Dark Phoenix looks like a possible 50 to 55 million weekend.

RT gives it a whopping 22% rotten.

I just don't get it. With the mountains of source material, why can't they write a good X-Men script?

Plus I don't buy Sophie Turner as Phoenix. Something about her acting style that doesn't work. Famke Janssen was so much better.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Dark Phoenix looks like a possible 50 to 55 million weekend.

RT gives it a whopping 22% rotten.

I just don't get it. With the mountains of source material, why can't they write a good X-Men script?

Plus I don't buy Sophie Turner as Phoenix. Something about her acting style that doesn't work. Famke Janssen was so much better.

I want to say something nice about this but I can't. The acting was bad. It looks like they were given a 1/4 of the budget of the last few films for costumes and special effects.

Overall, I left disappointed. Could I be suffering from love of the source material comic books? Superhero film fatigue? Maybe.

I would give it 1 out of 4 stars or a thumb down depending on which rating system you prefer.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Dark Phoenix looks like a possible 50 to 55 million weekend.

RT gives it a whopping 22% rotten.

I just don't get it. With the mountains of source material, why can't they write a good X-Men script?

Plus I don't buy Sophie Turner as Phoenix. Something about her acting style that doesn't work. Famke Janssen was so much better.

They keep making these movies because they make enough money no matter what the reviews. The reviews have been blah on this one. The whole plot arc of the X-Men has been over long ago. We get it. Now it's just gotten repetitive and worse, pretentious. It's action scenes mixed into one long sermon. Whoever is still going to this stuff after a dozen movies and star actors phoning in their preachy parts, well they must like it like that.

Janssen was better, but Jean Grey was a different role and she had aged out of the Dark Phoenix period, which seems to be much younger now than even when we met Grey in the first film. Go figure.

As for Turner, I find her to be very mannered and it might just be because she can't act. There are a few youngish stars from Game of Thrones that are looking to go out on their own in films. Some like Clarke and Harington have already done movies. Clarke headlined at least two franchise titles already, Terminator and Star Wars' Solo, both having bombed. Harington's Pompeii bombed and he's been doing voice work. His wife Rose Leslie, also from GoT, has been more successful, but she's been turning up on TV. Maisie Williams is looking to cash in, but she is less the classic beauty than Turner or Clarke, so her career will be interesting to watch. Some of the secondary GoT younger actors are also going to turn up in new projects.

I actually think those have a better chance of breaking out as big stars than the GoT leads. I don't think it's so much typecasting as it is that we liked the characters and the actors just were those characters. Now they will have to play other people and I suspect that most of them are not up to it.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

As for Turner, I find her to be very mannered and it might just be because she can't act. There are a few youngish stars from Game of Thrones that are looking to go out on their own in films. Some like Clarke and Harington have already done movies. Clarke headlined at least two franchise titles already, Terminator and Star Wars' Solo, both having bombed. Harington's Pompeii bombed and he's been doing voice work.

Both Solo and Pompeii were so generally mediocre, it was a bit difficult for me to pick any single actor and blame them for it. I did think that Clarke was awful in the Terminator movie. I cringed every time she called Arnold "Poppy".

I have not seen Leslie in anything since but always felt her acting was better than Kit's. (At least in GoT anyway)

I too am interested to see what Maisie is going to do. Arya was a far more layered character than Sansa....I think she will do well.

Maisie had done some good bits of work during her GoT time, Doctor Who(but her character was a bit overdone by the script writers in the end), Secret of Crickley Hall. etc. I think she could well be the best actor from that bunch and look forward to anything she does from now onwards.

As to Kit, he was quite good in the Spooks movie(called "MI-5" in the US ). But Pompeii was such a weak story...it should have been better.
Right now though, I hope things go well for Kit in rehab.

Rose Leslie has been good in The Good Fight series.

Gemma Whelan(Yara) has done some excellent stuff elsewhere, currently in Gentleman Jack.
I thought Jason Momoa was pretty good as Aquaman.
Richard Madden is a good actor too, although Bodyguard had several ridiculous moments.

I agree that the secondary character actors might prove to be better at the craft than the 'big' name ones.
It happened on Harry Potter too. Daniel Radcliffe can act, but chooses a lot of rubbish weird movies. Rupert Grint is mainly in comedy TV...painfully. And Emma Watson can't seem to play anything other than a version of Hermione, plus she still looks about twelve years old, which doesn't help.
However Matthew Lewis(Neville) has never been out of work on TV and is really good. Along with a few of the other secondary kids.
And, yes, I used the word 'good' far too much.

Edited to add that two other very watchable projects Kit was in were Testament of Youth, and playing one of his own ancestors in Gunpowder. Nothing exactly blockbusting, but not terrible either.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Hedgehog Witch,

quote:

Originally posted by Hedgehog Witch:
As to Kit, he was quite good in the Spooks movie(called "MI-5" in the US ). But Pompeii was such a weak story...it should have been better. Right now though, I hope things go well for Kit in rehab.

Edited to add that two other very watchable projects Kit was in were Testament of Youth, and playing one of his own ancestors in Gunpowder. Nothing exactly blockbusting, but not terrible either.

