RatCreature (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ratcreature) wrote2019-06-12 02:12 am
ratcreature) wrote2019-06-12 02:12 am
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Dark Phoenix
Well, that wasn't as bad as I feared with all the dislike going around, but it wasn't great either. It didn't really engage me much emotionally, and the fight scenes weren't cool enough to make up for it.
The villains literally dropped in from outer space, are never even named, as far as I remember (not being familiar with Marvel's cosmic stuff I have no idea who they were supposed to be), are quickly set up as really evil by murdering some inconsequential random people from a weirdly staged feeling dinner party out of a Pinterest mood board, which presumably helps them to shapeshift into humans and gather information somehow, and probably killed the dog too (though we don't see that explicitly), and then want to use the cosmic force that destroyed their entire planet to take over Earth instead (because humans are "primitive" or such), because it looks like Jean can control it somehow instead of just being blown up like everything else.
I have no idea why anyone would think that was a sensible plan of action. This setup suffers especially in contrast to Captain Marvel's handling of its shape shifting alien invader situation. And even if you wanted to just make them evil aliens, their chances of success, regardless of their ultimate intentions, would have been so much better if they had consistently presented themselves as earlier victims of this horrible entity that destroyed their planet, revealed that it is now in Jean, but hey they could help handle that, and manipulated everyone rather than trying to just trick Jean in isolation and also run around on a murder spree.
Anyway, those were bad villains, despite their moderately creepy female leader in nonsensically high heels, and the Phoenix Force blob isn't better, as it seems to have about as much motivations as a natural disaster. And the whole Jean thing with mutants leveling up in power and hurting or even killing others seems like half if all origin stories so that wasn't very engaging for me.
Especially since they fridged Mystique to make Jean's power increase angsty. That Mystique kind of lampshaded it in her earlier comment to Xavier about the risks female mutants take doesn't really make anything better. And among the mutants Erik brings to the fight it is also the woman who dies. I'm not sure we even got a name for her.
I liked Erik's hippie mutant commune though, where they mostly seemed to do organic gardening in somewhat excessively quirky setting. It seemed nice, though interpreting with darker cult vibes is an option. I wish his two followers had gotten names and a few lines though, rather than just being background fighters. I have no idea who they were supposed to be.
At least the movie left Charles/Erik shippers (which I am) in a good place. I mean, I assume Charles will accept Erik's invitation and offer for a new home, and join him to also become a hippie gardener in his (new?) commune, now that he resigned as a headmaster. Though they possibly have to get over the hiccup that Charles, having picked a Parisian exile, seems rather more attached to creature comforts and having metropolitan conveniences at least nearby than Erik with his self-sufficient, back to the land commune. But I'm sure they can work it out. So I liked that final scene.
Also, if you go watch it, there is neither a mid- nor a post-credits scene.
The villains literally dropped in from outer space, are never even named, as far as I remember (not being familiar with Marvel's cosmic stuff I have no idea who they were supposed to be), are quickly set up as really evil by murdering some inconsequential random people from a weirdly staged feeling dinner party out of a Pinterest mood board, which presumably helps them to shapeshift into humans and gather information somehow, and probably killed the dog too (though we don't see that explicitly), and then want to use the cosmic force that destroyed their entire planet to take over Earth instead (because humans are "primitive" or such), because it looks like Jean can control it somehow instead of just being blown up like everything else.
I have no idea why anyone would think that was a sensible plan of action. This setup suffers especially in contrast to Captain Marvel's handling of its shape shifting alien invader situation. And even if you wanted to just make them evil aliens, their chances of success, regardless of their ultimate intentions, would have been so much better if they had consistently presented themselves as earlier victims of this horrible entity that destroyed their planet, revealed that it is now in Jean, but hey they could help handle that, and manipulated everyone rather than trying to just trick Jean in isolation and also run around on a murder spree.
Anyway, those were bad villains, despite their moderately creepy female leader in nonsensically high heels, and the Phoenix Force blob isn't better, as it seems to have about as much motivations as a natural disaster. And the whole Jean thing with mutants leveling up in power and hurting or even killing others seems like half if all origin stories so that wasn't very engaging for me.
Especially since they fridged Mystique to make Jean's power increase angsty. That Mystique kind of lampshaded it in her earlier comment to Xavier about the risks female mutants take doesn't really make anything better. And among the mutants Erik brings to the fight it is also the woman who dies. I'm not sure we even got a name for her.
I liked Erik's hippie mutant commune though, where they mostly seemed to do organic gardening in somewhat excessively quirky setting. It seemed nice, though interpreting with darker cult vibes is an option. I wish his two followers had gotten names and a few lines though, rather than just being background fighters. I have no idea who they were supposed to be.
At least the movie left Charles/Erik shippers (which I am) in a good place. I mean, I assume Charles will accept Erik's invitation and offer for a new home, and join him to also become a hippie gardener in his (new?) commune, now that he resigned as a headmaster. Though they possibly have to get over the hiccup that Charles, having picked a Parisian exile, seems rather more attached to creature comforts and having metropolitan conveniences at least nearby than Erik with his self-sufficient, back to the land commune. But I'm sure they can work it out. So I liked that final scene.
Also, if you go watch it, there is neither a mid- nor a post-credits scene.
no subject
I think that poor girl got a name literally just as she was being killed!
I don't think Erik much cares where he lives so I'm sure Charles can seduce him into staying in Paris.
no subject
He has a kind of prepper mind set to defend against the state sanctioned violence he suspects will inevitably happen, whereas Charles clearly hoped that amassing ever more privilege (political connections, high public profile, wealth, technology...) would protect him and the mutants he shelters.
And neither approach truly provided safety in the movie, though Charles' failed more spectacularly. I mean, Charles saw how quickly he could fall out of favor (even if it was partially restored in the end), and Erik's commune clearly existed at the sufferance of non-mutant military power, though he probably is prepared to eventually have to defend with partisan assymmetric warfare or something.
So I don't think Erik would permanently abandon his base, to go live in a nice town villa somewhere.
no subject
no subject