Movie

X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)

The X-Men film series kick-started the 21st-century comic book adaptation craze. An original trilogy, a prequel quadrilogy, and spinoffs that usually featured Logan / Wolverine. With a large cast of mutants, it’s no shock the series featured some powerful female foes, but Dark Phoenix is the only entry with a woman as the big bad. Throw in the ultra-powerful Jean Grey as an out-of-control antagonist, and the result is an entertaining spectacle.

After a prologue set in 1975, where a young Jean cannot control her telekinetic powers and accidentally kills her mother in a car accident, the rest of the movie takes place in 1992. This continues the trend of setting each reboot film in a new decade. By now the X-Men – and women, as Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) bluntly points out – are international heroes, and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) has a hotline to the US President. Every team member wears a stylised jumpsuit, and the school HQ building is pristine and modern.

When a space shuttle gets stranded near an odd flare-like phenomenon, the heroes come to the rescue. The team saves the crew, but Jean is trapped after going back for the commander at Xavier’s insistence. She absorbs the energy and somehow survives, though she’s a lot thirstier and um… flirtier. Jean wastes no time in kissing her lover Scott / Cyclops (Tye Sheridan). Anyone familiar with the story (or who’s seen Last Stand) will know what happens next. Jean loses control over her powers, becoming a vengeful and dangerous woman able to match any mutant in combat.

Xavier and his team put their differences aside to counter this new threat, whose destructive rampage threatens to destroy the fragile peace between humans and mutants. To complicate matters, an alien race plans to use Jean to remake the world. Dark Phoenix and aliens? Talk about upping the ante.

Villainesses

Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Vuk (Jessica Chastain)

The newly empowered Jean Grey closes her mind to Xavier (yes, she can do that) and goes searching for answers. She starts at her childhood home and confronts her father, who still blames Jean for the car accident. Their meeting ends rather amicably (all things considered) with Jean rendering her pop unconscious. Upon leaving, she discovers the entire X-Men team waiting. Guess they figured this mission needed a full squad.

Jean is bitter that Xavier sealed away her memories, and her fury erupts after the police arrive. The quiet suburban street turns into a war zone as the mutants confront their former teammate. Jean’s powers are so great she shrugs off their attacks, whether that be a bolt of lightning from Storm, the teleporting Nightcrawler (who she traps mid-shift) or the time-slowing Quicksilver.

Xavier freezes the cops by mind control to give Raven a chance to talk to Jean. This goes badly wrong when she kills Raven in anger by impaling her on a fence. The young woman is clearly distraught, and flies off, leaving the X-Men to nurse their wounds and mourn. Raven’s death causes rifts among the team, and Hank / Beast (Nicholas Hoult) argues Xavier is partly responsible.

Jean seeks the help of Magneto (Michael Fassbender), now a mutant community leader on a secluded island. She wisely doesn’t mention who she killed, but a military attack prompts another angry outburst. It’s magnetism versus telekinesis as Magneto battles Jean for control of a helicopter. He just about wins the titanic struggle and demands she leave the island. But when rogue X-Man Hank delivers the news of Raven’s death, Magneto dons his trademark helmet, ready to kill once more.

Meanwhile, the alien Vuk kills an American woman, assumes her identity, and wipes out her family with a literal touch of death. Turns out she and the other aliens were tracking the glowing space dust and are interested in Jean. Her father gives up information after some “persuasion”, and Vuk tracks her quarry to a bar. Jean’s mental powers make humans think she’s a harmless old man, but this ability doesn’t work on aliens. Vuk takes Jean to a house in New York and shows her images of planets and stars. It’s all pretty and awe-inspiring, designed to deceive Jean into helping her. By now the mutant is such a lost soul that she falls under Vuk’s evil influence.

This all leads to… where X-Men films always seem to end up: Xavier and Magneto battling it out over their differences. Mutants go at each other in the street, causing all kinds of carnage and destruction while bystanders watch helplessly. The two opposing forces are evenly matched. Storm fights a guy with whip-like braids, Hank and Cyclops duke it out on crashed vehicles, while Xavier and a telepathic female have their own mental battle.

To show his superiority, Magneto lifts a subway train above ground and blocks off the entrance to Vuk’s residence. His powers are no match for Jean, and his attempt to skewer her with a staircase rail is easily thwarted. Jean crushes and shatters Magneto’s helmet and tosses him out the window. It’s then Xavier’s turn to convince Jean. At first, she refuses to listen and has the cripple walk awkwardly upstairs. The telepath is powerless to stop her, but gets through by showing images of the past.

