I didn't want to see Dark Phoenix. Honestly it was the only X-men film I missed in the theater (excepting the first two Wolverine solo affairs). The Dark Phoenix story was already done, even though I hated the Last Stand like everyone else. Then it got truly horrendous reviews and it's just a lot harder to see new movies with a young kid. So I forgot about it.
On the flight to Maui, Jack got super tired and we handed him off to my parents where he promptly fell asleep(!). I wasn't sure what to do with myself at first then decided to watch a movie, something I hadn't done with our son on a plane. Dark Phoenix was available and I figured I wouldn't make it through anyway, so sure.
Here's what I expected. Jean would be overwhelmed by power and rage or whatever, and kill half (or more?) the team in a dark and bloody exercise, basically TLS. This was the last time this X-men iteration would exist as FOX (and the X-men rights) was finally acquired by Disney/Marvel. They didn't need the characters alive afterward, a rare spot to be.
Surprisingly, I finished it. It wasn't a special film, but it also certainly didn't deserve that RT score. Apparently I'm an apologist because I didn't think Apocalypse was that bad either. Let's not hold it against other X-men films just because Days of Future Past was so good. There was some stuff I didn't understand or particularly like. The villains, who wanted the power of the Phoenix, came out of nowhere. I had never heard of the D'bari, and though (I've since learned) they are part of the comic story their use is significantly different. They're not all that interesting of antagonists. Another piece is this film shows Jean absorbing a huge energy force, pushing her beyond her limits. But in Apocalypse they hinted the power was inside her already. It doesn't mesh. Then there was Xavier's attitude. For the first time ever, Prof. X was shown to have made real mistakes and was almost cocky about how good things were for him and the mutants. This is a different timeline than other X-men, but it seemed out of character for him. Of course he pays for his mistakes, showing some depth of character and improving the film, so that part is more of a mixed bag.
The thing though, there was actually a lot I liked. Sophie Turner was capable of taking the lead and had some nuance to her story, not simply becoming a wrathful killing machine. At the beginning, mutants are in a great place and not currently threatened by the government or Magneto. It was really fun to see them go on a sanctioned mission and do the impossible. Like most X-men films in this generation, you're connected to the setting with real events. First Class has the Cuban Missile Crisis, DoFP has Vietnam/Nixon, and Dark Phoenix has the space shuttle Endeavour. We get to see both Nightcrawler and Cyclops use their powers to their full ability, which was my favorite part of all. We've seen Nightcrawler teleport but never so much in the chaos of big action scenes. Cyclops was horribly handled in the original trilogy (poor James Marsden) and he finally got to do a bunch of blasting. I loved it. Last, all things considered the film got a somewhat happy ending, and a new normal. The school is still around, though Xavier retired. There's a game of chess. Overall this one is much preferred to X3. If we're being honest Days of Future Past was the real ending for the original cast anyway.
I have to admit the X-men films do somewhat feel like a missed opportunity. Even when good, there should be more. It's probably because the X-men aren't supposed to live in a vacuum. They're part of a bigger universe, they just don't know it yet. I'm excited to see how they're incorporated into the MCU. Until that happens, there's always this on Disney+:
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