Why X-Men: Dark Phoenix is the pale finale of a vibrant franchise

So we can assume that the global nineteen-year history is coming to an end right now. And it's very sad that the ending turned out to be too pale and secondary, as if over the years of creating films about mutants, the authors fizzled out and lost all the enthusiasm that once allowed the cinema comics industry to develop. It's a shame that the franchise, without which neither the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor many other blockbusters would have appeared, will leave with an almost guaranteed failure.

And yet, the release of "Dark Phoenix" is a great occasion to remember the history of the screen X-Men. And finally, of course, talk about its finale.

Prehistory - the decline of film comics

The first X-Men were released in 2000. And it was a real bomb for geek culture. To understand the significance of this film, you need to understand what the comic book industry was like at the beginning of the 21st century. It’s easier to say that it didn’t exist at all.

All successful projects remained in the distant seventies and eighties. In the nineties, Marvel had a flop of 1990's Captain America, and 1994's Fantastic Four never came out. The Incredible Hulk franchise was on its last legs. The studio was on the verge of ruin and was selling the rights to film adaptations of its comics. This is how 20th Century Fox got the opportunity to make the X-Men film.

DC's Batman series, which Tim Burton once started, ended with the infamous Batman and Robin - the film barely hit the box office budget and received a dozen Golden Raspberry nominations.

George Clooney was declared the worst performer of the role of the Dark Knight of all time (he still holds this "title"). And "Steel" with Shaquille O'Neal did not even recoup a tenth of the budget.

Only the movie "Blade" about a little-known fighter against vampires from the Marvel comics was successful, but it is difficult to put it on a par with traditional superhero stories.

There were still two years left before the release of "Spider-Man" by Sam Raimi, before the start of the Batman story from Christopher Nolan - 5 years, before the appearance of the first movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - 8 years.

And it was a very bold step for Fox to start an expensive superhero project by meeting many characters at once.

At first, it was planned to appoint Brett Ratner or even Robert Rodriguez as the director. But in the end, the start of the future MCU was entrusted to Brian Singer - he has not yet worked on blockbusters, but has already earned recognition for "Suspicious Persons". Singer was not very fond of comics about the X-Men, but he was interested in the topic of discrimination, very close to reality.

It was decided to invite bright and textured actors to the project, but not "hackneyed" in blockbusters - they cost less, and the viewer has not yet become boring. Star Trek legend Patrick Stewart got the role of Charles Xavier, nicknamed Professor X, Ian McKellen, with whom Singer had already worked in The Able Apprentice, was offered to play the villain Eric Lehnsherr, aka Magneto.

The gaining popularity of Halle Berry and Anna Paquin also appeared, and the image of the changing appearance Mystic was tried on by the model Rebecca Romaine - her heroine had to constantly walk almost naked and completely dyed blue.

There was only a question about the main character. They decided to build the plot of the film around the favorite of comic book fans Logan, aka Wolverine. At first, Russell Crowe and Dougray Scott were invited to the role, but both stars refused. And already three weeks before the start of filming, the authors settled on the little-known romantic comedy actor Hugh Jackman. And this almost accidental meeting became the key to success.

X-Men success and first trilogy

The film, although it did not set records at the box office, was very successful and delighted the audience. Several factors played a role here.

The authors decided to abandon the classic images of mutants from comics, making them more modern and lively. Wolverine did not wear his traditional yellow suit, but walked in regular jeans and a jacket, and the X-Men uniform became more restrained. This allowed us to abandon the cartoonish comic, inherent in previous superhero films, and shift the focus to more serious issues.

The X-Men had unambiguous allusions to the theme of discrimination and social outcasts. And it is no coincidence that Rogue was made an important character, who, due to her powers, cannot touch anyone.

In addition, the authors did not show the standard "origin" - the story of the origin of the heroes. The main plot is dedicated to the already established teams of mutants.

The story was supplemented with cool special effects, and the actors played so well that literally each of the main cast after the release of the film woke up a star.

The success of the X-Men opened the way for sequels. The second part was named shortly and recognizably - "X2", which implies the interpretation of "multiply by two." This is exactly what Singer did: he didn’t come up with something fundamentally new, but only added action and developed the themes loved by the audience: attempts by peaceful mutants to find a common language with people, as well as the fight against Magneto. And the ending, in which Jean Gray (Famke Janssen) died, clearly hinted at the imminent end of the story.

The third part, subtitled "The Last Stand," was already directed by Brett Ratner, who had once refused to work on the first film. The thing is that Singer at this time decided to restart the on-screen DC comics and took on the disastrous "Superman Returns".