Vuk absorbs Jean’s energy, granting her the same all-conquering powers, and it’s only through Xavier and Cyclops intervening that she’s saved before being drained of life. Vuk survives an energy blast, but is now a truly dangerous foe. Before the X-Men can pursue her, they’re captured by special forces armed with anti-mutant weapons.

The captured mutants reconcile on a prisoner transport train, but there’s no time for further talk since Vuk leads a raid to recapture Jean. Eventually – after failed persuasion efforts and many casualties – a guard releases the mutants. Then it’s humans, X-Men and Magneto’s outcasts against aliens for one last battle. These creatures are hard to kill and resistant to small arms fire. Thankfully, mutant powers are far more effective at dealing with the threat, although some minor characters get killed in the fight.

Vuk joins the fray personally. What follows is like Jean earlier, but even more one-sided. The powerful alien defeats Storm and Nightcrawler with little trouble, then it’s Magneto and every weapon on board. Assault rifles and handguns have no effect, and Vuk soaks up damage like a literal bullet sponge. She tosses Magneto aside, but Jean chooses that moment to break free, crash the train, and create telekinetic bubbles to shield the mutants. She didn’t lose all her powers.

After Jean disposes of the surviving aliens by ripping them into dust, Vuk comes to claim her prize. The redeemed heroine gives her the remaining energy – enough to cause an explosion – after she ascends into space to avoid collateral damage. Think we all knew a heroic sacrifice was on the cards.

Honourable Mentions: X-Men Series

X-Men (2000) – Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos)

First films are usually origin stories, so expect background for the main characters. Meet a power-sucking girl named Rogue (Anna Paquin), the adamantium-clawed Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), and the two opposing mutant leaders, Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen).

The villain plans to transform prominent humans into mutants, and his henchmen are the whip-tongued Toad (Ray Park), dumb muscle Sabretooth (Tyler Mane) and Mystique. She’s as acrobatic as Toad and can change her appearance at will. This includes copying Wolverine’s claws for an epic fight, but Mystique remains in her natural blue-skinned form where possible. Her best scene is where she reveals herself to an anti-mutant senator and gives him a good kicking. Not one for diplomacy when defending her kind.

Battles between the X-Men and Magneto’s mutants are an ongoing franchise theme. In this outing, it’s mainly Wolverine with help from weather woman Storm (Halle Berry), laser-eyed Cyclops (James Marsden) and telepath Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). The last battle is at the Statue of Liberty, where Wolverine takes down Mystique – but not before they’ve had a good fight. Toad and Sabretooth are one-time villains, but Mystique gets the honour of appearing in every main X-Men movie.

X2 (2003) – Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), Deathstrike (Kelly Hu)

With the introductions over, there’s a lot more action. The principal antagonist is Colonel Stryker, a madman planning to wipe out all mutants. But he’s happy to employ their services provided they’ve been brainwashed or controlled through technology. Stryker created Wolverine, so their personal feud is a major subplot.

Mystique is back, and her infiltration of Stryker’s base turns up more than expected when she discovers plans to convert Cerebro – Xavier’s mutant-locating machine – into a weapon. Mystique poses as a beautiful blonde to seduce a security guard and inject him with liquid iron. Not good for his health, especially since he’s guarding Magneto’s plastic prison. Unwittingly smuggling metal into his cell is a surefire way to get killed.

The X-Men team up with Magneto and Mystique to stop Stryker after he raids Xavier’s school and kidnaps the professor. With their combined skills, the mutants gain the upper hand, though Magneto has devised a nefarious scheme of his own. What else is new? This leads to a dam bursting, and Jean Grey perishes holding back the flood. Anyone familiar with X-Men lore will know what comes next, but her Phoenix story is deferred until the third instalment.

For newcomer mutants, we have Iceman and Pyro. They have opposite powers, and will finish on opposite sides. More important from a villainess fan’s perspective is Deathstrike. She’s the female equivalent of Wolverine, which makes her ideal for bodyguard duty. Early on, she does little except crack her knuckles and follow Stryker around. To show her prowess, Deathstrike takes down Cyclops in Magneto’s prison, a contest she wins easily.

