History YMMV / DarkPhoenix

** Mystique is seen as this by many when she calls out Xavier. She mocks Xavier by saying that she can’t remember a moment where Xavier actually “risked something” like the rest of the X-Men did, despite the fact that Xavier had sacrificed just as much, including the use of his legs, in the previous movies. Not only that, she also lectures Xavier for trying to make heroes out of the X-Men. This sentiment comes of as contradictory to her rousing speech she made to them in the previous movie and her observation that they're "just kids" is downright nonsensical due to the team being in their late 20s at the youngest and having been doing this for nearly a decade, making Mystique come off as both overprotective and hypocritical.

* EightDeadlyWords: The disastrous box office results and poor reviews tells a lot about what the general audience (and fans) thought of this film. Various out of character moments.

** Mystique's line "You might want to think about changing the name to X-Women" has been ridiculed as cheap PanderingToTheBase. Many fans point out that X-Men is a play on the word human, and has nothing to do with gender. Furthermore, Mystique's justification (that women always save the men) falls flat given how not only did she nearly doom all mutantkind in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' but also that the franchise itself has a history of not making full use of its female characters in twenty years of movies. If anything, this line comes off as a cheap attempt by Fox to capitalize on the success of ''Film/{{Wonder Woman|2017}}'', which came out to critical and commercial success before and during the filming of ''Dark Phoenix''.

* MisaimedMarketing: The movie was made to be a psychological thriller with less emphasis on spectacle and more focus on internal conflict, with Jean Grey as the protagonist. Depicting her as a TragicHero who is struggling with her mental health as the result of her repressed childhood trauma resurfacing in adulthood. Her telepathy going out of control is suppose to parallel schizophrenia for example. However, the movie was mismarketed as a superhero event film and grand finale for the series with Jean as a villainous antagonist that the X-Men must stop in their greatest battle ever. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0sw9Y29GVY&list=PL4P2exRjRCFzVfdXDBXQqJxVI0h0tyXsQ&index=2&t=0sThis backfired and contributed to its negative reception.]]

** The fact that the film was directed, written, and produced by Simon Kinberg, one of the co-writers of ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'', and, for all intents and purposes, appears to be a partial remake of said movie, has made it the butt of more than a few jokes. The fact that Kinberg was previously heavily involved in [[Film/FantasticFour2015 another superhero film]] with an infamous TroubledProduction regarding haphazard reshoots has not helped matters. When the movie came out, this was taken further when some argued that Kinberg's new take on the material was actually ''worse'' than ''The Last Stand'' (though it's still TruerToTheText).

** Jean Grey, as played by the gorgeous Creator/SophieTurner, is already beautiful, but once she's possessed by the Dark Phoenix, she looks stunning.

* EightDeadlyWords: The disastrous box office results and poor reviews tells a lot about what the general audience (and fans) thought of this film. Various out of character moments and the fact that its a remake of the same story in X-Men: The Last Stand doesn't help either.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The film simplifies the conflict between Jean and the Phoenix into a case of cosmic DemonicPossession instead of the original storyline's more ambiguous JekyllAndHyde dynamic[[note]]In the source material Jean was bonded to the Phoenix when destroying the D'Bari homeworld, and it is ambiguous whether Jean [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation was forced to by the Phoenix or willingly committed the atrocity herself]]. In the film the Phoenix has already done this long before possessing Jean, making her inculpable for any of it's actions[[/note]], which many fans believed missed the point of their relationship and the entire story.

** Some detractors have expressed frustration that, instead of telling a different story with the younger cast introduced in ''Apocalypse'' to better flesh them out, Fox opted to do a do-over of one of the least popular movies in the series with less build-up to the pay-off of Jean Grey's FaceHeelTurn. That this comes two main-series ''X-Men'' movies after ''The Last Stand'' [[CosmicRetcon was rendered non-canon]] is also a sore point. Also a sore point is that this happened so soon after ''Days of Future Past'' wiped the slate clean for the franchise to go in any direction, yet the powers that be went with another Phoenix story.
** There are also complaints that the costumes seen in ''Film/XMenApocalypse'', which were all personalized for the team, went unused in favor of the more uniform ''New X-Men''-influenced outfits.

** Mystique's line "You might want to think about changing the name to X-Women" has been ridiculed as cheap PanderingToTheBase. Many fans point out that X-Men is a play on the word human, and has nothing to do with gender. Furthermore, Mystique's justification (that women always save the men) falls flat given how not only did she nearly doom all mutantkind in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' but also that the franchise itself has a history of not making full use of its female characters in twenty years of movies. If anything, this line comes off as a cheap attempt by Fox to capitalize on the success of ''Film/{{Wonder Woman|2017}}''.

