X-Men Dark Phoenix reviews: ‘Flawed, a complete MESS’, but some critics left ‘SURPRISED’

The fourth and final film in Fox’s X-Men prequel saga is out today and so far is the worst reviewed movie of the franchise. At the time of writing, X-Men: Dark Phoenix is on just 15% positive reviews, behind even X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Set in 1992, the superhero movie is something of a remake of X-Men: The Last Stand’s unleashing of Jean Grey’s powers, thanks to the altered timeline. Here are some of the review highlights.

Daily Telegraph
Under any circumstances, this would have been X-Hausting. But with this cast, it’s been X-Cruciating to behold.

The Hollywood Reporter
Curiosity and the desire for completion will draw the series faithful, but the creative inspiration and public excitement that once fed the series has demonstrably dissipated.

The Guardian
The point of a phoenix, dark or otherwise, is that it rises from the flames. But these are the flames in which this franchise has finally gone down.

LA Times
Not even Turner, with her radiant screen presence and her ability to make strength and vulnerability seem indistinguishable, can ultimately save “Dark Phoenix” from its own failures of imagination.

The Playlist
A fundamentally flawed and patchy mess, wrapped in superficial layers of dark grittiness.

Screen Junkies
A complete mess.

Metro
A missable culmination to the 20-year X-Men franchise thus far.

CinemaBlend
[T]he X-Men franchise is coming to an end with the worst chapter of its long-running main series.

But not all the critics were so scathing, with Express.co.uk giving X-Men: Dark Phoenix four stars, and others saying they were surprised by a pretty solid ending.

Empire
Better than Last Stand or Apocalypse but never hitting the heights of X2, Dark Phoenix thrives when its heroes are front and centre. If this is the end, it’s a solid rather than spectacular goodbye.

Entertainment Weekly
Twelve films into a nearly two-decade-old franchise, Dark Phoenix rises from the ashes of 2016’s silly, bloated X-Men: Apocalypse – not a free bird, exactly, but better than what came before.

Variety
Dark Phoenix took me by surprise

IGN
The X-Men make their last stand again, this time with only marginally better results, in Dark Phoenix.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix is out now.