FIRST TIME WATCHING: Dark Phoenix!!

there a difference between commentary and just constantly verbalising and repeating any thought in your head. wow do i regret paying money to watch this. made it 5 minutes before you annoyed me into watching it old fashioned.

jimmy2k4o .

Yes do a Tier List!

Ortiz Jorge

Namely the 2 hour and 32 minute Special Edition on DVD and streaming. I recommend Amazon Prime Video. https://www.amazon.com/Superman-Movie-Special-Marlon-Brando/dp/B003GMJ9WO/ref=sr_1_2?crid=293T8U4CLQE7S&keywords=superman+special+edition&qid=1644901508&s=movies-tv&sprefix=superman+special+edition%2Cmovies-tv%2C56&sr=1-2 (YouTube wants to only stream in 480p.) The standard 2 hour 23 minute minute Theatrical Cut on HBO Max is fine....but the Special Edition I felt was just paced the best, and the added scenes are great. I see is as the TRUE director's vision. And it's always been my favorite version. ....The 3 hour 8 minute Extended Cut meanwhile is just ridiculously indulgent. Avoid that. To review: Theatrical Cut: okay Special Edition (Amazon): best Extended Cut: too much

Nicholas Sulikowski

Nat you should react to the new doctor strange trailer!

Austin

You should watch "The Fallout", idk if it's your style, but it's still a very good movie (made for gen Z).

Edwin Bertilsson

Any chance for some DC movies? I would love to see you watch the original Christopher Reeve Superman.

Rev. Rhodes

have you seen the newly released trailer of Dr. Strange? You should do a reaction to it, if not. I hope you catch that major tease of what's coming.

Marcus Carter

The X in 20th Century Fox hasn't always been as obvious but it did glow in other X-Men movies. Also, yes in X3 her parents were alive but even though these movies are all supposed to be in cannon the writers basically said, "Who cares, we want to do Phoenix again." And as a fan of the phoenix saga in the comics, I didn't even watch this until now because it really needs a lot more set-up to be done right, specifically you can't have only introduced Gene Grey, as a minor character no less, in just the previous movie. It worked in the comics because she had a deep history. Also, no Mr. Editor we have no intention of telling her about New Mutants, the only reason it was even released is because Disney bought Fox so they had to either release it as is or trash it. They chose poorly.

Kevin Bartelen

To be fair the train scene is so good that it's almost worth watch the movie for it. Magneto going full brutal badass and culminating in crushing the train car like a tin can with all the aliens inside was just good fun. Really want that Magneto Nazi Hunter movie.

MightyHobo

Tier-list for sure!

Danishprince

Fox didn’t give the writers and anyone involved time they wanted to release the film before Disney took over the rights of Fox so everything in this film was rushed. And for Jennifer Lawrence dying she hated being apart of the X-Men movies and she didn’t want to do this one she told them to kill her off and you can clearly see it in the last 2 films

Daniel Casillas

The X movies were well on their way out in quality by the time they got to this. More probably that Fox tried to get some last minute cash in from making this before the sale went through.

Rusty Childers

Disney ruined this movie to prop up Captain Marvel.

TheEnd187

So, first time I saw this movie now, right along with you. What a complete mess :D Apocalypse is a bloody masterpiece compared to this nonsense. Even the X-Men Evolution animated show got the Phoenix story across way better than this. It does not help that I think the actress is just so bland. Jennifer Lawrence, by contrast, hasn't given a shit for 2 or 3 movies, but she still gets important moments mostly right. Usually, once or twice per full reaction, I can go "Oh no Natalie missed that explanation", but every eyeroll and "wait, what?" was on point this time around. Everything's just either incredibly neat and convenient, or even the movie doesn't care about the explanation. Best way to watch a crap movie. Looking forward to the next thing. It'll invariably be better.

Shen V

Yeah this movie had alot of ptential as the dark Phoenix storyline is awesome but sadly this was done pretty terribly. Great reaction tho hoping to see the DCEU movies now that ur finishing x-men. Despite what people say a majority of them are good movies.