* EightDeadlyWords: The disastrous box office results and poor reviews tells a lot about what the general audience (and fans) thought of this film. The fact that its a remake of the same story in X-Men: The Last Stand doesn't help either.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Most people were wary of film's premise given how much of a dumpster fire it was the last time the Dark Phoenix plotline was adapted on screen in ''Film/XMenTheLastStand''.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Dazzler's surprise cameo managed to [[{{Pun}} dazzle]] a number of fans.
* EpilepticTrees:

** With the Film/MonsterVerse, due to being released one week after ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' and being perceived by Godzilla fans as an incoming threat to their movie's already disappointing box office performance. The fact that ''Dark Phoenix'' got even worse reviews and made even less during its opening weekend than ''King of the Monsters'' is cited as a "victory" for the [=MonsterVerse=], although no one ''really'' won (at the very least, ''Godzilla'' was [[CriticalDissonance viewed much more favourably by its fans]], while ''Dark Phoenix'' wasn't that well received even by most X-Men fans).

* TheScrappy: Jennifer Lawrence's performance of Mystique has always been very polarizing with people, but in this movie the character got critically panned by both critics and fans for her abrasive behaviour towards Charles for blaming him for acts [[InformedWrongness he didn't deserved to be blamed for]] (see UnintentionallySympathetic entry below) and the AesopAmnesia her character suffered after the CharacterDevelopment she received in [[Film/XMenApocalypse the previous movie]]. The [[SnarkBait ridiculed X-Women line of hers]] definitely didn't help.

** While there are some who are happy to see the X-Men wear yellow outfits, others have mocked this, believing that the individual costumes seen in ''Apocalypse'' were better. As a result, the latter group were holding out hope for the yellow suits to only be worn in the space mission that unlocks the Phoenix, and the ''Apocalypse'' suits to be used for the rest of the movie (even though the trailers directly contradicted such an idea). It should be noted that those outfits are pretty obviously [[OlderThanTheyThink based on]] the ''ComicBook/NewXMen'', so they actually ''have'' some degree of comics accuracy.

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Many critics who didn’t care much for the majority agree that Sophie Turner, James Mcavoy, and Michael Fassbender gave good performances.

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Many critics who didn’t care much for the majority agree that Sophie Turner, James McAvoy, and Michael Fassbener gave good performances.

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: While there was much criticism on how the majority of the actors were phoning it in, many agree that Michael Fassbender was the one exception and praised him for having an excellent performance as Magneto, even with what issues there were to his character.

* InformedWrongness: Charles Xavier is portrayed as being in the wrong for hiding an AwfulTruth from Jean Grey, yet [[spoiler:it's clearly shown that her father didn't want anything to do with her after she accidentally got her mother killed, and he just wanted to protect her from being hurt even more]]. The movie also calls him out for trying to use the X-Men as a means to generate good PR for the entire Mutant species, but considering that [[Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast they were being vivisected by the government merely 19 years prior]], trying to make heroes out of his students is a logical course of action in a world where many of them are still hated and feared. Hank and Raven also quite bizarrely act like this is the ''only'' reason for Jean going bad, somehow forgetting about the evil alien force intensifying her emotions.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Most people were wary of film's premise given how much of a dumpster fire it was the last time the Dark Phoenix plotline was adapted on screen in ''Film/XMenTheLastStand''. Furthermore, this film was written and directed by Simon Kinberg, who had also written ''The Last Stand'', which many saw as the studio revisiting their mistakes and found it hard to not compare the two attempts at the story, thus deciding to give it a pass.

** With the Film/MonsterVerse, due to being released one week after ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' and being perceived by Godzilla fans as an incoming threat to their movie's already disappointing box office performance. The fact that ''Dark Phoenix'' got even worse reviews and made even less during its opening weekend than ''King of the Monsters'' is cited as a "victory" for the [=MonsterVerse=], although no one ''really'' won.

* EndingAversion: Judging by the film's disappointing box office returns, even the fans who were the biggest supporters of Fox's ''X-Men'' movies generally had their desire for a GrandFinale satisfied by the likes of ''[[Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast Days of Future Past]]'' and ''Film/{{Logan}}'', both of which were highly acclaimed among fans and critics alike and were considered to have provided satisfactory endings that shouldn't be followed up on and [[ToughActToFollow couldn't be topped]].