To complete the X-Men story, they chose one of the most famous comic book arcs - "The Dark Phoenix Saga" (yes, it was she who was re-shot again in a new picture). The fact is that in classic comics, really dark plots with the death of heroes very rarely came across. And Dark Phoenix was an exception.

The authors greatly changed the concept, showing Phoenix not as a product of cosmic forces, but simply as the latent energy of Jean Gray. But in the drama they excelled. The third film turned out to be the darkest: important characters died in it, and the final scene with Jean and Wolverine became one of the most tragic denouements in movie comics.

After that, the main franchise seemed to be over and went on a well-deserved break. In the meantime, along the beaten track, one after another, films based on the stories of Marvel and DC began to be released.

Spin-off "X-Men. Start: Wolverine "and incomplete restarts

Of course, Fox didn't want to let go of the popular theme. During the filming of The Last Battle, we decided to create a series of prequels about popular mutants. The first was the same Wolverine performed by Hugh Jackman.

Under the guidance of new directors and screenwriters, the hero's past was revealed in more detail based on the Weapon X comics. But here the inconsistencies have already begun. The biography of Wolverine did not really agree with what was shown in previous films, and the creators treated the minor characters in a completely strange way.

The eternal enemy of the hero Sabretooth suddenly turned out to be his brother, and the talkative mercenary Deadpool, whom Ryan Reynolds had dreamed of playing for many years, had his mouth sewn up and turned him into a terrible creature.

Although the film collected a good box office at the box office, they reacted very skeptically to it: they scolded the overused cliches in the script and vague plot twists. This buried plans to shoot a spin-off about Cyclops and froze the stories of Gambit performed by Channing Tatum (the picture about him, it seems, will never come out) and Deadpool for a long time.

After that, they decided to restart the franchise and still show the story of Charles Xavier and Eric Lehnsherr dating and the appearance of the first X-Men. The script was invented by Brian Singer, but was too busy at the time of filming. And then the master of action Matthew Vaughn got down to business, having already declared himself with a non-standard superhero film "Kick-Ass".

The director did not even try too hard to connect his film with the previous ones - it is easy to find many inconsistencies in the chronology of the universe and the characters of the characters. But on the other hand, everyone was conquered by the new cast.

Instead of the audience's beloved Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, they took on equally spectacular actors of a new generation: James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. Rising star Jennifer Lawrence was invited to play the Mystic, and this time the Beast was played by Nicholas Hoult.

These actors determined the future of the franchise and, perhaps, with this, the gradual fall of the X-Men world began. The First Class itself turned out to be a good and strong origin, which the audience liked. Matthew Vaughn partially returned to the classics, not only in plot, but also visually: the yellow costumes and bright makeup of some mutants clearly referred to comics, although this is exactly what Singer wanted to avoid in the first films. Everyone roughly understood that the history of friendship would end in enmity, and therefore the plot immediately hinted at a tragic ending.

And then the franchise split in two.

"Days of Future Past" and the fall of blockbusters

After the release of "First Class", Matthew Vaughn wanted to launch his own trilogy and finally move away from the connection with previous films. He came up with the plot of the film "Days of Future Past", where Wolverine enters the past and tries to change reality in order to avoid the death of mutants.

For the role of the young Logan, the director planned to invite Tom Hardy, and in the finale to tie the two timelines together.

The studio approved the script, but chose to return the reins of power to Brian Singer and leave Jackman as the sole performer of the role of Wolverine. Jennifer Lawrence's popularity with a young audience made the Mystic come to the fore, turning her from an assistant to the main villain into a positive heroine.

At the same time, the actress began to have skin problems due to the application of blue makeup, and therefore her character was increasingly shown in a simple human guise.

The X-Men core team returned to the screens in 2014. And Singer's Days of Future Past became the franchise's biggest crossover. Here the characters of the classic trilogy and "First Class" are united.

Despite another incomplete restart, the authors successfully played on nostalgia. While characters familiar from the first films fought to survive in the future, Wolverine saved the world along with new heroes in the past.

Still, this idea turned out to be a dead end in the development of the plot. The abandonment of Vaughn's plans did not allow the story to continue, and the next major release, X-Men: Apocalypse, turned out to be another partial relaunch.

McAvoy, Fassbender, Lawrence and other new stars returned to their roles. And if based on the history of "Days of Future Past", these are the same heroes that were at the very beginning. But the story of Storm, Cyclops, Night Serpent and many more has changed again. If you look at all the pictures in a row, then you can get confused in the origin of this or that character, and there is no need to talk about the change of actors.

