The Marketing Department: Dark Phoenix Trailer

“No, please, slow down with the female-fronted superhero trailers!” I certainly did not cry, ever. After Captain Marvel last week, the X-Men universe is striking out with their first trailer for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, starring Sophie Turner and directed by Simon Kinberg.

0:10: This soundtrack is a version of The Doors The End, a song that I haven’t even thought about in about eight years when I went through that weird phase back in high school. But it’s period-appropriate (to this little flashback we get with Xavier and a young Jean, at least) and profoundly ominous, and thusly a good but of tone-setting for the “dark” part of “Dark Phoenix”.

0:20: Man, I’m constantly forgetting what a great cast the X-Men series has: aside from the obvious Michael Fassbender and James MacAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Jennifer Lawrence…you put this cast in anything else and its guaranteed Oscar-bait. Though, with that new category, who knows how Dark Phoenix will fare?

0:40: A woman, getting a dark-past-with-dead-parents backstory? THIS is the equality I have been fighting for!

0:45: I think this is going to be a really interesting movie for Sophie Turner, given that Phoenix/Jean Gray is her most notable role outside of her star-making turn on Game of Thrones. With that show coming to a close soon, she’s got a lot to prove out on other stages, and being the focus of a story so iconic and dramatic could be a powerful way to convince any doubters – or an underlining of the point that she’d be better off sticking to TV. Side note: her American accent sounds deeply wrong to me, even though it’s perfectly passable.

0:50: Jessica Chastain as a villain! She’s described this character as “clinical”, so I’m hoping for the same excellent, often cold performance she put into Molly’s Game except with none of the painfully irritating Aaron Sorkin interference.

0:54: It’s going to be interesting to see how the other X-Men figure into this story, given how centralized it is on Jean: Days of Future Past had generous time for a (n excellent, go see Evan Peters in American Animals) Quiksilver story, while Apocalypse gave some room for the other X-Men rocking up in this outing. Dark Phoenix is going to be a good test of how well previous movies have brought the team together for audiences, given that this is a definitive tearing apart of the X-Men in many ways.

1:20: The fact that Tye Sheridan is behind those glasses instead of James Marsden is SICK and WRONG to me. And also my blind ass can hardly tell the difference between the two of them anyway. Moving on.

1:30: Everyone turning on Xavier as the instigator of this disaster is really intriguing and also a great chance for James MacAvoy to imbue the role with some of his exceptional talent.

1:34: “Nobody cares” is a pretty good summation of Apocalypse, in all fairness. Also, Evil! Michael Fassbender is my Michael Fassbender of choice.

1:43: Montages! It’s interesting that this trailer hasn’t gone super hard on the action or, particularly, the destruction that Jean causes (though we do see a little bit), but rather the emotional fallout of her actions. Personally, I’ve seen enough CGI clusterfuck car explosions to last a lifetime, so I’d much rather a focus on the human impact over another one of those third acts.

1:52: That final shot of what I assume is Jean absorbing the solar flare that allows her to unlock her full potential is genuinely stunning stuff. Overall, I give this trailer a “Pretty damn promising” out of ten, especially given the slightly wobbly state of the X-Men franchise the last couple of outings.

What did you think of the Dark Phoenix trailer? If you’ve read the comics, how does this seem to compare? If you haven’t, will you be trying it out first-time with this movie? Let us know in the comments below!

By Louise MacGregor

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(header image courtesy of ScreenGeek)