I'm trying to improve my review styles by being more terse, so I'm going to try to limit myself to 350 words. Feel free to give feedback.
Dark Phoenix feels like a pre-MCU superhero film.
It's not bad, by any means. I got a discounted ticket, so I figured I'd see it early before looking at reviews.
Great special effects, tremendous cast and acting, writing that didn't take me out of the mood, and a decent soundtrack don't help it rise to the point of being memorable.
The tone feels much darker than Marvel's superhero films, but it's not that much darker than X-Men Apocalypse or Logan, other 20th Century Fox entries.
I feel like there's a lot of stuff that just casually goes unexplained, and the big elephant in the room is how Dark Phoenix compares to Captain Marvel.
The answer is:
Not great, but not poorly.
Throughout Dark Phoenix, there are some really cool special effects moments (and ones that are good enough to make me forget that I'm looking at special effects). The X-Men universe is proving to be a great exploration of some darker social themes, especially with mutant prejudice, though Dark Phoenix is no Logan.
Fight scenes are intense, but there's a lot of getting to the chase that doesn't answer any questions. It doesn't have a whole lot of effective comic relief, but it's not quite satisfying enough with a purely dramatic approach. It's serious, but fails to build emotional payoff.
Ultimately, it feels like it lives in the shadow of Captain Marvel. Pretty much every gripe I had with Captain Marvel is absent. However, while Captain Marvel was a 9/10 movie buried in a 7/10 movie, Dark Phoenix is just a 7/10 movie.
Basically, Dark Phoenix takes itself too seriously, and doesn't go off into deep exploration of its subject and themes. However, it's a good movie, and I certainly enjoyed it. If I get another discount, or if it comes to streaming services, I might watch it again because there's some seriously cool special effects and moments throughout.
