MoviesNews

Can X-Men: Dark Phoenix Undo The Mistakes Done in Apocalypse?  

The X-Men Universe has come a long way from lackluster X-Men: Apocalypse to much-anticipated X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Despite a stellar cast and massive set pieces, critics and audience slammed Apocalypse for destroying major comic-book super-villain who has a sort of cult following.

The writer/producer Simon Kinberg opened up and told the entertainment reporters why the movie failed to fulfill audience’s expectations. He said to EW:

“I think we took our eye off what has always been the bedrock of the franchise which is these characters. It became about global destruction and visual effects over emotion and character.”

He added:

“It’s always dangerous if your script is evolving while you’re shooting, Certainly, in hindsight, we all feel like the genre has been evolving aesthetically and tonally and that the film didn’t. There’s a lot that I think is very good in the film but, as a whole, it was struggling to find ways to coalesce, narratively emotionally and in terms of plot. Aesthetically, it felt sort of dated relative to an evolution you were seeing play out everywhere else. We learned a lot from that.”

The biggest question is – Will the Dark Phoenix be able to do course correction in the X-Men universe? To answer that question, we first need to know the comic-book plot of Dark Phoenix.

In the plot, Jean Grey almost killed by solar energy, emerged into something else, she donned the mantle of fire and defeated the ruthless alien emperor. She merged with Phoenix force, could hold entire timelines in her hands and destroyed Apocalypse.

She became so powerful that she could even defeat Galactus (Devourer of Worlds) in the end. In a shocking turn of events, she turned on X-Men and then consumed an entire star, committing atrocities by the millions and thus the name Dark Phoenix.

Many people believe that this could be a huge mistake for X-Men universe due to the following reasons:

There is number of problems with doing Dark Phoenix plot at this point in time. Firstly, we all know the story and there are no surprises until the makers decide to change stuff from the source material. Further, there was an attempt in the past that failed spectacularly.

Secondly, Jean Grey’s character needs to be established first, let audience develop an emotional connection with her and then we go in this direction. Thirdly, it gives the impression that X-Men franchise has run out of ideas and is now just searching for iconic plots without setting the stage for them.

On the other hand, the X-Men fans are excited as the franchise is adapting one of the most iconic X-Men storylines ever conceived by Marvel comics. The movie will be directed by Simon Kinberg.

He will make his debut in the X-Men universe working on his own script adapted from Dark Phoenix comics by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. The movie is set in the 1990’s following prequel trilogy format of setting each movie a decade apart.

In 1976, an acclaimed X-Men writer Chris Claremont who enjoys strong female characters wrote ‘Phoenix Saga’ centered around Jean Grey. The idea is to create a first female cosmic superhero who could be integrated into the mutant universe.

He said at the time:

“Our intent was to create an X-Men analog, if you will, to Thor – someone who was essentially the first female cosmic hero. We thought at the time we could integrate her into the book as well as Thor had been integrated into the Avengers.”

Many other powerful mutants such as Mystique, Prof. Xavier, Magneto, Beast etc. are returning to reprise their roles. In addition to them, Evan Peters who plays Quick Silver is confirmed to join the cast. Olivia Munn recently revealed in her Snapchat post that she is currently in Montreal, which basically means Psylocke (a telepathic and telekinetic mutant) is also coming back.

If that was not enough, the new images of actor Tye Sheridan (who played young Cyclops in X-Men: Apocalypse) have surfaced.

He is wearing a new classic visor on the set which was worn by James Marsden in X-Men 2 but with a smaller design. The new visor suggests that he would have better control of his powers as 9 years have passed after the events of Apocalypse.

A new report is out which is suggesting that director Simon Kinberg is planning to show an entire range of Phoenix powers in the movie. Well, this will result in a catastrophe as Jean’s powers are uncontrollable once she merges with Phoenix force.

There is a possible death scene of a major mutant who will likely die in the process. We don’t know who will die but Beast seems the most disposable, but a case could be made that all four could die at the hands of Jean going rogue. X-Men movies have shown in the past that they are not afraid to kill off big characters.

Here’s the description:

“Our source told us that Kindberg is going to show us exactly how powerful Jean is and is willing to do it at the expense of one of the actors who has been with the franchise since the beginning. Currently, that’s the younger versions of Magneto, Professor X, Mystique and Beast from the X-Men: First Class reboot. We are told that Kindberg is holding nothing back in that, in the moment when Jean’s powers are on full display, they will become too much for her to handle. At that point, with her powers out of control, Jean will impale one of the returning mutants, leaving them dead. At least for now.”

The first look of “Dark Phoenix” confirmed the iconic location from X-Men comics. Here’s the reveal from EW issue:

“A confused Jean turns to Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender), the rogue mutant who parted ways with the X-Men at the end of Apocalypse and now lives on an island named Genosha (small rocky island that served as Magneto and the Brotherhood’s base of operations), a destination comic-book fans will recognize. He’s set up this place for mutants that don’t have a home to go to, they have to work as a community, but it’s a safe place for them and they’ll be accepted.”

So basically the Magneto-Jean relationship will be similar to Magneto-Mystique from the previous films. He will celebrate the power of ‘Dark Phoenix’ which may turn out to be a deadly mistake on his part. It would be shockingly awesome if Magneto ends up in a grave.

x-men

Will Magneto make a sacrifice to redeem himself and contain the threat of Dark Phoenix? The movie is slated to release on Nov 2, 2018.

Don’t Miss: 22 Hilarious Fantastic Four Memes That Will Make You Laugh Till You Drop

Anuj Aggarwal

A Voracious reader. An explorer. An Intellectual. A Die hard fan of Leonardo dicaprio and a Game of Thrones fanatic. Love to dabble in different things at the same time - Politics, International Cinema, History, Music, Literature etc. Welcome you all...
Back to top button