Dark Phoenix / X-Men: Dark Phoenix
2019
**½
Director: Simon Kinberg
Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Jessica Chastain
The follow-up to X-Men: Apocalypse is set in 1992. During a rescue mission in space, Jean Grey absorbs the energy of an alien life force, which makes her the most powerful being on Earth. As her emotional state becomes unstable, Jean finds herself at odds with her X-Men friends and the shapeshifting aliens who have come to reclaim their powers. When assessed in isolation, the final release in this X-Men series seems like a perfectly entertaining superhero movie. However, the movie doesn't hold up to scrutiny so well when I began to wonder how many times I've seen any particular scene before, how all the events fit in the overall franchise timeline, or why Professor X and Magneto haven't aged at all in 30 years since X-Men: First Class.
