Author: Scott Mendelson / Source: Forbes
Like Logan or Deadpool, Fox is likely going to try to sell this (at least in North America) as essentially a Jean Grey melodrama. That’s why there is no “X-Men” in the title, as this movie is merely called Dark Phoenix. That makes this (by default) both a female-led superhero flick and yet another female superhero movie that is a period piece.
Like Wonder Woman (1915), Wonder Woman 1984 (1984), Black Widow (allegedly a prequel to Iron Man), Captain Marvel (a 1990’s prequel to Iron Man) and DC Films’ Supergirl (rumored to be set in the 1970’s), Dark Phoenix (allegedly set ten years after Apocalypse and thus in the 1990’s) is another female-led superhero drama that is set sometime in the past. That is a frankly bizarre coincidence that perhaps shows an unwillingness of studio executives to embrace the idea of a present-tense female superhero movie, at least until Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey movie opens in February of 2020.
Simon Kinberg and friends have promised that Dark Phoenix is a more grounded and character-driven piece than the last few X-Men team movies, and the first trailer certainly puts an emphasis on character and psychological drama over superhero spectacle. That may be a worthwhile intention, but this is a pretty dull and low-tech trailer, one with more than a passing resemblance in the first half to X-Men: The Last Stand.
Moreover, even the alleged intentions represents a huge risk. If Dark Phoenix is to sell itself as a sci-fi character drama, then Fox and friends have to presume that audiences have a specific investment in these specific versions of the X-Men. And judging by the domestic box office for X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Apocalypse, there is a reason to believe that general audiences have little investment in these specific cinematic versions of the respective Children of the Atom.
Back in 2000, the very idea of a live-action X-Men movie was itself an event, so it didn’t really matter to fans and general audiences who was playing the iconic characters. Sure, Patrick Stewart was a fancast pick since the early 1990’s, but it’s not like that Hugh Jackman or Anna Paquin were popular picks for the lead characters. The first Bryan Singer movie worked well as a drama, with only as much action as could be afforded on a $75 million budget. After the film earned strong reviews…
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