10 Huge Movie Deaths That Totally Fell Flat

Even ignoring the fact that audience enthusiasm for Fox's X-Men franchise had all-but-evaporated leading up to Dark Phoenix's belated release, the film made desperately little effort to make viewers feel even a flicker of emotion for Mystique's (Jennifer Lawrence) mid-film death.

As Jean Grey's (Sophie Turner) burgeoning Phoenix powers grow ever-more unstable, the other X-Men attempt to bring her under control, leading to Jean having a outburst which catapults Mystique into a piece of exposed debris, mortally wounding her.

It's a total damp squib of a death scene for many reasons - the clumsy staging, utter lack of a dynamic between Jean and Mystique, and being blatantly spoiled in trailers months before the movie's release.

Yet perhaps the biggest issue of all is Jennifer Lawrence herself, who was so clearly over the franchise by this point and could scarcely persuade herself to actually, y'know, act.

The reactions of the other X-Men to her demise also seem strangely clipped and curtailed, further robbing the scene of the expected emotion. It is, in its own way, an apt metaphor for Dark Phoenix itself - a climactic Event which few could convince themselves to care about.