** Reshoots and delays for ''Dark Phoenix'' occurred shortly after Disney announced its plans to acquire Fox's assets. This led many fans to believe that the reshoots and delays were a result of this impending buyout, possibly to tie the film in with the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse in some way. This was not helped at all by an AprilFoolsDay story reported by [=JoBlo=] ''that this would be the case'', which went over more than a few heads. In all likelihood, Fox's earlier apprehension toward working with Marvel Studios with regards to the ''Franchise/FantasticFour'' property would likely indicate that no such plan is in place, and that Fox's iteration of the ''X-Men'' franchise [[ContinuitySnarl/XMenFilmSeries already has enough continuity issues]] to integrate it into the MCU. Not to mention Creator/KevinFeige's refusal to integrate anything Marvel not produced by him (such as ''Film/{{Venom|2018}}'') into his movie canon.
** Or perhaps more realistically, the reshoots could have been done to retool the film into a GrandFinale for the series due to the buyout. Some of the people involved also stated the movie had to be made more distinct from ''Civil War'', as its initial version took heavy inspiration from it.

** With the MCU. It's gone so far that after the buyout of Fox by Disney, fans of the MCU wanted to see Marvel Studios shelve it permanently... Even though it wouldn't have been financially feasible in any way for Disney to do so (as, even in the event of a flop, Fox and Disney by extension would get some money back). After the movie bombed, a conspiracy theory came from Fox fans, hypothesizing that the movie was sabotaged by Disney to serve ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019'', even though every account from Hollywood trades dispute this claim, the director said that the ending was changed at the request of test audiences, and Disney did not have authority over Fox at the time that the movie was wrapping up post-production. [[note]]The merger completed less than three months before the release of the film; Disney's only actions on the project were apparently to give the movie a last-minute marketing push.[[/note]]
** With the Film/MonsterVerse, due to being released one week after ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' and being perceived by Godzilla fans as an incoming threat to their movie's already disappointing box office performance. The fact that ''Dark Phoenix'' got even worse reviews and made even less during its opening weekend than ''King of the Monsters'' is cited as a "victory" for the Monsterverse, although no one ''really'' won.

* FanonDiscontinuity: For some fans, ''Film/{{Logan}}'' is the true finale of the original ''X-Men'' series rather than this movie. Alternately, ''Film/{{Logan}}'' is a BadFuture story and ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' is the proper finale.

* {{Misblamed}}: Disney was hit with accusations of forcing director Simon Kinberg to change the ending film when word got out that the original climax of the movie (which had Jean Grey going into space and fighting off an invading fleet of D'Bari ships) had similarities to ''Film/{{Captain Marvel|2019}}''. [[https://deadline.com/2019/06/dark-phoenix-bombs-at-the-box-office-reasons-why-1202629749/ In actuality]], the decision to change things up was a call made by Kinberg and Fox after initial test screenings for ''Dark Phoenix'', which happened before ''Captain Marvel'' was even finished filming. (The climax was reportedly criticized by test audiences for lacking the majority of the characters, and changes had to be made after the massive set for the original scene was demolished and was deemed too expensive to rebuild by the studio.) Furthermore, Disney was not in control of Fox until March 2019, after the release of ''Captain Marvel'' and after the reshoots for ''Dark Phoenix'' had been completed.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The original storyline was absolutely a gamechanger when it came out in the early 80s. An almost god-like female character carrying a story of her own about her own power she can't control was unheard of back then, but has since become quite common. A few reviewers have pointed out that the story didn't translate well because general audiences who don't know much about comics history would assume that ''Dark Phoenix'' is the derivative one. It's especially similar to another female-led superhero film that came out only three months earlier, ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019''. [[https://www.vox.com/2019/6/13/18659723/x-men-dark-phoenix-failed-xmen This piece from Vox]] points out there were also two other popular pieces of media in the first half of 2019 that followed the same beats as the original ''Phoenix Saga'' story, Vanya Hargreeves's arc from ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'' and Daenerys's arc from the final season of ''Series/GameOfThrones''.
* {{Sequelitis}}: This movie received the lowest critical score out of all the main X-Men movies, with critics saying that it's a very disappointing send-off to a franchise that restarted the comic book movie genre. Most notably, it received ''worse'' review aggregate scores on Website/RottenTomatoes and Metacritic than even ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' and ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'', with some critics and fans actually preferring ''The Last Stand'' over this movie.

** Mystique's line "You might want to think about changing the name to X-Women" has been ridiculed as cheap PanderingToTheBase. Many fans point out that X-Men is a play on the word human, and has nothing to do with gender. Furthermore, Mystique's justification (that women always save the men) falls flat given how not only did she nearly doom all mutantkind in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' but also that the franchise itself has a history of not making full use of its female characters in twenty years of movies. If anything, this line comes off as a cheap attempt by Fox to capitalize on the success of ''Film/WonderWoman2017''.
** On a related note, the scene where Storm uses her powers to make ice cubes for Scott's drink at the party is often mocked as the perfect encapsulation of her [[AdvertisedExtra complete lack of importance or development]] in these movies.

