X-Men Dark Phoenix Review: 4 Ups & 6 Downs

5. Simon Kinberg's Awful Direction

Giving a first-time filmmaker a $200 million budget is almost exclusively a terrible idea, and - shocker - Simon Kinberg does a totally sloppy job helming this film.

Throughout Dark Phoenix, it's clear that Kinberg's trying to emulate Bryan Singer's competent-if-unremarkable house style for the franchise, rather than trying to bring any of his own vision or artistry to the table.

Even with Kinberg's obvious influences, the film too often relies on dull shot-reverse-shot dialogues and poorly-shot action.

The latter is especially apparent during a mid-film mutant brawl with editing so haphazard it's tough to figure out the scene's basic spatial configuration.

Other promising sequences, like the X-Men's opening rescue of some stranded astronauts, feel rushed and oddly un-momentous, and only in the film's otherwise generic third act finale does it muster anything approaching fun action, if only for a few minutes.

Needless to say, with the film likely to under-perform at the box office, Kinberg probably won't get another budget of this size for the foreseeable future (if ever again).