Mason

Hey Nat, great reaction as always. Sadly, this film was a mess due to studio interference and the Fox buyout by Disney. Also the same reason New Mutants got shuffled under the rug once Disney had finished the acquisition. I do hope you get to the DC universe at some point as I'd really be interested in seeing your reaction to the Snyder trilogy. Hope that gets put on your list at some point. In the meantime, enjoy New Mutants. It's got some obvious rough edges but it's better than this film for sure.

Brian Jones

Damn I did not like this movie. Just was a jumbled mess and you can see where the re-shoots took place. The best scene was the train scene and that was a re-shoot. Movie could have been good. SMH

Squ33ky

I haven't watched this since it came out in theaters. The main problem I had witht this movie, before even going in, the guy that wrote The Last Stand wrote and directed this one. Fox final act before selling was double down on the fan most unlikable film.

Nella Karma

For your sake, I'm glad this one's now over and done with, haha

minuteforce

Blade would be a fun trilogy to watch

Thomas Richter

DC Comic or Blade or Star Trek movies

JarHead0351

When you can predict the lines and plot so easily is a clear sign of a movie made by comitee.

Thomas Richter

Some factual issues there. He did not write the Last Stand we got. Some minor structural elements of his script got in, but it was Zak Penn and Fox who made the final script out of Kinberg's hands. Kinberg was always disappointed with that and tried to get to re-do Dark Phoenix the way he wanted to. Only for Fox to once again f*ck him over on this film. Kinberg didn't screw up the Phoenix Saga twice, Fox screwed him over twice trying to do the Phoenix Saga. Kinberg's original ideas were great, they had the Hellfire Club, Skrulls, etc etc.. Fox (And Disney at the very end) are the ones we should blame. Kinberg deserves a chance to make a film without Fox screwing him over frankly.

Inhuman Paradox

Other fun fact. The guy that directed this movie is the same that wrote "Last Stand". Twice he had a chance to tell the " Dark Phoenix", twice he fucked it up.

Daniel Vezina

Here's more cheese for you. The place where Charles and Eric play chess is called " Café des Vieux Copains " which translate to Coffee of Old Friends.

Daniel Vezina

This is easily the worst of the X-Men movies with Apocalypse close behind it. Last Stand isn’t great but it’s far better than this tripe.

REDR58

Didn't even watched this one. I guess it will be my first tine watching as well....

Thomas Richter

I know Arcane should be next in animated. But There's gonna be a sequel of X-men the animated series, and I'm pretty sure that those characters are gonna be the basis for the MCU version of the X-men.

Daniel Vezina

xD 100% with you on not liking this one very much. I couldn't take it seriously at all. Some of the actors did a fine job, but the film itself was super weak. I'm all for a tier list! Tier lists are always good fun. :) xD and I LOVE whoever's adding the captions in this video. xD

Logan Kerlee

NO! MY EMOTIONS MAKE ME STRONG

Travis

It doesn't explain it well, but you keep asking why they are trying to control her. Jean Gray is the most powerful mutant on the planet. Her emotions unchecked could kill every person. Charles realized that this 8 year old had that potential, so instead of a child dealing with massive trauma of killing her mom and scaring away her dad and her power causing massive destruction...Charles blocked out a few key details so she could grow and gain more control of her power. The plan was always to slowly peel back the layers as she gained control and maturity, but in the traditional phoenix story telling...she gets it thrust upon her well before that time comes.

Christopher Robles

I don't really hate this movie. I don't really hate Apocalypse or Last Stand either. The MCU movies have really raised the standards for comic book movies, but cheesy lines and sloppy continuity is just part of the X-Men franchise. They're enjoyable with just a big ol' grain of salt. I think part of the problem with this and Last Stand is they never really explain what the Phoenix force is. Where the MCU is at now, with all the cosmic space stuff, they should be able to portray the Dark Phoenix saga the way it's supposed to be.

Joe Blankenship

A must watch. I don't know anything about the video game and I thought it was great.

Myles Away

You need to watch/react to "Arcane".

