Despite the repeated delays, the months of bad press, and the early poor reviews, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I really enjoyed Dark Phoenix. It's leaps and bounds better than Apocalypse (a low bar, I know) and is a far better take on the story than The Last Stand (also damning with faint praise), but it is a genuinely good film and a solid conclusion for the X-Men series.
I loved the nuanced take on Jean's story, ranging from her father's fear of her because she put her mother to sleep and accidentally caused the car crash that took her life, to Charles' misguided attempts to "protect" her from those early memories. Aside from Scott (and possibly Hank), people either tried to manipulate her (Charles, Vuk), cast her aside (her father, Erik), or simply shrink away in fear (everyone else), when what she really needed was someone to actually care about what she needed and allow her to have her own autonomy. As a result, Jean's anger was righteous and her outbursts of violence were understandable, if not justifiable.
I particularly liked how Jean's powers were more clearly defined in this film than just shiny lights and making people disintegrate like we saw in The Last Stand (although that did happen during the climax). Instead, Jean's abilities included seeing Quicksilver in fast mode (and react accordingly), deflecting Storm's lightning bolt, and matching Erik's magnetic control. While it's a shame the climax reduced her power to shiny lights and disintegration, it was refreshing to see a broader set of power during the bulk of the film.
The film isn't without its flaws, of course, such as some clunky dialogue (but then all of the X-Men films have had some clunky dialogue...); Jessica Chastain's Vuk was thinly written, but to Chastain's credit, she did the absolute best with what little was given to work with; and while I liked the idea of Hank breaking away from Charles after Raven's death and seeking aid from Erik, I wasn't entirely convinced by the break itself, not because of Nicholas Hoult (who acted his heart out during her death and afterwards), but rather it felt like the break skipped a few steps before getting there. I'm not sure what needed to happen but something definitely felt missing.
Suffice to say, I almost feel like we could just ignore Apocalypse (this film largely did) and pretend there's a solid trilogy here. While it would take more squinting, I want to even ignore most of the ridiculous decade jumps (Nixon and Vietnam War in Day of Future Past are unavoidable), especially considering that other than the year cards, there wasn't that much that really grounded Dark Phoenix to a particular time setting (hell, they even used a fictional president finally).
