Logan was so good it made the preceding X-Men films look a bit cheesy. After all, if the character could have this much depth and be treated so seriously, why hadn’t the movies been doing it already over the last 17 years?
Hugh Jackman’s swansong in the claws was so well received, in fact, that director Simon Kinberg is now claiming in an interview with Collider that the film’s success is why what was previously known as X-Men: Dark Phoenix is now simply Dark Phoenix.
Speaking to the outlet, he explained:
“I wanted to call it Dark Phoenix in again very much the way we wanted to call Logan ‘Logan’ as opposed to ‘X-Men: Logan’ to indicate that it’s a different kind of film and to indicate that it’s a more character-driven movie. And for me, and Hutch [Parker], as people who worked on X-Men III: The Last Stand, that didn’t have any trace of Dark Phoenix in the title, we really wanted to indicate that this is the Dark Phoenix story and that she’s at the center of this story, she’s the A-plot of this story, everything around this story revolves really centrally around Jean/Dark Phoenix as really the subject of the movie, not the object of the movie.”
It’s a good argument, and Dark Phoenix is a better title without X-Men bolted on the front. But there’s the simple matter that right now the film doesn’t look like it’s going to hold a candle to the quality of Logan. This is Kinberg’s first time directing after a long career as a producer and things haven’t gone smoothly.
While the pic was once targeting a November 2018 release, it was delayed to February 2019 and then, just a few days ago, to June 7th, 2019. The reasons for these delays are numerous, but primarily because test audiences reportedly reacted awfully to the initial cut, resulting in the need for expensive and costly reshoots.
If you ask Fox, though, they claim that the film’s going to be big in China and a June release will allow it to maximize its box office numbers there. But if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you…
Despite all this, X-Men: Dark Phoenix could prove to be a hit after all. But let’s face it, the cards are certainly stacked against it right now.
