The critics warned us, but we all went to see Dark Phoenix anyway. So is it really any surprise that most, if not all Marvel fans left disappointed?
Dark Phoenix is pretty much a remake of X-Men: Last Stand, following the storyline of Jean Grey’s powers taking over and turning her into an unstoppable god-like mutant. It’s been so long since I last saw Last Stand, so it’s difficult to compare the two – but I think it’s safe to say that Dark Phoenix is just as underwhelming as Last Stand was.
It’s quite obvious that the crew working on this probably wanted to get it over and done with. The writing’s lazy and the action is dull. The acting is also a bit strange – all of the actors in this film talk in a tone of voice that’s slightly above monotone, but only just. Overall, this film has such low energy that it’s actually tiring to get through it all.
I’ve heard a lot of people saying that this X-Men storyline should have ended with Logan, and I can’t help but agree. I’m actually struggling to write any more about this film and I think that says a lot. The two movies are polar opposites – Dark Phoenix could never live up to the story-rich and exceptionally acted Logan. Logan was also Hugh Jackman’s last role as Wolverine, so surely that would have been more fitting as the final instalment?
I will admit, you do have to give Dark Phoenix credit for competent filmmaking and good special effects. It is interesting to watch in that sense, at least. It’s just a shame that it wasn’t a good film overall.
It took me a long time to be able to form a solid opinion on this movie. I’m still not sure if I have one, but this is the closest that I’m going to get.
This was not at all what I expected. The trailers did not stay true to the tone of the film at all. Maybe that was the point? Maybe that was another attempt made by Darren Aronofsky to shock us as much as possible? Maybe it was supposed to make us relate to Jennifer Lawrence’s character more?
“I wanna make a paradise.”
Lawrence’s character – who is simply known as “Mother”, or sometimes “The Inspiration” – only wants to make her home beautiful and welcoming. But when people start walking in uninvited, Mother’s kind and loving nature soon recedes, only leaving bitter hostility. They destroyed all her hard work on renovating her husband’s blazed house, took refuge in the ruins without permission, and took away everything that was once hers, including her newborn son. Most of the shots in the movie either follow Mother, or are close-ups of her outraged face as these strangers barge their way into her home. They are as uncomfortable as it sounds, and were precisely filmed to the movie’s advantage.
“Me? I am I. And you? You are home.”
Javier Bardem’s character – simply known as “Him” – is an author struggling from writer’s block. A creator who cannot create. In the heart of his office is a clear gem, put on a pedestal on its own shelf. When this gem is broken by the Man (Ed Harris) and Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) who forced their way into their home, Him flies into a blind rage and claims that he wants to banish them from his home. However, when Mother tries to get them to leave for good, Him decides that they are allowed to stay after all.
The movie follows this pattern until the very end. Him invites more and more people into his house, ignoring the pleas of Mother, until the house is eventually burned to the ground.
Him begs a charred and dying Mother to give him her heart. She has sacrificed everything she has to this man who has destroyed her home, her entire world. But her love for Him outweighs all of this, and she allows Him to plunge his hand into her chest and steal her heart. The heart turns into a clear gem, much like the one in the office that was previously broken, and is placed on the pedestal in the shelf again. Time turns back on itself, and a new Mother wakes up in a now rebuilt home, closing the circle of the narrative.
Mother represents Mother Earth. Him represents God, and their house represents the world. The Man and the Woman who invite themselves into their house portray Adam and Eve, and their sons depict Cain and Abel. The rest of the humans embody humanity. Mother’s son represents Jesus, and the people in the house devouring him is a mirror of the crucifixion.
We never see anything outside of the house, save for the shot of crowds of people closing in on it from the surrounding forests. This succeeds in creating a claustrophobic atmosphere, transferring Mother’s feelings from the screen to the viewer.
There is a distinct lack of music, leaving the finished product with a jarring silence as Mother follows trails of blood throughout the house.
The uninvited guests go from one man, to a family, to a riot, with no warning at all. Blink and you’ll miss it. This catches the viewer, as well as Mother, off-guard, increasing the feeling of claustrophobia bit by bit until it eventually becomes unbearable.
However, there are a few faults that I found when reflecting upon this movie. What was the point of the heart in the walls? Was it supposed to show Mother’s anxiety? Was it supposed to show us her heart slowly dying as it was polluted by humanity? And what was the yellow medicine supposed to be? The best explanation I have managed to find for this is one sentence in another article, suggesting that it may be a nod towards to The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a short story about an unnamed narrator who has been forced to stay in her house by her husband, and eventually starts to hallucinate, believing that she can see a woman in the yellow wallpaper on the walls in her house.
The imagery of Mother as Mother Nature, Him as God, the riot as humanity, etc., seems to be too on-the-nose after some consideration as well. The more I think about it, the more I realise that Aronofsky was trying to drum this symbolism into our heads with every scene. There were some things that I did not notice right from the start of the movie – such as Mother representing Mother Earth, the husband’s office representing the Garden of Eden, and the crystal representing the forbidden fruit – and there were some that I noticed almost immediately – such as the Cain and Abel imagery, and Him representing God.
This film is unpredictable and fast-paced. I left the movie theatre with a racing heart, an increased pulse, and a spinning head. I would give Mother! a 4/5.
Film and stuff 