This past summer, the X-Men franchise as it existed at 20th Century Fox came to an end. But Marvel’s mutants didn’t go out with a bang, but with the whimper of a new take on a story they already tried to tell back in 2006, and they even brought c0-writer Simon Kinberg back and let him direct this time.

Dark Phoenix tried to pack one of the best X-Men storylines from Marvel Comics into a movie that also had the burden of bidding farewell to Professor X, Magneto and the loyal bands of mutants that have been following them for nearly two decades. Unfortunately, this movie missed the mark in nearly every single way, barely registering as a sequel, let alone the end of one of the biggest superhero franchises of the 21st century. Or as the Dark Phoenix trailer succinctly puts it, maybe it was a bad idea to put so much emphasis on Mystique just because she was played by Jennifer Lawrence.

Dark Phoenix Honest Trailer

It’s hard to believe that this is what the X-Men have come to. One would have thought things couldn’t get any worse after X-Men: Apocalypse, but here we are with another lame attempt at the Dark Phoenix storyline, and it doesn’t even utilize space properly (yet again), apparently to avoid copying Captain Marvel too much. It might help if anyone other than Sophie Turner took the role of Jean Grey, who seems to be sleepwalking through every scene, showing about as much emotion as a houseplant.

In the end, perhaps the biggest problem is that Dark Phoenix somehow has to end the entire X-Men franchise but feels completely removed from the rest of it. And we’re not just talking about the original X-Men franchise that began in 2000, but also the prequel/reboot that started with X-Men: First Class in 2011. The movie just kind of runs out of steam and it doesn’t even have the courtesy of saying goodbye.

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