Dark Phoenix Preview: Wondercon 2019

During my coverage of Wondercon 2019 I got chance to attend the panel for

“Dark Phoenix”. After Director Simon Kinberg introduced the panel; we were

given a 10-minute scene which showed the title characters heading into

space to rescue a damaged Space Shuttle.

With Quicksilver, Beast, Storm, Jean Grey, Raven, Cyclops, and

Nightcrawler in a tense race against time got save the crew. The near

tragedy makes the team heroes but causes tension between Raven and Charles

as she points out that due to the women saving the men far too often that

the team should be called “The X-Women”.

After the cast was brought on stage for a series of question and answer

moments from the Moderator; the audience was given a second scene to

enjoy. This one featured

divided Mutants siding with Professor X and

Magneto as they attempted to defend or defeat Jean. We were told that

several blocks were used in shooting but the big scene of a subway car and

debris crashing behind Magneto was not CGI but was done with real

stunt work. As an added bonus, we were told that Michael Fassbender was

unflinching when the take happened and feel debris and train cars were

much closer than they were supposed to be.

The film has endured multiple re-shoots and delays and while the budget has

grown, it does appear that the studio is attempting to give audiences the

film that they have been expecting before the franchise is likely rebooted

again, with a new cast as it folds into the Marvel Cinematic Universe

following the recent purchase of Fox by Disney.

What I saw looked interesting but despite a fury of action and visuals; it

did not seem as engaging as I thought it would be, but I took this to

largely seeing the sequences out of context as they were missing the

buildup which was likely key to the required impact that was desired. That

being said it does look better than the last film in the series and better

than the earlier trailers so I look forward to seeing the final product

more than I had previously.

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