Dark Phoenix: 10 Ways It's The Worst X-Men Film Yet
4. The D'Bari-Skrull Hybrids
20th Century Fox
By far one of the weirdest elements of Dark Phoenix are the D'Bari. In the comics, the the alien race's planet is killed by the Phoenix while it's in control of Jean Grey, leaving only a few survivors to scour the cosmos after.
Dark Phoenix opts for something a little more different. Instead of Jean being the one to eliminate the D'Bari as she did in the comics - which eventually led to her trial in the Shi'ar Empire - here, the destruction of their planet had occurred many years ago.
For some odd reason, they also have the ability to shapeshift, much like the Skrulls, only far less interesting.
In reality, the D'Bari serve no other purpose in Dark Phoenix other than to provide repeated dumps of exposition and to serve a physical threat in the final act. Not exactly the best use of Jessica Chastain's talents, it must be said.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
