Poor DARK PHOENIX. The X-MEN film that was kicked while it was down by critics and became one of the biggest box office flops of 2019, is getting a new round of shame thanks to a new wave of viewership courtesy of its debut on HBO streaming services over the weekend. If you checked out Twitter on Saturday you might've seen that DARK PHOENIX was trending and it definitely wasn't because it was suddenly discovered as a cinematic masterpiece.
Twitter had quite a fun time doing to DARK PHOENIX what most did to it last June when the film was released theatrically. To be fair, there are some positive Twitter notices but it's mixed in with a heap of negative comments. DARK PHOENIX is one of those films that just can't catch a break. Simon Kinberg's directorial debut only ended up making $252.4 million at the box office against a reported production budget of $200 million. Given that most say a movie needs to at least make twice its production budget to break even to account for the advertising and publicity, it's plausible that DARK PHOENIX lost about $150 million. Throw in that 23% rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes and you have yourself one hell of a stinker.
To be fair, I don't think the film is great but it's not nearly as bad as it's made out to be. There are some cool scenes (love the Jean Grey/Magneto standoff late into the film) and it's cool they let Tye Sheridan's Cyclops drop the only F-bomb in a PG-13 movie because Cyclops never gets to do anything cool in these movies. This saga is definitely deserving of two films to tell the story as it should be told so what we got was a rushed endeavor but considering they had to reshoot most of the last act, it turned out much better than it had any right to be.
DARK PHOENIX, which also stars James McAvoy, Sophie Turner, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Jessica Chastain & Sophie Turner, is now streaming on HBO. Do YOU think the film is as bad as they say it is? Check out the weekend Twitter reactions below: