The most iconic X-Men story from Marvel’s comics is the Dark Phoenix Saga, so there’s little wonder why it was a part of 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand and why we got another take on the tale in the new film Dark Phoenix. But unfortunately the Phoenix fails to rise from the ashes in this new effort and in fact makes many of the same mistakes that made the last one a dud. Even though this was supposed to be Fox’s do-over on Jean Grey’s big story, they once again misplayed their hand, leaving us with a frustrating case of history repeating itself.
It’s worth pointing out how The Last Stand was co-written by Simon Kinberg (along with Zak Penn), and this time Kinberg not only wrote the film but directed it. Kinberg has spoken about how he regrets cramming the Dark Phoenix storyline into The Last Stand and making it the B-plot to the Cure storyline, and how he planned on getting Dark Phoenix right this time by focusing the movie solely on Jean’s harrowing journey. Yet with 13 years to reflect on what went wrong the first time, Kinberg still made many of the same mistakes.