Things We Saw Today: The New Dark Phoenix Trailer Looks … Familiar

After being pushed back twice, Dark Phoenix is finally (hopefully) scheduled to hit theaters in June. A new trailer dropped today and for the most part, it’s similar to what we’ve in the other trailers so far. It’s also a pretty by-the-numbers summary of the Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix story you likely already know. On top of that, it’s the kind of trailer that looks to tell you pretty much the whole movie. (It also feels worrisome that we keep getting the same footage over and over. Hopefully, that’s not a sign that there’s only 2 minutes of decent stuff in there.)

The movie looks gorgeous, to be sure, and Sophie Turner looks like she’s really nailing the role. But every new bit of footage we get from the film seems to inch closer and closer to a full retreading of Last Stand ground, and that’s not something anyone has been asking for. Dark Phoenix is clearly the franchise’s attempt to have a second go at getting Jean’s story right, but we can’t know from the trailers if they’ve finally realized the key to telling that story, which is to actually make it about Jean.

Our Princess Weekes nailed it after the first trailer came out when she wrote that the Phoenix Saga “is about Jean. Not about Charles and Magneto playing philosophical chess about women … again. Getting The Dark Phoenix storyline right means focusing on Jean and what she means as a character from the very beginning.”

Do we trust this movie to do that? It’s not super encouraging that they brought back one of the writers from Last Stand (and other films in the franchise) and let him direct the new movie. Pajiba shared this all-too-appropriate take from Alanna Bennett:

The writer of X-Men: Last Stand — a movie so ill-received by X-Men fans it’s become a joke — was hired to *DIRECT* DARK PHOENIX, the studio’s way of RE-DOING LAST STAND. A literal re-do. Women, & esp WoC, don’t get the first chance at that let alone the show of faith of a SECOND.

— alanna bennett (@AlannaBennett) April 15, 2019

I don’t know, y’all. I want this movie to be good. I’m trying to be impressed. I’m just coming up lacking. What do you think about the Dark Phoenix trailer?

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  And now…for the final time this season…

  . . . pic.twitter.com/GsMU3RYIAC

  — Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) April 17, 2019

• Give this to me now, please!!!
  

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  — Universal Studios Hollywood (@UniStudios) April 17, 2019

• This is a fascinating (and, warning, really emotional) look at how martyrdom became a collective fantasy for Columbine survivors twenty years ago. (via Vox)
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What did you all see out there today?

(image: YouTube)

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