X-Men: Dark Phoenix. (12A.)
Directed by Simon Kinberg.
Starring Sophie Turner, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Evan Peters, Tye Sheridan, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Smit and Jessica Chastain. 114 mins
Fox (20th Cent) seem convinced that this phoenix is not going to rise. Turning up for the only press screenings barely more than 24 hours before it is due in cinemas we were handed embargos to sign promising we would not disclose our views till the morning it appeared in cinemas. Granted the film, whose release has been delayed for various reshoots, is not a First Class addition to the X-men roster, but it is plenty enjoyable. This twelfth instalment has enough zest to overcome most of the signs of franchise fatigue. It's hard to see what got Fox so spooked in it. But what do I know? I thought the climax of Game of Thrones was splendid when on-line orthodoxy demands it be denounced as being RUSHED, RUSHED, RUSHED.
GOT does bring us to one of the film's most obvious problems. The whole X-men world was reset in First Class and one of the series great strengths has been how beautifully the roles were recast. A lot of them – McAvoy, Fassbender, Lawrence, Hoult - are on their fourth instalment. True, they don't quite have the foolhardy enthusiasm they had for the roles when they first started, but nobody looks like this is a bind, a tiresome financial burden. In the last film, Apocalypse, a variety of new faces were added to the team including Sophie Turner, Samsa in Game Of, who got the pivotal role of Jean Grey. She didn't seem up to then and though she is better here, she isn't equal to the originator of the role, Famke Janssen, and she isn't the performer you'd choose to be the one to hang the film on.
After a trip into space to rescue a space shuttle, she gets a space dust infection which causes her to become the most powerful being on Earth and be torn between good and evil. The film is torn between good and bad, flicking back and forth between the two. That initial space sequence is one of the best in the film, full of pristine clear visuals. Elsewhere there is little too much blurry CGI but most of the action sequences are pretty good and there is another cracking Hans Zimmer score to make everything that bit more exciting. The script has a few weak lines and contrived character motivation shifts. There is a definite sense that maybe they have gone as far as they can with this gang, that however hard they try they end up covering old ground, but what ground they covered. Dark Phoenix's biggest problem is the quality of the films that preceded it.
Directed by Simon Kinberg.
Starring Sophie Turner, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Evan Peters, Tye Sheridan, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Smit and Jessica Chastain. 114 mins
Fox (20th Cent) seem convinced that this phoenix is not going to rise. Turning up for the only press screenings barely more than 24 hours before it is due in cinemas we were handed embargos to sign promising we would not disclose our views till the morning it appeared in cinemas. Granted the film, whose release has been delayed for various reshoots, is not a First Class addition to the X-men roster, but it is plenty enjoyable. This twelfth instalment has enough zest to overcome most of the signs of franchise fatigue. It's hard to see what got Fox so spooked in it. But what do I know? I thought the climax of Game of Thrones was splendid when on-line orthodoxy demands it be denounced as being RUSHED, RUSHED, RUSHED.
GOT does bring us to one of the film's most obvious problems. The whole X-men world was reset in First Class and one of the series great strengths has been how beautifully the roles were recast. A lot of them – McAvoy, Fassbender, Lawrence, Hoult - are on their fourth instalment. True, they don't quite have the foolhardy enthusiasm they had for the roles when they first started, but nobody looks like this is a bind, a tiresome financial burden. In the last film, Apocalypse, a variety of new faces were added to the team including Sophie Turner, Samsa in Game Of, who got the pivotal role of Jean Grey. She didn't seem up to then and though she is better here, she isn't equal to the originator of the role, Famke Janssen, and she isn't the performer you'd choose to be the one to hang the film on.
After a trip into space to rescue a space shuttle, she gets a space dust infection which causes her to become the most powerful being on Earth and be torn between good and evil. The film is torn between good and bad, flicking back and forth between the two. That initial space sequence is one of the best in the film, full of pristine clear visuals. Elsewhere there is little too much blurry CGI but most of the action sequences are pretty good and there is another cracking Hans Zimmer score to make everything that bit more exciting. The script has a few weak lines and contrived character motivation shifts. There is a definite sense that maybe they have gone as far as they can with this gang, that however hard they try they end up covering old ground, but what ground they covered. Dark Phoenix's biggest problem is the quality of the films that preceded it.