As a result, the picture rested only on special effects and new lines like hints of another appearance of the Dark Phoenix - this time the role of Jean Gray went to the star of "Game of Thrones" Sophie Turner. Viewers out of habit went to the continuation of a familiar story, but still the film was scolded. Even then, it was possible to understand that the franchise fizzled out, but Fox wanted a worthy end.

In addition, the audience at this time was very fond of the author's projects of the same universe.

"Deadpool" and "Logan" - the success of adult films

After the release of "First Class", Logan's solo story "Wolverine: the Immortal" also developed. In contrast to the rather bright and light recent films, they launched a darker and more adult storyline dedicated to the life of Wolverine after "The Last Battle". Initially, it was planned that Darren Aronofsky would take on the work, but then they entrusted the filming to James Mangold.

As a result, a simultaneously spectacular and profound film was released about an already aging hero who cannot find a place for himself in life and is struggling with the ghosts of the past. For fear of not gathering an audience, the film was still left with a "children's" age rating, but there was enough cruelty and gloom in it. And the success has shown that the audience is already ready for such stories.

And in parallel, Ryan Reynolds tried to push through a solo film about Deadpool, which would correct the failed image of the mercenary from the picture about Wolverine. The actor did his best to persuade the producers to make an 18+ rating so that the writers and director had the opportunity to show the crude humor from the original comics. Reynolds even gave up part of the royalties to lower the painting's budget.

As a result, the idea was approved and the film became a major box-office success for Fox. "Deadpool" was released in the same year with "Apocalypse" and grossed 200 million more at the box office for three times less investment.

Everything was simple - the audience missed the bright humor in the spirit of the action movies of the nineties, with rude jokes and hypertrophied cruelty. Already developed and capturing all screens, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has set "childish" standards for all films, and Deadpool, for all its simplicity and cheapness, turned out to be just a breath of fresh air. The film openly mocked both the stereotypes of movie comics, and the previous parts of the X-Men franchise.

The popularity and the box office not only provided the picture with a guaranteed sequel, in which the authors simply added even more jokes, action and vivid characters, but also opened the way for the main serious project of the entire cinematic universe - "Logan".

If "Wolverine: Immortal" only led to the idea that a superhero can grow old and get tired of his life, then in "Logan" all the same James Mangold created a real drama about lost people. Wolverine and almost out of his mind Charles Xavier live out their days in poverty and oblivion, but they have to return to the rescue of mutants for the last time. They help a young girl Laura, very similar to Logan himself, to escape from the gang pursuing her.

Mangold, Jackman and Stewart managed to say goodbye to their beloved heroes with amazing emotion, showing that the old age of a superhero is no different from the old age of a person - it is illness, survival and inevitable oblivion.

Logan walked away beautifully, with tears in the eyes of actors and audiences, box office success and critical acclaim. Which, alas, cannot be said about the rest of the X-Men.

"Dark Phoenix" - a sluggish conclusion to the legendary story

Already during the work on "Dark Phoenix", the start of which was hinted at by the end of "Apocalypse", it became known that Disney was buying 20th Century Fox, and "X-Men" would come under the control of Kevin Feige. This meant that the story of the mutants would end in this picture.

It seems that the creators of "Dark Phoenix" wanted to show a corrected version of the plot - closer to the original than "The Last Stand". But something went wrong at the script level.

Of course, the X-Men have followed social themes in their ideas about inequality. But by the end, for some reason, exclusively female characters were brought to the fore: Charles Xavier, from a protector of mutants, turned into a narcissistic egoist, and Mystic became the main supplier of morality.

As a result, the entire film turned out to be a drama about the problems of Jean Gray, in which there is much more talk than action. This is especially felt in comparison with the same "Last Battle", where a girl with the forces of the Phoenix easily split both people and mutants. Now Jin is simply suffering from his loss and hurting others almost by accident, which makes him suffer even more.

As a result, the film did not even have the gloss and scale of blockbusters that attracted Apocalypse, and the authors never got to the sincerity of Logan. The plot has gone into cliché again: the film begins with a stereotypical scene of a car accident and ends with an explicit copy of one of Nolan's paintings.

The action is impressive only at the very end, but it no longer corrects all the unnecessarily prolonged conversations about deception and loneliness, which overloaded the plot.

"Dark Phoenix" only once again proved that it is time for the franchise to rest. She has already fulfilled her role and must either shut down or restart from scratch with new characters.

The finale's weakness does not negate the merit of the entire previous franchise. The viewers are left with the first trilogy, funny Deadpool (who will probably return), Logan's touching departure. It's just a bit of a pity that the global history, which has lasted almost two decades, goes under devastating articles from critics. Perhaps I should have stopped a little earlier.