Dark Phoenix (Spoilers)

[Udaman]

My how the mighty have fallen. There have been so many good X-Men movies. The first one. X-Men 2. Days of Future Past. X-Men First Class. All excellent movies. And look the third one was really bad. But then they redeemed themselves with the First Class reboot. With great actors, and great storytelling.

And then...ughh.

It started with Apocalypse. That movie was terrible. Worse than Last Stand. Then they made Logan. I know a lot of people liked that one. I didn't. Mainly because it took so many things I liked about X-Men and completely changed them (suddenly Wolverine doesn't heal quickly, and he's dying, and people can just simply manufacture new mutants with the exact same powers as real mutants. And Charles was a bumbling old food that they never fully explained, etc, etc). And then Dark Phoenix drove the final nail in the coffin. Wow. And look, I don't think it was bad as Apocalypse...but boy was it close (and that's saying something). From the opening voice over it was terrible. The villain was terrible. The acting and writing, and editing. This franchise is now in need of a complete reboot. I've been thinking about it all weekend, and this is why I think the franchise (and Dark Phoenix) died:

1) They had some bad casting. The young Cyclops has absolutely no screen charisma with Jean. None. I didn't like the young Storm. Or Nightcrawler. The best one by far is Quicksilver and he's hardly in it at all.

2) Quicksilver has such a great skill, and twice now they've made it so that who is is going against suddenly has the ability to neutralize that skill. Grrr.

3) Killing off Mystique was done (I'm guessing) solely because Jennifer Lawrence didn't want to do this anymore. Then they should have killed off Magneto but didn't.

4) Like Apocalypse and Logan, you have characters suddenly doing things that are completely against their history. Charles becomes a liar who hides the truth from people? Magneto goes crazy and kills everyone, then becomes a commune director, then wants to kill a mutant, then wants to save Charles? Mystique grows a conscious?

5) I would never have thought that Jessica Chastain could be terrible in anything. Man was she terrible. Wooden and stiff (and directed to be so, I'm guessing).

6) Jean was just whiny the entire time. By the end, I was pulling for her to be put out of her misery.

It's just stunning to me that a move with Fassbender, McAvoy, Chastain, Lawrence, Peters and Turner could not be at least tolerable. This one wasn't.

I hope Disney just scraps it all and starts over. Guess they are trying with New Mutants, but early buzz on that is that it's disastrously like Apocalypse and Phoenix. Not good.

At least they have Deadpool. Though that's on the back burner now with nothing even in production. Sigh. Maybe a break will be a good thing.

[PackMan97]

And Charles was a bumbling old food that they never fully explained, etc, etc).

I thought they did...dementia.

[Acymetric]

Then they made Logan. I know a lot of people liked that one. I didn't. Mainly because it took so many things I liked about X-Men and completely changed them (suddenly Wolverine doesn't heal quickly, and he's dying, and people can just simply manufacture new mutants with the exact same powers as real mutants. And Charles was a bumbling old food that they never fully explained, etc, etc).

Charles was senile/suffering from dementia (and, it appears, from seizures). This shouldn't be surprising, he was pretty old at that point. Happens to the best of us, if we make it that far.

Wolverine not healing quickly when he gets old is in line with comic-cannon. It would seem that a combination of Adamantium poisoning, alcohol poisoning, and old age were reducing his healing factor.

Artificial mutants also exist in previous cannon, I believe, and as far as explaining why they had the same powers I'm pretty sure they used DNA from the mutants whose powers they wanted to copy.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Charles was senile/suffering from dementia (and, it appears, from seizures). This shouldn't be surprising, he was pretty old at that point. Happens to the best of us, if we make it that far.

Wolverine not healing quickly when he gets old is in line with comic-cannon. It would seem that a combination of Adamantium poisoning, alcohol poisoning, and old age were reducing his healing factor.

Artificial mutants also exist in previous cannon, I believe, and as far as explaining why they had the same powers I'm pretty sure they used DNA from the mutants whose powers they wanted to copy.

The fact that this thread immediately became a discussion of Logan tells me everything I feared about Dark Phoenix is true.

[Udaman]

The fact that this thread immediately became a discussion of Logan tells me everything I feared about Dark Phoenix is true.

Yep!

[thedukelamere]

The fact that this thread immediately became a discussion of Logan tells me everything I feared about Dark Phoenix is true.

That no one else besides JE and Udaman actually saw Dark Phoenix over the weekend?

[JasonEvans]

That no one else besides JE and Udaman actually saw Dark Phoenix over the weekend?

I tried to warn all of y'all about it... I tried. At least I did not pay to see it.

[duke74]

I tried to warn all of y'all about it... I tried. At least I did not pay to see it.

Just listened to your podcast, Jason. (The first for me...not the last) Well done. Thank you for including the link.

[YmoBeThere]

My parents hated it. Not sure why they went to see it, but they don't read this boaard nor do they listen to podcasts.