Film Review: X-Men: Dark Phoenix

"The Mind Is A Fragile Thing. It Takes Only The Slightest To Tip In The Wrong Direction..."

With Avengers: Endgame showing forevermore how to successfully handle a blockbuster, superhero franchise which not only pretty much exceeded the expectations of obsessive fans across the globe, myself included, but ticked the boxes many times over in both the critical and financial categories, here we are no more than a month and a half later with X-Men: Dark Phoenix, 20th Century Fox's own "endgame" which brings to a messy conclusion, the entire X-Men franchise which began all the way back at the start of the century with a movie which in retrospect, could be argued as being the kickstarter for the comic-heavy filmic universe we find ourselves in today. With the X-Men cinematic universe being handled with less delicacy as the MCU, it's fair to say that Dark Phoenix arrives with little hype or expectation, a concluding chapter that screams with half volume a fond farewell to the alternative universe of our familiar mutated characters first introduced in X-Men: First Class, revived excellently in the franchise best, Days of Future Past, and once again in the not-so great but still watchable, Apocalypse, and with the movie attempting to revive the titular and very well regarded "Dark Phoenix Saga" from the original comics which was somewhat soiled in the franchise low, X-Men: The Last Stand, the final chapter in Fox's almost twenty year franchise is indeed a solid, by-the-numbers superhero blockbuster, but that's pretty much it.  

As per the standard of most cinematic franchises, Dark Phoenix ultimately works or doesn't work depending on how much you personally bring to it, and whilst I do not hold Fox's own superhero franchise with anywhere near as much regard as I do with the MCU, I can claim to bear a slight relationship with the film's central characters, with the likes of McAvoy (Filth), Fassbender (Shame) and Jennifer Lawrence (mother!) each returning in their respective roles, yet where the movie ultimately fails is in its' approach to both the sloppy introduction of new characters, particularly Jessica Chastain's (Zero Dark Thirty) criminally underdeveloped leading villain, and the wider universe, with timelines now completely out of whack and the effect of the predecessing movies having less of an impact when watching in retrospect. With sloppy dialogue and a highly predictable plot, Dark Phoenix is ultimately saved by the Phoenix herself, with Sophie Turner of Game of Thrones fame giving the best big screen performance of her career so far, outshining her elder Hollywood colleagues who in all honesty, seem to be waiting for the franchise to end in order to collect their well earned bonuses, and whilst a film which starts with a car crash is somewhat begging for certain similarities to be made, Dark Phoenix is by no means the worst superhero movie in the world, it just happens to be one of the more forgettable. See ya, X-Men...

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: Ready Player One

"This Isn't Just A Game. I'm Talking About Actual Life And Death Stuff..."

With The Post earlier this year garnering a wide flurry of Oscar nominations and a critical consensus which boarded on the side of rousing positivity, a return to form for director Steven Spielberg after the yawn-inducing mediocrity of The BFG was welcomed with open arms, and with only three months since its' release here in the UK, Spielberg returns once again to the movie-fold with Ready Player One, a cinematic adaptation of Ernest Cline's 2011 science fiction adventure novel of the same name. Projected in 3D for its' preview screening release, Spielberg's latest primarily focuses on Tye Sheridan's (X-Men: Apocalypse) Wade Watts, a slum-stricken teen who uses the environment of the OASIS, a virtual reality gaming platform created by Mark Rylance's (Dunkirk) recently deceased James Halliday, to both escape his daily slumber and more importantly, to join many others in the hunt for three "Easter Eggs" left within the game by Halliday before his death which give the finder both riches beyond belief and the key to control of the entire OASIS itself. With pop culture references galore and an upbeat, heroic sensibility, Spielberg's latest undeniably should work in the hands of a filmmaker renowned for popcorn delights, but with a brain scorching over-reliance on digital effects and a screenplay both absent of emotion and effective engagement, Ready Player One doesn't work as a whole and is merely saved by individual elements which make it passable rather than thoroughly entertaining. 

