was carrying about an alien Macguffin power source and the destruction still wasn’t her fault.
Mainly, I sat there thinking ‘That is a stupid plan.’ Hank and Erik knew how powerful she was and they were going to kill her? Charles had a better idea in letting Mystique talk to her, but I still thought nobody had a good plan for dealing with Jean. You too, Scott.
AND WHY DID THE COPS TURN UP? Did Mr Grey call them? They couldn’t have known about Jean’s first power surge.
Despite being stupid sometimes, (don’t worry kids, Jean is an accidental killer and we’re bringing her home), Scott Summers is still the X-Man you’d want to marry, right? And the film was blissfully free of Jean/Wolverine.
Storm had some extra cool moments, and they’d styled her to echo DoFP Storm – a good look. I liked it whenever they combined powers – though they used Nightcrawler a lot. I was a little sad for Kurt when he too became ragey and violent towards the end of the Mutants vs Aliens section, of which what happened when Magneto shot a lot at the Alien in their Stilletos was the goriest bit.
There were callbacks to several films but the timeline is so broken even though it involved no time travel.
James Macavoy was great. Sophie Turner, even allowing for the fact she was in glowy Phoenix mode a lot and that Jean was all over the place, not so much, not compared to Lawrence, Hoult (mind the accent) and Fassbender’s intensity. Chastain had her moments where she was eerie and alien.
But it traded a lot on me caring because of the past, which worked for Raven and Hank watching the kids and remembering their fallen classmates (let’s choose to ignore the whole surveillance aspect). Erik and Charles playing chess in Paris did nowt for me – and it’s irritated me now that I’ve remembered Raven was the one who wanted to travel. I only had a certain amount of sympathy for Jean – coming into her powers in an awful way, then being lied to, yes. She did try to save the X-Jet before getting gobbled up by The Spark of Life (isn’t that a Transformer thing). And then she sacrificed herself for her family, because women do that in these films these days. TIRED. But at least she wouldn’t have to go to jail for police killing.
Wow, that ended up snarky, but as I wasn't feeling much whilst watching it, that's what grew. I would like to read other women’s thoughts about it.