The projects you mention for Harington just shows the gap between the entertainment that is popularly known in the UK and what is known in the US. Other than Pompeii in 2014, I never heard of any of those titles, not even MI-5. So I wouldn't know if he was any good in them or not.

He does seem to have issues though and he had better pull his act together. If this is what a hit show, a new marriage and success does to him, what happens when things go bad.

Dark Phoenix $33 Million opening weekend.

Ouch!

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

He does seem to have issues though and he had better pull his act together. If this is what a hit show, a new marriage and success does to him, what happens when things go bad.

I hope those comments were made in jest, because mental health can happen to anyone. (I know from experience, unfortunately). Yes, he has the money to get the best help, but just because of who he is and what his job is, doesn't automatically make a person happy, nor immune to mental illness. From what I've read it sounds like the pressure of the show, after Jon's 'death' and resurrection became very uncomfortable for him. Going from a very shy newbie actor to household name worldwide in a short time would be enough to send the best of us to seek help.
It would be so simple to say "Get a different job then!" but believe it or not a lot of true actors love their job, but hate the attention, but can't do anything else.
In some ways it was touching to read how much he cared about his character to feel that pressure, as well as not knowing how to let it go properly.
Like manners, empathy and compassion are free...

No, not really in jest, a simple observation. These should be his good times. I have never heard that he had a mental health issue, perhaps some overindulgence problems that were reported years ago. I don't believe that everything we do should be chalked up to powers beyond our control.

Sorry if I offended you, but I think you took an offhand comment about someone neither of us knows more seriously than it was meant. I said he has to get his act together because these are the good times, not that he has to get another job. He is getting help, so it would seem like he has the same idea. Hope it works out.

Well it was a poorly educated observation, then, and even more poorly expressed. Your explanation only makes you sound even less compassionate and ignorant. But I should know by now that you yourself suffer from a condition...foot-in-mouth. I will have to remember compassion about your affliction and ignore, as I used to do on here.

My apologies, I have always enjoyed reading your insights and our conversations. I guess it got lost in translation.

As mentioned, "Dark Phoenix" crashed and burned, with an opening weekend gross FAR less than any of the 11 X-Men films before it. (This is film #12 in the Fox series)

Also, "Secret Lives of Pets 2" did poorly in the 40 M range, 1/2 of the first one

And now they are saying "Godzilla" may not reach 100 M domestically.

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
As mentioned, "Dark Phoenix" crashed and burned, with an opening weekend gross FAR less than any of the 11 X-Men films before it. (This is film #12 in the Fox series)

Also, "Secret Lives of Pets 2" did poorly in the 40 M range, 1/2 of the first one

And now they are saying "Godzilla" may not reach 100 M domestically.

I still think that Godzilla will limp across the 100M line but US domestic has never been the target audience for the WB monster movies anyway.

I opted for John Wick 3 this weekend. Dumb as ever but what an AWESOME action movie!! If I was gonna waste a couple of hours this weekend, I chose the right way to do it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mykdude,

I wonder if it is super hero movie fatigue? I don't know much about what other movies are to follow but I assume there will be another Justice League movie. The first one was a bit of a mess so it doesn't bode well.
The cgi and special fx are always great in these movies now, but maybe audiences want a strong story too. Dark Phoenix sounds like it missed the mark by a long way on a few fronts.

Took my 9 year old daughter to Secret Life of Pets 2. I was bored. She was bored. My dad asked her about the movie about 4 hours after seeing it. She could not remember much about it and neither could I.

Regarding "Dark Phoenix", this is the 12th X-Men movie in 19 years, so perhaps folks are tired

But now they still have "New Mutants" coming in August, the 13th X-Men movie

How many times can you show the same, angst-ridden, misfit teenagers ?

The fourth "Men in Black" film starts today, but without Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, so they're not predicting a hit at the box office.

WHY even make this movie ? Don't people learn that sequels without the original stars don't work ?

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
The fourth "Men in Black" film starts today, but without Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, so they're not predicting a hit at the box office.

WHY even make this movie ? Don't people learn that sequels without the original stars don't work ?

RT 22% reviewers and 68% audience. Basically in the same park as Dark Phoenix.

Chris Hemsworth is Thor. I can't think of anything else he was the major star in that I have liked. Nothing about the MIB trailers have made me want to go to the theater and see it.

That new Billy Murray/Adam Driver movie has my attention more.

BOM reports that SHAFT made $600K on Thursday. Ouch!!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mykdude,

quote:

Originally posted by WOMBLE:
I think Avengers Endgame will be the biggest film of 2019.

It's very getting close to #1 'All Time box Ofiice' with $2,780m, a whisker behind 'Avatar' at $2,788m.

Here are some stats on the Films of 2019 (so far):

Only 5 films have grossed more than 200 K domestically, to date. They are all Marvel Comics and Disney related-- Avengers, Captain Marvel, Toy Story 4, Aladdin, Spider Man.

So obviously, Disney/Marvel is having a GREAT year !

Universal Studios' biggest hits have been "Us", How to Train Your Dragon 3, and Secret Life of Pets 2, the latter two not being HUGE hits, but doing OK

Paramount is having another terrible year, it's biggest hit being "Rocketman", the 17th highest grossing film of the year so far. Hopefully it will do better next year when Top Gun 2 comes out.

Sony has no hits, aside from Spider-Man.