Heretic

I've tried to make it through this movie twice. This finally made it entertaining enough to finally get through to the end. All I can say is I'm glad they went with a story where Xavier is a dick like he is in the comics a lot of the time. I was at least able to get through all of New Mutants

Ben Violette

I don't want to get into "what's good or not" but, for me personally, I stumbled upon the New Mutants and was excited that there was more X-Men content but the film was kind of a let-down. Maybe if Nat reacts to it, I'll tune in and give it a second shot. I remember the cast being awesome and the tone good - maybe it was the pace or the story. Like Nat said, everything is subjective when it comes to films and glad there is content for everyone to enjoy (at some point).

This_Jedi_crafts

My favorite Nat line..."Oh - my gosh - is she OK...oh wait, her makeup is good- she's fine!" HYSTERICAL!

This_Jedi_crafts

Yeah, Wolverine Origins is so bad that its good. It is just terrible and absurd. Dark Phoenix is a boring slog.

Myles Away

Sorry Nat, ... Hella Oblivious. :) <3

Richard Ryan

The relationship I have with the X-men films is a weird one. Dark Phoenix was something I loved on the first watch and thought the rest of the world were crazy for hating on it - but then again, I absolutely hated Logan on my first watch and thought the rest of the world were on drugs for praising it. Logan grew on me; Dark Phoenix did not. I didn't mind this film on the second watch, but didn't really care for it either. And now I'm just maintaining a neutral standpoint - there are better films, there are worse films; it's not bad but it's not great. I love the score and the special effects. I still haven't seen New Mutants. I was super psyched to go see it when it was initially announced, but with all the delays I just kinda lost interest. Then after Disney+ picked it up I started to watch it, but had a hard time maintaining an interest almost immediately (to be fair, I could have just been distracted or not in the right frame of mind at the time - often my opinions on movies depend on where my head is at while I watch them, which is why I ALWAYS have to see a movie twice before I can give a reasonable opinion toward it; just in case it wasn't the movie that was bad but rather the circumstances around it, or the influences of other people who have seen it.) Basically, I haven't gotten back to watching New Mutants because I know you plan on seeing it, and I was thinking it would be really cool to discover it for the first time TOGETHER for a change. So I'm holding off on it until you get around to it.

Mike Battams

I agree, the dialog in this movie really dragged it down. So many capable actors given so little of value to work with. Going with a first-time director also turned out to be a bad idea. It's hard to cut down an epic story like the Dark Phoenix Saga and make it fit into a single 2-hour movie, and the team just wasn't up to the challenge. I love the X-Men, but here I just couldn't be moved to care much what happened to any of them. Glad you said in your captions that you'll be doing The New Mutants - I was worried for a second. It's not my favorite X-Movie - they made some choices that I really wish they hadn't - but it has some really solid elements too. Looking forward to seeing what you think of it.

Michael Cruse

Name checks out

Lorenzo Turner

You didn't miss much - as usual. I grew up with the comic books, and my absolute favorite was the X-Men when Romita was writing and the art and feel were all John Byrne. The Dark Phoenix story was basically the Endgame of the time. It was imperfect, but like the movie series - had a great deal to enjoy and even revel in. Expectations for the Dark Phoenix Saga, i have to confess were off the charts. This is part of why this particular movie is held in pretty low regard. A lot of it is exactly as cheesy as you point out. Comic book stories over the decades have been incredibly cheesy and inconsistent. There have been nuggets of glory, and clinkers that make you want a shower. I really want to say - i greatly appreciate that you are able to find a great deal to enjoy, possibly even more than i try to. It is a significant asset for a reaction channel, and one reason i continue to contribute as a patron even while income is limited. I think i probably enjoyed watching this with you more than i did in the theater, and more than i did watching again later. The internet is where nuance goes to die, and blockbuster motion pictures are perhaps even more so. The comics they are mining for motion picture concepts used to be churned out on pulp paper, on as fast a schedule as they could. Initially, never with an eye toward an industry of collectors or a cinematic universe franchise. Heroes were mostly male, mostly white, straight, ... the list goes on and on. They were made by people of almost exclusively the same demographics. Many of my friends who were comic book nerds like me never wanted those cliches to be questioned. I continue to regret that these hasty and under-inspired mythological stories weren't reimagined to a meaningful extent. I do have a shred of hope that more contemporary creations will be more balanced, less predictable, and worthy of printing on higher quality paper - to strain a clumsy metaphor.

