First off... Some people insist to underrate movies when lead by an ensemble female cast as a lot of comments are doing about this title. I'm still trying to figure out why people are reluctant to accept women taking front of action movies and refering to this as "consequences of Hollywood feminism" in such a misguided context only to make others believe that the lack of quality is related to a specific gender. I don't remember seeing anyone diminishing movies by the excess of testosterone, or blaiming a bad movie for having a male ensemble cast. As an example, when Ocean's 12 was released it was bad rated by every argument possible, except their gender. So, when I see that happening to women, it's very clear the misogynist and sexist behavior, otherwise they wouldn't bother.
The movie isn't good as it could be, and the reasons are very much the same why Ocean's 8 isn't good either: it's a technical matter and not about gender. If screenplay doesn't work, if characters aren't developed, if direction is ineffective, if editing can't make it right, any movie is faded to disgrace. The problem is always about those matters, so think about it instead of just point women protagonism in the industry as an obstacle. If you feel uncomfortable by women leading action movies or whatever genre the problem is you, not them.
This movie itself has a lot of problems, starting from the director. The bad reception of Dark Phoenix haven't make Simon Kimberg get any better. There's no authenticity by his side again. He takes Paul Greengrass's manual of how to make chasing and fighting scenes but fails putting it on practice. That could work if he did know what he was doing, but seems to me he felt that copying other's style is enough on directing, the same he did in his previous movie trying to copy Bryan Singer's style. I don't understand why this ensemble cast did accept a so bad screenplay as it is. The dialogs are poor, characters narrate their own actions right after events happen or make obvious statements as if audience's constantly unaware of what they are watching. Really, that's dull and makes Simon twice bad for the fact that he's also one of the writers.
Then the editing, another big problem that messes with any other experience this movie could provide. Seems that they were running out of time and made cuts without paying any attention to the damage they were causing when cutting important moments in the wrong time or keeping excesses like happens in most of the fighting scenes, in some of them we can obviously see actors waiting for the action to start making it all seems fake and sequences lose their power. If for any reason a director cannot make a fighting scene in a long take, then at least make the editing works. This is a rule in filmaking. Although I don't think that would've help this movie so much.
This movie had great potentials, but again, Simon Kimberg isn't prepared yet to take so many responsability by his own. I can see his efforts to succed as a director, but he needs to find his own pace and style, and also learn from the mistakes he made. On the contrary of what most people are saying, the actresses are the ones who save this movie from a total disaster, exception of Penelope Cruz's character, that could've be very much scratched from screeplay as she's always serving as a disposable element of distraction. Maybe they had plans for her in a follow up movie, but I don't thik that would ever happen considering the bad reception of this one.
By the way, I can't accept the fact that Lupita's character, a cyber electronic specialist, wasn't unable to register any other digital to the tracking device, while just before that another one could make it in seconds before dying. And that pretty much resumes how much bad the writing is.
The final part was more exciting than all that preceded, but a lot of it was incredibly predictable because screenplay has some plot twists but both direction and editing couldn't be able to avoid them from being lame and cliche.
A shame that once more good potentials were entirely wasted. At least the movie can be entertaining if you don't care about all that have been pointed.
The movie isn't good as it could be, and the reasons are very much the same why Ocean's 8 isn't good either: it's a technical matter and not about gender. If screenplay doesn't work, if characters aren't developed, if direction is ineffective, if editing can't make it right, any movie is faded to disgrace. The problem is always about those matters, so think about it instead of just point women protagonism in the industry as an obstacle. If you feel uncomfortable by women leading action movies or whatever genre the problem is you, not them.
This movie itself has a lot of problems, starting from the director. The bad reception of Dark Phoenix haven't make Simon Kimberg get any better. There's no authenticity by his side again. He takes Paul Greengrass's manual of how to make chasing and fighting scenes but fails putting it on practice. That could work if he did know what he was doing, but seems to me he felt that copying other's style is enough on directing, the same he did in his previous movie trying to copy Bryan Singer's style. I don't understand why this ensemble cast did accept a so bad screenplay as it is. The dialogs are poor, characters narrate their own actions right after events happen or make obvious statements as if audience's constantly unaware of what they are watching. Really, that's dull and makes Simon twice bad for the fact that he's also one of the writers.
Then the editing, another big problem that messes with any other experience this movie could provide. Seems that they were running out of time and made cuts without paying any attention to the damage they were causing when cutting important moments in the wrong time or keeping excesses like happens in most of the fighting scenes, in some of them we can obviously see actors waiting for the action to start making it all seems fake and sequences lose their power. If for any reason a director cannot make a fighting scene in a long take, then at least make the editing works. This is a rule in filmaking. Although I don't think that would've help this movie so much.
This movie had great potentials, but again, Simon Kimberg isn't prepared yet to take so many responsability by his own. I can see his efforts to succed as a director, but he needs to find his own pace and style, and also learn from the mistakes he made. On the contrary of what most people are saying, the actresses are the ones who save this movie from a total disaster, exception of Penelope Cruz's character, that could've be very much scratched from screeplay as she's always serving as a disposable element of distraction. Maybe they had plans for her in a follow up movie, but I don't thik that would ever happen considering the bad reception of this one.
By the way, I can't accept the fact that Lupita's character, a cyber electronic specialist, wasn't unable to register any other digital to the tracking device, while just before that another one could make it in seconds before dying. And that pretty much resumes how much bad the writing is.
The final part was more exciting than all that preceded, but a lot of it was incredibly predictable because screenplay has some plot twists but both direction and editing couldn't be able to avoid them from being lame and cliche.
A shame that once more good potentials were entirely wasted. At least the movie can be entertaining if you don't care about all that have been pointed.