With an obvious social commentary regarding the nature and impact of modern technology, Spielberg's movie mixes the subversive ideas within Cronenberg's Existenz and Videodrome with a obvious love for the science fiction genre in its' eye-watering levels of on-screen references, levels which makes The Cabin in the Woods look like a passing fling with its' respective horror genre, but too a staggering amount which by the half-way point does become overly tacky and cheap. With an entire segment dedicated to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, the set-piece is a real bottle spinner in regards to how one might respond, with my own personal obsession with Kubrick's masterpiece resulting in a subverted distaste to seeing our on-screen heroes quickly pop through the Overlook Hotel, music cues and all, and instead making me think how I would rather be watching The Shining instead. With Ready Player One a movie which Spielberg himself has coined as the most difficult movie he's worked on since Saving Private Ryan due to the staggering levels of visual effects, the CGI battle scenes really aren't worth the time, particularly in a final act which boarders on George Lucas style dullness and a complete lack of character engagement when at least eighty percent of the film is spent inside the OASIS itself with digitally designed "avatars". With Ben Mendelsohn once again resigned to Rogue One style typecasting as the film's one-note central antagonist and a ear-scraping level of exposition heavy dialogue, Ready Player One certainly has more negative aspects than positive, and for a director who time and time again has proven that giant gargantuan science fiction spectacle is part and parcel of his day job, Spielberg's latest annoyingly doesn't hit the heavy heights we are all very much used to.

Overall Score: 4/10

Film Review: X-Men: Apocalypse

"I Was There To Spark And Fan The Flame of Man's Awakening, To Spin The Wheel of Civilisation..."

Like the complete cinematic geek I am, Tuesday night at my local world of cine offered the chance to not only witness the midnight showing of the latest Marvel offering but to watch a riveting triple header of mutant goodness beginning with X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past and then leading smoothly into the UK release of X-Men: Apocalypse, the newest feature from the mind of Bryan Singer, the worldwide proclaimed saviour of all things X-Men when it comes to the big-screen after the superhero mess which was The Last Stand. I mean come on, Vinnie Jones? Watching all three on the big-screen once again gave the opportunity to see who was victorious in the realms of mutant supremacy and after watching almost seven hours of Marvel mayhem, I can safely say that Apocalypse is most definitely not the best of the X-Men canon, with that torch still indeed belonging to the far superior Days of Future Past, and in a month where the release of Captain America: Civil War emphasised the staying power of a franchise as gargantuan as the MCU, X-Men: Apocalypse is somewhat of a let-down, a let-down with a whole lot of CGI destruction intertwined with moments of greatness which only remind you how previous entries into the X-Men canon have been in the past. 

Amongst the crazy amount of plot lines thrown into Apocalypse, including the introduction to a young Jean Grey and Scott Summers, played by Game of Thrones' Sophie Turner and Tye Sheridan respectively, our ever-growing team of mutants led by Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), now living life in the early 1980's, soon have to face the growing threat of the powerful Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), the world's first mutant, who has risen from his tomb after centuries of being preserved and hidden from the outside world. Capturing the powers of Magneto (Michael Fassbender) as well as a young Storm (Alexandria Shipp) to fuel his destruction, Apocalypse believes the only way to save the Earth is to first destroy it and recreate it in his own image. Cue CGI mayhem and major mutant face-offs, intertwined with rather rushed introductions to a wide range of new mutants, Apocalypse almost seems the complete opposite of Civil War, a film which rather brilliantly manages to juggle its' eye-watering cast and the introduction of new players, with the former struggling to keep up with the extraordinary demands it places upon itself. 

One of the main reasons Apocalypse falters in this regard is the titular Apocalypse, a villain with only a shallow background to start him off and a motive of destruction which seems flawed to say the least. Add into the fact it was difficult to look at the character without laughing due to the rather rubbery amount of make-up leathered on Oscar Isaac, an actor of whom I would pay to watch in anything I might add, and Apocalypse can only be regarded as having the worst villain of the series so far. Even Kevin Bacon was better. A re-hash of the slow-motion Quicksilver scene from Days of Future Past halfway through the film only strengthens the claim that after four films in the directorial chair, Bryan Singer may indeed be running out of ideas on the mutant front with Apocalypse seemingly being the end point for the man who began the franchise all the way back in 2000. As Jean Grey states after a trip to watch Return of the Jedi during the course of the film, "the third film is always the worst", and ironically, Apocalypse adheres to this assumption rather disappointingly. Civl War, you are still in the lead.

Overall Score: 6/10