Is everyone ready to camp out Thursday night to be the first in line to see “Dark Phoenix?” No? Well, considering Disney/Fox is expecting a franchise-low opening weekend at the box office, you’re probably not alone in your general apathy towards the dwindling, lame-duck superhero franchise. But maybe a new, extended clip will show you that writer-director Simon Kinberg is ready to send the X-Men off in style.
Apple TV recently unveiled a new, almost-3-minute clip from the upcoming “Dark Phoenix,” and…well… there’s good news and bad news. The good news, because it appears the franchise needs a bit of that right about now, is that the clip shows that X-Men have matching costumes, the Xavier School actually has a bunch of students, and the film genuinely feels like a superhero film. You know, it feels like the ‘X-Men’ comic books that the film is based on.
The bad news? Well, let’s just say that the clip doesn’t instill a whole lot of confidence about the direction this film is going in. The dialogue in the scene, even though there are incredible actors saying it, just feels stilted and unnatural. Jennifer Lawrence seems to be phoning it again, yet again, with this franchise. And well, outside of a sorta funny aside from Evan Peters’ Quicksilver, the clip just feels a bit…cringey.
As alluded to in the headline, the crux of the clip seems to be planting the seeds that Mystique (Lawrence) is mad with Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) about trying to make his students some sort of superhero team. The discussion is decent (outside of Lawrence’s line delivery) but ends with a pretty corny line about how the X-Men should be called “X-Women” because the women seem to be saving the men a lot.
Look, I’m all about female empowerment, and I’m firmly in the pro-Brie Larson/”Captain Marvel” camp. But this line just feels forced and really bad. Of course, we can’t write the whole film off based on a short clip, but let’s just say that expectations seem to be lowering more and more.
“Dark Phoenix” hits theaters Friday.
When the stakes are this high, you must ask if the risks are worth the reward.
Check out an exclusive first look at #DarkPhoenix and see it in theaters next weekend. pic.twitter.com/TTaePKA4Rg— Apple TV (@AppleTV) June 2, 2019