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.
