Jean Grey begins to develop incredible powers that corrupt and turn her into a Dark Phoenix. Now the X-Men will have to decide if the life of a team member is worth more than all the people living in the world.

If you have been following (or trying in vain to understand) the complicated and messy timeline of the X-men universe you are not alone — the animated series of the 90’s captured the hearts of many, so when live-action movies began being produced in the early 2000’s fans everywhere rejoiced, but each time were more and more disappointed. However, with the slightly more popular recent reboots taking us through each decade of the X-Men origins, beginning with the events that formed the original X-men group in the 1960s in X-Men: First Class (2011), and now ending with this fourth installment, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, fans have yet another chance to see the Phoenix storyline on the big screen. Following up 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, which introduced us to the Jean Grey character and her power potential, Dark Phoenix is the continuation of her saga, chronicling her transformation into the Phoenix character, and the new future of the X-men and the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.

In X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), it seemed that Wolverine, thankfully, reset the ‘X-Men universe timeline’ by stopping the government from registering mutants through showing that we really can all just get along (I’m paraphrasing!). With that, we were blessed with a changed future with the events of 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand (and all before it) effectively erased, and the X-Men set on a new path of coexistence with humans. In X-Men: Dark Phoenix, we get to know Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) even more after Apocalypse gave us a taste of her omega level psychic abilities, beginning by taking us back to her tragic childhood and how she came to be under the care of one Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), proprietor and protector to a school for gifted children. Later as a member of the X-Men, Jean and her fellow mutants are one day called upon to save orbiting astronauts from a solar flare, however, while answering that call, the power within Jean that has made her the most powerful mutant ever to be born attracts an even more powerful entity traveling through space, one that enters Jean and produces her dark, alter ego — Phoenix. Previously kept in check by mental roadblocks constructed by Professor X, the pathways to her capabilities are cleared away, as well as dark memories from her childhood, both of which send her on a rampage in her need to find answers and control within herself. Struggling to do so, and rejecting the aid of her team members, Jean runs away but is soon found by a mysterious woman named Vuk (Jessica Chastain), who unbeknownst to Jean, is an alien of the scattered D’Bari Empire. When Vuk promises her freedom and control over her domain, Jean seemingly gives into her newfound power, unraveling her once tightnit team and endangering the lives of every soul on the planet.

Besides the movie’s many cheeky one-liners, X-men: Last Stand (2006) was probably my least favorite from the original early 2000’s X-men trilogy — it was the original attempt of a live-action ‘Jean Grey into Phoenix’ transformation story, and it was surprisingly penned by Dark Phoenix’s director, Simon Kinberg. As a hardcore Game of Thrones fan, it has been somewhat difficult for me to separate my feelings towards Sophie Turner’s ‘Sansa’ character from her other acting roles — fun fact, she is really annoying and selfish on the show! Unfortunately, that feeling remained for me seeing her in this role. All in all, she came off pretty angst-y (there was audible laughter at some outbursts during my screening) and it got to the point where her anger was silly because there was no real deep dive into the complexity of her newfound state of power; the engines kept revving, but the movie never turned all the way on.

It should have and could have been darker. I know they needed her to be angry to have a path of destruction — the effects for the telekinetic destruction were great! — but since I couldn’t get into the story I kind of checked out on her. Everyone else was great though, particularly Michael Fassbender as Magneto, along with the rest of the cast from X-Men: Apocalypse reprising their roles. As what seems to be the period to the run on sentence that has been 20th Century Fox’s go at this franchise — we are 12 movies deep into attempts, after all — the spectacle of the destruction and particularly the CGI used to create the stunning outer space and train sequences were a nice watch, but I am looking forward to seeing what Disney magic Marvel studios will be sprinkling on this franchise’s heroes in the future.

Sadly, there was no after credit scene, which might have something to do with the Disney/21st Century Fox acquisition, alluding to the fact that Disney might just reboot this entirely rather than doing sequels when introducing this cast of colorful characters to their Marvel universe counterparts. Fitting, seeing as how this was pretty darn close to the narrative and aesthetic of Marvel studio’s recent film, Captain Marvel, which also had a female hero struggling to control her powers while pitted against foes from space. However, X-Men: Dark Phoenix has been a long time coming now; meant to be released last year yet has reportedly been mired by re-shoots for first-time director (but very seasoned X-Men writer and producer) Simon Kinberg. Finally brought to the light of day, X-Men: Dark Phoenix is due for wide release June 7th, 2019!