The X-Men franchise has the longest continuous-running superhero franchise in Hollywood ever since the first movie came out in 2000. In a way, it showed Hollywood how to create a successful franchise with a superhero property, while teaching us the difference between a mutant and a superhero. Where, being a mutant is a metaphor for the racism prevalent in the real world. With Dark Phoenix, we now have 12 films in the franchise, quite a less number compared to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that begun in 2008 and has now more than 20 movies. Dark Phoenix: Why Is There No Post-Credit Scene or Wolverine in the X-Men Film? Explained!

Dark Phoenix is also the clapper to the main X-Men saga, that is going through a prequel run with its First Class series. After the sale of Fox properties to Disney, the X-Men (along with Fantastic Four) are to be folded into the MCU, and Disney is looking to revamp the whole property. Which means, Dark Phoenix has to give a fitting finale to the X-Men saga as we have known it till now.

With such a huge responsibility, there are high expectations from the film, even though the pre-release reports have been on the downside (bad test screenings, major reshoots, multiple delays). Simon Kinberg, who has been creatively involved in the franchise as a writer and producer, has been handled the directorial reins despite being a first-timer at this job.

Well, needless to say, he hasn't really done a good job at that. For Dark Phoenix turns out to be one of the most disappointing films, not just in the X-Men franchise, but in the entire superhero genre. Dark Phoenix is not an awful movie. The performances are decent, and the action sequences and special effects, especially the train fight in the finale, are pretty cool. Not to mention, the rousing score of the legendary Hans Zimmer. However, the rest of the film is a hot pile of bland mess. You can read our reviewer Chandni's thoughts about Dark Phoenix here.

In this feature, though, we look at the seven things in the film that didn't work in the favour of the film, making it an epic let down of a wonderful franchise.

Not Letting Us Invest in the Jean Grey Arc Emotionally

The Dark Phoenix saga has been done in the past in X-Men: The Last Stand, though comic-book fans were unhappy with how it has been conceived there. So does Dark Phoenix rectify it? It does bring the cosmic aspect of the arc, but mostly, Dark Phoenix retreads some of the elements of The Last Stand - like Jean Grey losing control and killing a hero, and a villain getting to manipulate her. The biggest problem is that we haven't been fully invested in Jean Grey (Sophie Turner with a dodgy American accent) as a character, nor her love story with Cyclops (Tye Sheridan). While Sophie has done the emotional conflict of the character convincingly, it isn't enough to for the viewers to buy into that.

Professor X and Mystique's Under-Developed Argument

Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) always had this trait to bridge the differences between humans and mutants, by letting his X-Men help them out a lot. When they nearly lose Jean Grey during a space rescue mission to save some humans, Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) questions Xavier's egoistic nature of wanting to stay in the magazine covers and his appeasement of fellow human beings. This is an interesting debate, but the issue is we have never got the inkling of Xavier as this egoistic person before. Mystique accuses Xavier of sending others out to help humans to boost his ego, without doing the work himself. Perhaps she forgot that he lost his ability to walk when trying to save humans himself, and she immediately joined the man responsible for her foster brother's accident, Magneto (Michael Fassbender). So this whole debate feels hollow and doesn't even warrant Mystique and Beast (Nicholas Hoult)'s thoughts of walking out of X-Men. Also for a mutant who wants to show her real self to the world, why does Mystique turn into a pretty J-Law when she gets back at the X-Men mansion - where no one had issues with her appearance?

Mystique's Death Already Spoilt

For some strange reasons, the trailers of Dark Phoenix had already spoilt one of the most shocking scenes of the film - Mystique's death. Since the character has been played by a major Oscar-winning star, there should have been some kind of secrecy over the death. Instead, we don't get to feel the emotional trauma over her demise, that the movie also soon dusts off and walks away. Also, what's the idea of wanting us to invest in Beast and Mystique love story that you never bothered to develop since their brief fling in First Class?

An Uncharismatic Villain

The main antagonists in the film are a breed of aliens who can shapeshift and smash your rib-cages with some kind of mental power. They are X-Men's equivalent of the Skrulls, though they are not given any kind of name or personality. Their leader takes the appearance of a human who looks like Jessica Chastain, but apart from whispering creepy somethings into Jean Grey's ears, the character wastes the talents of this brilliant actress. Towards the end, the movie turns her into a Thanos kind of villain wanting to take the cosmic force from Jean Grey and destroying the Earth, but it's too late by then!

A Dull Tone

The biggest crime that a superhero movie can do is being dull, and this is exactly what Dark Phoenix does. Save for the two good fight scenes, none of the scenes in the film make us really enthused about what's happening on the screen. It's as if the X-Men saga doesn't really know how to act enthusiastic when Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is not involved. Only Magneto gets some good moments in the finale to peak up our interest and that's it! The one other character who could have spruced things up is pretty much wasted and that's...

Wasting Quicksilver

Okay, I get the idea that the makers want to use this character in small doses but in the most impactful way possible. Dark Phoenix does the first part right, but squanders the second. Quicksilver (Evan Peters) has been responsible for giving the First Class series some of its most memorable sequences, and the character has become a fan-favourite. When, at the end of Apocalypse, he is enrolled as a part of the main X-Men group, we were thrilled. However, Quicksilver hardly gets to do much in Dark Phoenix. He helps around in the space mission, makes a joke about how he was the real hero and not Jean Grey, and then gets seriously injured in when Jean Grey loses control. The character is absent for the rest of the proceedings only to appear in the epilogue. What a waste of a fine character! Also what about him discovering that Magneto is his father in Apocalypse? There is no further exploration of that in Dark Phoenix, with Quicksilver and Magneto not even sharing screen here!

Ruining Days of Future Past's Conclusion

X-Men: Days of Future Past concludes with Wolverine going in the past, changing things there and save X-Men from a bleak future where they are exterminated by powerful Sentinels. When he wakes up in the future, Wolverine sees that he is back in the school, Professor X, Beast, Jean Grey and Cyclops are alive and everyone's happy. Dark Phoenix completely retcons this future. For one, the school gets renamed after Jean Grey as a respect to her sacrifice and becoming a cosmic force after her fight with the aliens (basically, she is dead). Xavier has retired as the headmaster and is considering a live-in possibility with bestie Magneto and Beast is the new headmaster. Also, Logan is nowhere to be seen. So what happened to that future in Days of Future Past? When did the timeline get changed? Questions...questions... And no immediate answers.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 06, 2019 03:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).