There are probably tons of reasons as to why Fox’s last X-Men outing, Dark Phoenix, didn’t set the box office aflame. Perhaps it was franchise fatigue. Perhaps it was the poor reviews. Perhaps it was the public reshoot process. Perhaps it was the melancholic tone. Honestly, it was probably all of those things. Amid the fallout, we are learning, bit by bit, just how different this film used to be at its various stages, including a new report from Deadline, which includes an interesting factoid.
The story goes that Dark Phoenix was originally planned to be a two-parter, which makes sense to me. It seems like a no brainer to not revisit the storyline from the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand. Originally, the studio did realize that retelling Chris Claremont’s penultimate tale of the cosmic Phoenix entity required not only nuance but space to breathe. Plans changed, and the studio was apt that Kinberg condense the material down into the film audiences got.
RELATED – Dark Phoenix: Fox Execs Took Away The Wrong Lessons From Apocalypse’s Failures
There were no details on what that original idea would have entailed, but Kinberg was reportedly flexible and gave in to the studio’s request for one movie. We had all hoped this would be a good film to end their run on, but it sadly isn’t looking so.
Instead of going out in a blaze of glory Dark Phoenix barely ignited a small barnyard fire. The film’s outlook is not as bleak as The Age of Apocalypse comic, but it is forecast to lose $100 million dollars. As of this writing, Dark Phoenix has a 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Let me help put that in perspective for you. X-Men Apocalypse, a film I thought was the second worst X-Men film in the franchise has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 49 percent. So, despite having an Ivan Ooze inspired villain it still has a higher rating than Dark Phoenix.
Don’t forget to share this post on your Facebook wall and with your Twitter followers! Just hit the buttons on the top of this page.
—–
Have you checked out LRM Online‘s official podcast feed yet, which includes our flagship podcast Los Fanboys, our premiere podcast Breaking Geek Radio: The Podcast, and our morning show LRMornings? Check it out by listening below. It’s also available on all your favorite podcast apps!
SOURCES: Deadline
FOR FANBOYS, BY FANBOYS
Have you checked out LRM Online’s official podcasts and videos on The Genreverse Podcast Network? Available on YouTube and all your favorite podcast apps, This multimedia empire includes The Daily CoG, Breaking Geek Radio: The Podcast, GeekScholars Movie News, Anime-Versal Review Podcast, and our Star Wars dedicated podcast The Cantina. Check it out by listening on all your favorite podcast apps, or watching on YouTube!
Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Stitcher | Google Play