—thoughtstorms—Keith—

A tier list would be fun but MAN I would absolutely put Dark Phoenix at the bottom of them all haha. Wolverine Origins was at least kind of "fun bad" but Dark Phoenix is just lazy writing from start to finish.

Julian Welton

If she's so great, why we don't see her in anything.

Daniel Vezina

New Mutants is actually better then this crap.

Daniel Vezina

Also, the reason Mystique is not in her normal form at the school is because Jennifer Lawrence didn't want to be in the makeup anymore. / Yet another awesome example of the passion behind these films /sarcasm.

Myles Away

Still astounding they decided to try and tell this story AGAIN and made an even worse version? It is truly baffling.

Myles Away

Why are you referencing articles for orders of release? Wikipedia says them

Connor Ellis

Was there supposed to be another sequel? If this takes place in the post Future Past world how is Jean alive at the end of that movie?

Ben Wheeler

Well, I guess the second watch of this movie, even with reaction, is still subpar.

Hairy Potter

Nat Says: "Why do we have to manipulate her? Why can't we just let her express her feelings?" Next scene: *Police cars get crushed, people die.* This. This is why, Nat. Not as easy to normalize when she has Ultimate Cosmic Powers she can't control. I like the ideas behind the movies where they took iconic moments in the comics and put them in the correct eras that coincided. Dark Phoenix was the storyline taking place in X-Men when I began collecting comics, and I became an instant fan. This movie tried really, really hard to destroy my fandom of that epic storyline and my love of X-Men.

Edward Of DOOM

PS Please keep reacting to the Ryan George Pitch Meetings, especially for this film and New Mutants. SO funny Nat.

Keith Jacobsen

For most of the 20th Century Fox logos in the Xmen films, the X fades out just after the rest of the lettering, even as far back as the original Xmen. For this one it glows red I guess. And yeah, this is a pretty bad movie, critically panned and iirc the least financially successful in the Xmen franchise. It was pretty hilarious the number of times you predicted the next line and mugged at the camera.

Keith Jacobsen

Your facial expressions were the best part of this reaction. Just, the looks towards the camera when things got over the top. And I'll agree, the score was about the only good thing with this movie. I decided to wait on the reviews for this one since I thought Apocalypse was terrible, then just skipped it. The last X-Men "Universe" movie is New Mutants. I actually enjoyed it for what it was, but I would say it's something you can get to later. Go and enjoy other shows and movies, and maybe revisit it later. Or not. But yeah, comic book movies are hard to do with literal decades of storylines and characters to dig through. Fans expect a certain storyline when they hear Dark Phoenix, and the X-Men movies have never built up to it. They just try to throw everything into one movie, where it should be the X-Men movie universe equivalent to Infinity War/Endgame. In fact, I think that's where Marvel has the lead in the superhero movie market right now. They don't try to adapt storylines from the comics. They may take inspiration from it, but there's no retelling. Everyone was calling for World War Hulk in the MCU, but Marvel just nodded to it in Thor: Ragnarok and it worked. Because they didn't try to cram an entire multi-comic storyline into a two-hour movie. Like the movies or not, Marvel had done a brilliant job of adapting the comics to the big screen by...not adapting the comics to the big screen. They've taken character and story beats and made their own thing, winking at fans and welcoming newcomers with each phase.

Tony Sanson

I remember being in the theater and thinking this score was fantastic. Really saves the movie.

Jason Dolan

Prime example of why the entire X-men franchise misses the mark compared to the source material. Always rushed. Out of joint. No patience to build anything. They jumped right into Wolverine and Rogue in the very first X movie. And they are just all over the place from start to finish. Not saying they are awful or anything, but the potential was there to be on the level of the run the MCU movies had, but they totally squandered the potential. They were pretty good, should have been great, and it was all about the choices that were made along the way.

Robert Reichle

yucky

NawFam

Second time I’ve seen this and from what I remember the first I thought it was alright, still thinks it is. But yeah it’s definitely in the bottom for me as well, but still enjoyable to watch every now and then. From what I remember, I think this was supposed to be the start of new X-Men series but since the rights to X-Men expired Disney bought the rights so that’s why it’s the last, well technically New Mutants is the last entry. But eventually we will see the X-Men again in the MCU.

