Dark Phoenix

[Scott Taylor]

You really should elaborate since you are seemingly in the minority even on this thread.

You'd read a lot of the criticisms about the movie in this thread before you saw it, so do you think any of those complaints are valid?

What are the specific elements you liked about the movie? Where do you think the critics of the movie got it wrong?

So many criticisms, there is no way I can tackle them all. But - the criticism of Mystique being all girl power with her one line to Xavier - completely unfair. Its a line that had nothing to do with girl power and everything to do with Xavier being ... well, Xavier. Did people forget that he has manipulated the X-Men several times during the comic history and in these movies? The whole disagreement between certain X-Men with Xavier is used in a very comics-true fashion, especially for those of us who really loved the Claremont run. Its set up indirectly during the introductory scene of the movie and then followed up several times, to ultimately reach a redemptive and satisfying moment for Xavier as one of the bigger sub-plots.

Dunno. Name some other specific criticisms and I can try and respond.

Elements that were highlights for me:

1) The Action - Holy shit! This movie is like the action in the future parts of DoFP turned up to 11. Nightcrawler cuts loose. Cyclops actually uses his powers smartly for once. Storm does cool stuff with her powers and this storm is sooooo much better than Halle Berry ever was - kind of a combination of Storm and Iceman and I dug it. Beast was great. I mean - if people saw the train scene and thought that was stupid and boring then I really believe those people need to start a quilting club or something else other than comics. That was brilliant! And it was one of three amazing action sequences, along with a few more mini-sequences.

2) Jean Grey - I have to be honest, in that I really didn't like her in Apocalypse. Felt she was underused and just kind of came out of nowhere with the killing blow at the end. She's had a rocky past in all of this franchise, lets face it. But this movie created a viable character arc for her and I felt that Sophie Turner really sold the character and her fight against the dark turn that was thrust upon her. And she ends a hero.

3) The X-Men - As I said, action is a key element of the film. But this is the first flick since X2 where I felt that all the X-Men were used together as a team, balanced and got to participate, both in dialogue and in getting stuff done. Well, except for Dazzler but who cares about that really?

4) Genosha - First, it was never named. So i'm assuming. But I liked the whole idea they were going for with Magneto being an outcast along with a bunch of other mutants as a counter to Xavier's school. Plus I liked the whole container city farmer thing. Shrug, personal preference maybe but it worked for me.

5) The Heart - This movie has a strong emotional core to it. I seriously am going to evoke Claremont again here. This felt like a 1980s X-Men story of his, any of them, in terms of the heart.

Weaknesses:

1) The weakest part of the film for me was Mystique. Just don't care for the actor, personally. But heck she dies pretty quickly, so its all good there. The idea of Mystique carries on through the film as motivation for Beast and Magneto in particular. But its not as if they name the school after her. She's gone, serves a purpose to move the plot along, and just kind of fades into obscurity at the end.

2) The absolute worst part about loving this movie is that now I feel that I have to accept X3:Last Stand to make the overall timeline work for me. This movie was so good that it made Last Stand better in an odd way, in my own personal canon. I may need counseling.