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

4. The Generic, Dull Plot

Though Kinberg promised that Dark Phoenix would offer up a more crowd-pleasing and comic-faithful adaptation of The Dark Phoenix Saga, the central Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) plot is bogged down by so much generic, boring narrative threads.

Whether it's Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) yearning to leave the X-Men, Magneto (Michael Fassbender) yet again flirting with his dark side or shape-shifting aliens descending upon Earth, it all feels totally played-out for both this franchise and the genre as a whole.

There is precious little in this film approaching even basic imagination or uniqueness: it's all tired, old-hat cliches listlessly recycled with no passion whatsoever.