Was it the Worst Super-Hero Movie Ever? No, But it Was Close.

I remember back before the MCU, back when super-hero movies were a rarity. Even rarer were really good ones. Superman has his item in the early 80s, with movies that only work if you accept just how badly campy they are. There had been the Batman movies, which had a good start, but didn't last long as the quality dropped withe very movies.  Blade had come and surprised everyone, but few realized it was a super-hero movie.

Then came X-Men. This was a real super-hero movie with interesting, complex characters, a decent plot, with good special effects and well done fight scenes and one of the greatest openings to a movie ever. In just those few moments we understood the character of Magneto. The first X-Men movies showed us just what the genre could be. Ignore some bad dialogue and the over use of comic book science, and you have an enjoyable film.

And X2 was... Well it showed that a squeal could be something amazing and unique. It was so much better than the first. the had clearly learned from the first one.

X3, well it had some good movements to it. It was troubled film with a lot of issues filming, with the director and one of the leads switching over to do a different super-hero film that fell flat, part way through production.

Wolverine Origins... Great opening and there were good scenes in it. It just didn't work. The less said about its version of Deadpool the better.

If the super-hero movie genre had not suddenly taken off, the X-Man franchise might have ended there. But with Spider-Man being a huge hit and the MCU starting to become a thing, Fox wasn't about to let things die.

They went and pumped the franchise up again with mostly hits and a few misses, but nothing truly horrible. Apocalypse is weak, but has some good elements to it. It didn't kill the franchise, just showed they were not at their best.

Then we got Dark Phoenix.

My son and I rented it and watched it this last weekend. There is a real good reason this was a full on box office bomb. Still not as horrible or painful to watch as Super vs Batmen, because Dark Phoenix actually has the heroes at least trying to be heroic and relatable. But much like SvsB, so much of the plot is forced and rushed, with character motivation being questionable.

I hate to say this because I have for the most part enjoyed the X-Man franchise, but there is nothing in Dark Phoenix that was enjoyable. It took a cast that has puled it off before and dumped all over everything that had worked in the past. They clearly had lost it and weren't trying to do anything but get a product out there, screw quality.

The scary part is that this might not be the last we see of the franchise. Even with the Disney buy out, there is still the questionable New Mutants movie out there in production limbo. My understanding is it is all filmed and ready to go, but with Dark Phoenix flopping, it most likely won't get a theatrical release. My money is on it going straight to video or maybe Disney Plus.

I have little faith in New Mutants. I loved the comics, but from what I have seen, the movie is not going to work.

In the end it is sad that the Fox time with the X-Man franchise is ending in such a weak manner when we know they are capable of making really good movies.

I am very interested in seeing what happens when the X-Men get rebooted as part of the MCU. Spider-Man had just done a truly awful movie before the character got rebooted into the MCU and that has given us two incredible films. So there is hope for the X-Men.

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