** Coming off the very acclaimed ''Film/{{Logan}}'', this film was seen as an utter downgrade by critics to the emotional drama of the previous film. Jennifer Lawrence's performance in particular was singled out for being rather boring and phoned-in, making [[spoiler: making Mystique's death]] devoid of emotional impact.
** Many reviews even compared it unfavorably to ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'', the film that many lauded as one of the lower ranked movies of the franchise.

* ConfirmationBias: Many fans have said that it was too soon to do the Dark Phoenix Saga as there needed to be a Phoenix Saga to show Jean’s rise in order to make us care about her downfall. [[spoiler:But the movie proved be an InNameOnly adaptation and the plot is based more on the Phoenix Saga than the Dark Phoenix Saga with the space shuttle, Jean’s transformation into Phoenix, the villains being aliens, and Jean saving the day. While there are some elements from Dark Phoenix, the premise of Jean becoming a villain is completely absent. However, there are critics and fans that completely misread Jean’s arc as being the same one she had in X3 where she was serial killer.]] [[https://www.scottadamssays.com/2017/03/13/two-more-movies-on-one-screen/ It’s a classic case of two movies on one screen.]]

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Most people were wary of film's premise given how much of a dumpster fire it was the last time the Dark Phoenix plotline was adapted on screen. Furthermore this film was written by Simon Kinberg, who had also done ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'', which many saw as the studio revisiting their mistakes and found it hard to not compare the two attempts at the story, thus deciding to give it a pass.

* AssPull:
** When Vuk [[InfoDump first describes the Phoenix Force to Jean Grey]], she explains that Jean is the only person in the universe to be able to utilize its power. [[spoiler:There's no indication that she was lying, so her sudden ability to siphon the power from Jean, and use it against her in the finale, comes out of nowhere.]]
** Some claim that the film causes a retroactive one in the previous film by making clear the Phoenix Force enters Jean for the first time here, raising the question of what the hell that power she used to beat Apocalypse was if not the Phoenix Force. However, Apocalypse was not the first time Jean had manifested the Phoenix aura as she was shown with it throughout ''X2'' stated to be from the result of Magneto’s mutation activating machine in the first film and ''The Last Stand'' stated that it was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg7nxRJCZ9M telekinetic energy from Jean’s mutation]]. Even in ''Apocalypse'', it was also stated to be the result of Jean’s mutation, instead of a cosmic entity. Furthermore, the cosmic force is never once referred to as the "Phoenix Force" and it resembles a purple space cloud instead of a Phoenix. Ignoring the comics, they can be seen as two separate entities.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Most people were wary of film's premise given how much of a dumpster fire it was the last time the Dark Phoenix plotline was adapted on screen. Furthermore this film was written by Simon Kinberg, who had also done ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'', which many saw as the studio revisiting their mistakes and found it hard to not compare the two attempts at the story, thus deciding to give it a pass.

** Coming off the very acclaimed ''Film/{{Logan}}'', this film was seen as an utter downgrade by critics to the emotional drama of the previous film. Criticism citing that Jennifer Lawrence barely seemed interested in being there, so her death lacked emotional impact and the trailer spoiling her death made it worse.

* HarsherInHindsight: In ''Film/XMenApocalypse'', when Charles comforts Jean after she has had visions of a nightmarish future, Jean drops this line about her fiery Phoenix powers: "I'm afraid one day I am going to hurt someone.". Now, Jean's fears are realised when [[spoiler:she [[AccidentalMurder accidentally uses her unstable powers to shove back Mystique and impale her,]] [[KilledOffForReal killing her off]]]].

** [[spoiler:With the way that ''Days of Future Past'' ends, few in the audience actually expected Jean Grey to be KilledOffForReal. Her survival is confirmed in the final shot, where a flaming Phoenix appears above Paris.]]

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Charles Xavier. He is blamed for Jean going out of control and it's indicated that the audience is supposed to agree that he was being reckless and selfish, caring more about his ego than the mutants. However, some viewers find it hard to see it this way. As detailed in InformedWrongness, Xavier has managed to create a bond of trust and respect between mutants and humans, a vast improvement over them being vivisected and/or mutants using their powers to commit atrocities  Despite Mystique's claims, Charles isn't forcing kids into dangerous situations as a publicity stunt; he's sending willing, consenting adults to use their abilities to help people. Also, creating mental blocks in Jean's mind arguably wasn't done to control her, but to protect her and others; Jean's powers are wildly unstable when she's emotionally distressed and what could be more distressing than [[spoiler: being a little girl who accidentally killed her own mother and is now hated by her father]]? Charles clearly cares about Jean and while he could've perhaps approached the situation better, his intentions come off as more benevolent and sympathetic than apparently intended. However, it can also be argued that we are suppose to sympathize with Xavier as Jean forgives him and says that all his action were out of love instead of selfishness.