Sophie Turner Rises Above a Terrific Mutant Ensemble in 'Dark Phoenix'

X-Men has been retold countless times in films, that it's already difficult to differentiate each and every one of them. All, with the exception of a few like James Mangold's Logan, focuses on all mutants, their superpowers and their struggles coexisting with normal human beings. So Simon Kinberg's take on another X-Men story,  putting one of their most complex characters on the forefront, is a welcome addition to the growing number of superhero origin movies there is.

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Fresh from the recently wrapped-up Game of Thrones, Sophie Turner stars as Jean Grey, who has shown she can lead a bunch of veteran actors purely with her star quality, and her acting prowess even. Here, she joins the old-schoolers of actors and actresses who are terrific on their own.

Starting off with a flashback of how Charles "Professor X" Xavier (James McAvoy) adopted an eight-year-old Jean after being hospitalized because of an unexplainable car crash with her parents, it fast forwards to Jean Grey among with other mutants led by Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) and Hank/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) in a space rescue mission ordered by the US President. Things went wrong when they accidentally left out one of the astronauts in rescue and, despite Mystique's hesitance to push through, Professor X nudged Jean Grey to control the destructive solar flare approaching the space ship. And there, right at the beginning, we learned how Jean Grey got her glowing extra superpower aside from her telekinetic ability.

That whole space sequence, bolstered by outstanding space visual effects and Hans Zimmer's dramatic score, spirals into a gripping series of events of Jean Grey and her influence with the rest of her team, and while they are successful, several conflicts arise after they realize the uncontrollable effects of the solar flare in Jean.

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What's more impressive is, Kinberg's screenplay never overutilized each and every character's arc in the story. It's consistently moving without undermining all the important characters in the film. For one, we were not bombarded with Scott/Cyclops' (Tye Sheridan) romantic angle with Jean even if he served as Professor X's bait to calm Jean Grey's hysteria. Even Jessica Chastain's introduction as the main villain felt seamless despite being a random human just spending a night with her family and friends popping out of the story.

No one appeared to be a filler. Even the young Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Storm, (Alexandra Shipp) and Quiksilver, (Evan Peters) whose combined superpowers paved way for showcasing some of the film's incredible display of visual effects.

The familiar foursome of McAvoy, Lawrence, Hoult and Michael Fassbender gets some of the juiciest parts of the film. The drama surrounding them provided great substories and even surprises, apart from Jean Grey's rebellion from the mutants. It helps a lot that they portray characters that we already love and these feelings will come into play. Lawrence and Hoult's heartfelt scenes alone felt like they're using their real-life emotions as ex-lovers, but that's probably just me prying.

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Still, Sophie Turner remains to be the true star. While she didn't carry the film on her own, she commandingly encapsulated the hero and villain side of Jean Grey. Her climactic scene with Jennifer Lawrence is a standout. It's as if you're watching a passing of the crown from one lead actress to another. Both grounded and filled with respect.

It’s Hans Zimmer's score and the action set pieces that completely got me. Almost every scene is atmospheric because of Zimmer's prominent, hair-raising, both metallic and orchestral compositions, that maximized the intensity and poignancy of every scene. It's enveloped by his genius that there's only little to zero scene where it's music-less. The action scenes, on the other hand, are exciting. There are at least five different major action sequences, and each one is pulsating and magnificent to watch--from the space mission to an electrifying showcase of superpowers in an old suburb; a telekinetic showdown between Magneto and Jean Grey, and a hectic battle involving a subway train, to the final showdown in a moving train that involves a stiletto-stomping Jessica Chastain, aliens moving like speedy zombies combating the mutants working as a unit.

Excuse my Avengers hangover, but it has several parallels with the film especially in the third act. Even Jean Grey's penultimate look before she unleashes her destructive superpower reeks of Captain Marvel's superhero qualities--from the glowing skin to the gleaming hair. Both share the same intense aura.

Dark Phoenix is not a game-changer, but it pushes the X-Men story forward. Especially with its
recent move to Disney, it's only the beginning of who-knows-what. Even if it will only serve as a
footnote for its future saga, it's a super fun watch and an unforeseen superb origin story.