Yesterday, I finally got to watch X-Men: Dark Phoenix. It isn't on Netflix, but I have access to HBO Go in my country, and there I did find it. So, I sat down and watched the movie. To be honest, it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't at all a highlight either.
It took me a very long time to get started in the X-Men universe. But, once I got started, I watched mostly all the movies within a few weeks. So, I have the basic background information and should be capable of understanding what's going on. But, is X-Men: Dark Phoenix worth watching as a stand-alone movie? Is it worth watching at all?
The biggest trouble - the story!
X-Men is about Charles Xavier, leading a school for specially gifted people. He picks up Jean after an accident in which her mum died (and as we later get to know, after which her father couldn't look at her again as he blamed her for the death of his wife). Now Jean is older, and to save some people in space during a mission, she is filled with greater power than any other human being, and this causes a lot of confusion, trouble, anger, and other issues inside of her.
Now, that is the basic story, and to be honest... it is truly weak. There are a couple of more scenes in the movie, and I will now spoil everything, so don't read on, if you do not want to know what happens (it is really lame).
- X-Men tries to help Jean (not succeeding).
- Jean seeks help from Erik (not succeeding).
- Jean is approached by a special lady who tells her to join in with her.
- The final battle between the good and the bad.
There you have it, that is the story. To be honest, I have enjoyed the X-Men movies so far, and I kind of enjoyed this movie as well. But, the story was terrible, and there are even more things that I dislike about it.
If you haven't seen any X-Men movies before, it is hard to understand.
This doesn't work really well as a standalone movie. Do you know why? When Jean goes to chat with Erik, who is he? If people have no knowledge about who Erik is and his past with Charles, Raven, and the others, this is just a pure mess.
In fact, if you have seen the X-Men movies in the past (a couple of years ago), you will still have trouble remembering exactly all the connections and relationships, making it hard once again to see why people act and behave in the ways they do in the movie.
It isn't as dark as I thought
I feared the fact that X-Men: Dark Phoenix would be a dark and depressing movie in which our hero Jean faces trouble and darkness on her inside. I never like it when my "good" superheroes turn bad, and I feared that it would be dark in that kind of way. But, it never turned as dark and depressing as I feared, which was kind of a relief to me.
Is X-Men: Dark Phoenix worth watching?
We are in the middle of a COVID-19 quarantine and isolation time, which means many people will have spare time to use in front of the TV. So, if you do - feel free to watch X-Men: Dark Phoenix. But, if you haven't seen the other movies yet, get started with those. You can watch quite a lot of X-Men movies on Netflix in Germany and in Switzerland, so that is a good place to start if you are interested.
However, as a stand-alone movie, I would probably say that there are lots of other movies worth watching instead. All the typical Marvel heroes are more amusing and easier to watch, like Thor, Iron-Man, Captain Marvel, and all those guys.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix score
I think I would say 4/10...
So, those are my thoughts on X-Men: Dark Phoenix. As always, some nachos and salsa-dip combined with a cold Coke will make all movies worth watching, but if you first have such delightful treats available, why not watch something better instead?
I would love to hear your thoughts on the movie if you have seen it!