On this episode, Ian and Dave take a look at the newest installment in the X-People franchise – namely, Dark Phoenix.
Ian says it’s the X-Men story no one wanted; Dave feels the franchise hadn’t earned the emotional impact they wanted for this movie.
One of them liked it, and one of them didn’t. Let them fansplain it for you.
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I liked the premise and the trailer for this movie but it’s getting mixed reviews so maybe you two can fansplain…
Yesterday
Lots of critics say you’re just okay
How could Danny Boyle have gone astray?
Oh, should I go see Yesterday?
I bailed on the X-Men reboot after the second movie, X-Men: Days of Future Past. The previous movie looked like they were going to take the series in a new and exciting direction, but they followed it up by bringing back Wolverine, who was the biggest element of the first series of movies, and then they repeated the overall story of the first movie. Quicksilver was great, but otherwise it was enjoyable but disappointing, and I lost all faith in the series.
I have a very personal investment in the X-Men films. Much in the way Ian doesn’t like to criticize a show that he knows someone from, I have that same relationship with the X-Men franchise. When I worked at Dr Pepper we partnered with Fox for the first three X-Men films starting in 1999 creating promotions and packaging graphics. (Remember the product placement?) My second job had me working on the X-Men Origins: Wolverine film doing kid’s meal ideas…I know, that doesn’t seem right at all, but we did it anyway. Now my current job has had me working exclusively with Fox, which has covered all of the X-Men films since we first partnered on First Class together. My job with Fox was to create presentation materials, Fox then used them to acquire suitable product tie-ins and partnerships with companies. This was great fun and probably the favorite part of my job. My clients at Fox have almost become like family to us, I really hated seeing them go due to the Disney buyout. So as I was sitting in the theater waiting for Dark Phoenix to start, I realized I’ve been working on X-Men films in some way for twenty good years. I feel truly fortunate to be able to say this and I’m very proud of it.
I’ve been invested in those crazy mutants even before they were on the big screen, I was reading everything Claremont, Byrne and Cockrum gave us in print. I think I heard Ian mention the 1970’s Marvel “Son of Origins” anthology book. That was my first exposure to the X-Men with the reprinting of X-Men #1 by Lee & Kirby.
A little inside story on Kinberg, the producer/director of Dark Phoenix: I remember when he was producing Deadpool and Logan, he still had the task of selling in the idea of both these films. Nether were like any of the other X-Men franchise films, so Kinberg sold Deadpool as a romantic genre film and Logan as a western genre film. It must have worked out for him since both were hugely successful.