NFXx

Fun fact, Kinberg actually wanted to do all that Hellfire Club stuff. In fact, DP was supposed to be two movies, what we have with the DP we got is essentially 2/3 of the FIRST movie he wrote, with a tacked on third act that was reshot after Disney got upset that it was too similar to CM. The second film would've done the Hellfire Club stuff and showed Jean truly go insane. That didn't happen due to both Fox's own demands of making shorter films and Disney cutting the arc halfway through.

Inhuman Paradox

So the Phoenix and Dark Phoenix sagas in the comics is one of the best story lines in all of x-men imo. Sadly with this film instead of making it two or three movies which I think they would have been able to really deliver on the big moments and build a well developed and stimulating story. They didn't even use the correct villains in this film lol the real villains were mastermind and the hellfire club, they kidnapped several x men and tampered with Jeans mind which turned her into dark pheonix. It's then Jean as Dark Pheonix that consumes the sun of the D'Barri's planet (the aliens in this movie) and she kills like 5 billion people. After that there's basically an intergalactic court date and a fight to the death on the moon. Basically lots of really fucking cool stuff that just got the boot from Fox. I hope disney can get a hold of Xmen rights soon.

john collins

Definitely there since the first X-Men movie.

REDR58

A funny thing about this movie is that it got changed a decent amount because of Captain Marvel. Originally the aliens were supposed to be Skrulls, but making them good in one movie and evil in the other was kind of messy. Girl is empowered by strange alien stuff, gets mind messed with/erased, deep internal conflicts about who is good/evil, ends with a fight in space. I'm also gonna recommend checking out Invincible some time, it's probably one of the best animated shows I've ever watched.

Zachary Gaudreau

Pretty sure the X has always been like that in the FOX logo, even though it is always super subtle.

Jason Dolan

I CANT CONTROL IT “DARK PHOENIX RISES”

Kelvin

Couldn't have said better. :D

Navjot Singh

whole movie is basically: Super easy, barely an inconvenience

Steve J

Ooof I forgot we need finish on this trash film 😆 ohhhhh!

Charlie Keeler

It's a whole long story, it was intended to be out in late 2018/early 2019 but kept getting pushed back due to Deadpool 2 and Dark Phoenix, and then again because of the Disney buyout of Fox, then the pandemic. You can probably guess the rest from there haha.

Bobby Gingerbeard

anyone else never heard of New Mutants? lmao was it a straight to tv or somethin?

john collins

I actually like this movie, Sophie Turner is a great actress. I really hope she can come back as Jean

Fiorella Burgos

I think I made it half-way through this one the first time around.

Steve J

gonna enjoy watching this with you! wooho!!!!

dieselbeast

Aww nat you could have stopped at deadpool 2 and no one would have batted an eye. Fox gave up on this amd new mutants when they sold to Disney, so please feel free to skip and give up on new mutants too, unless you actually want to watch it lol

Rey

watching this shit in the cinema, for the first time ever, I regretted my money for a ticket

Happy Friday, Natalie! 😊 Getting this downloaded right now so that I can watch it tonight. Definitely looking forward to watching this one later this evening. Have a great day & weekend! 😊 Stay Golden! 💛

Randee Carreno

I haven’t seen this yet because I heard it wasn’t great, but whatever Natalie watches, I will watch.

Chase

Happy Phoenix Friday Nat. Looking forward to seeing what you make of this one. This movie must have looked so much better on paper, but in the making something went wrong. Some good sequences, but overall it didn't have the emotional pull of the others. I think it shows how big a part Wolverine is in this franchise. The "X" is highlighted on the Fox logo on most of these movies. I would really enjoy you doing an X-Men tier video Nat, so you could recap and rate the series. It would be fun. Love how enthused you were about the score. This was Hans Zimmer's one and only score for the X-Men, but he managed to get the action moving forward, and it was suitably epic. Thanks for another fun reaction today Nat, and as always, thanks for your amazing work this week. Excited for more Spidey Live tomorrow 💛

Darryl Low