Alright, so, I’ve just started Dark Phoenix (2019)… and I am so sick of car-crash-killing-the-parents origin stories. It seems tired and lazy.
Okay, so the space rescue at the beginning of Dark Phoenix (2019) is super cool, and renders the weak & tired car crash scene totally unnecessary.
I want to like Dark Phoenix (2019)… it’s an X-Men movie centered on a woman! But… it feels like it’s scolding me, telling me that the worst thing in the world is for a woman to have feelings and lose control of them. It’s really suffering from not empathizing with its star.
For a movie ostensibly centered on a woman, Dark Phoenix (2019) sure seems a whole lot more interested in focusing on Charles Xavier’s feelings, thoughts, words, decisions, and emotional journey than Jean Grey’s.
I haven’t finished watching Dark Phoenix (2019) yet, but I’m gonna go ahead and call it: giving this movie to a man for writing and directing it was a terrible decision.
“My emotions make me strong.” —the literal words coming out of Jean Grey’s mouth in Dark Phoenix (2019)
“Women’s emotions are scary, out of control, and will cause massive destruction.” —literally all of the subtext in every second of this movie
Ah, I love how Magneto is carrying a chessboard as he comes to reconcile with Xavier, drawing attention to how Jean Grey was always a pawn in the game these two MEN were playing with each other, and the movie named for her — Dark Phoenix (2019) — was never truly about her.
Well, in the roulette game of Is This Movie Terrible or Just Downvoted for Being About Women?, Dark Phoenix (2019) comes out terrible, and also, not really about women.