The standout scene is the inevitable fight between Deathstrike and Wolverine. She has claws on her fingers and the same accelerated healing powers he does. Thus, she can survive attacks that would kill any normal human. Wolverine took down scores of opponents beforehand, but Deathstrike is not so easily killed. Eventually, the hero drops his nemesis into a chemical vat, which ends the threat. Then Deathstrike springs back into action, and to ensure she stays dead, Wolverine injects her body with liquid adamantium.

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) – Jean Grey (Famke Janssen)

Like the prequel / reboot stories, the original trilogy closed with Jean Grey transforming into the unstable and powerful Phoenix. This was tired and forgettable stuff focused around an anti-mutant drug and the politics of its use. The climax involves a battle between the military and a mutant army led by Magneto, and a showdown on Alcatraz Island with the X-Men caught in the middle.

Mystique returns, but don’t expect much from her. After some playtime with her captors, she snaps a guard’s neck, only to be injected with the cure while saving Magneto. He turns his back on her, and Mystique is forgotten after that. Other females join the fight, notably the tattooed Callisto and a woman who generates shockwaves, but none of their scenes are memorable.

Jean is by far the biggest disappointment, though. She disintegrates her lover Cyclops, but most of that occurs off-screen. Even Xavier is no match for Phoenix, and is obliterated when he attempts to reason with her. After being established as such a powerful adversary, Jean becomes a silent observer. She stands back and watches as Magneto repositions the Golden Gate Bridge and leads an all-out assault.

When Jean gets involved, she turns humans and mutants alike into dust in an outburst of rage. It takes Wolverine – the only one able to withstand Jean’s powers – to convince her to stop. Jean begs him to kill her, and he duly obliges. Apparently, the producers didn’t like this ending either, because they rebooted the franchise.

X-Men: First Class (2011) – Emma Frost (January Jones), Angel Salvadore (Zoë Kravitz)

This movie is set before the original trilogy, mostly in 1962 at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. We see Charles Xavier, Erik Lansherr and Raven before the characters become Professor X, Magneto and Mystique. Prototype tech includes a primitive Cerebro, the X-Men jet, and fashionable jumpsuits. The titular first class members are inexperienced mutant teenagers who eventually prove their worth.

The main villains are the Hellfire Club, led by Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), a mutant who can absorb and release energy. His plan is to start World War III so that mutants will thrive in the radioactive wasteland. Villains aren’t known for sanity. Lansherr has a vendetta against Shaw for murdering his mother, which leads to a difference of opinion with Xavier.

The main female antagonist – to begin with – is Emma Frost, a telepath able to change into diamond form. A mix of physical and mental, she shows off these abilities several times. Highlights include beating up Lansherr, blocking Xavier’s mind control, and seducing a Soviet general by implanting sexual experiences. Unfortunately, she’s defeated far too easily when Lansherr traps her against a bed and cracks her diamond shell with twisted metal tubes. So much for the hardest substance in nature.

The injured Frost has no defence against Xavier’s mental powers and spends the rest of the movie off-screen in a secure cell. Actually, it’s not that secure as she cuts through the glass divider and speaks to the agents on the other side.

Shaw gets a replacement villainess in the winged Angel, a woman who spits acid. Seems this young lady didn’t enjoy being a recruit as she betrays her classmates. There’s a long aerial battle between her and Banshee, a boy who uses projected sound waves to fly. Until a blast from Alex Summers / Havoc clips Angel’s wings.

The last scene has Magneto – now in a more familiar outfit – recruit Emma Frost, but viewers shouldn’t get their hopes up. She never featured in the franchise again.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) – Raven (Jennifer Lawrence)

In the only main series entry without a standout female villain, Mystique (Raven) features again, but she’s more misguided than evil. If First Class was a prequel with retroactive continuity, this movie ends with a straight-up reset. The adversaries are Sentinels, machines that can adapt to any mutant power. In a dystopian future, these creations hunt mutants, so the solution is – you guessed it – time travel.

Wolverine is the designated hero when another mutant transfers his consciousness back to his younger self in 1973. The original trilogy and prequel series casts unites, giving us two versions of key characters, though it’s never explained how Xavier is still alive. Past Wolverine convinces other mutants to join forces against Dr Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), the scientist responsible for creating the Sentinels. The X-Men must prevent Raven from assassinating him and setting the dark future events in motion.

Things don’t go according to plan (do they ever?), and Magneto betrays his fellow mutants to fight against humans. The set-piece finale in Washington, DC has Magneto moving an entire stadium and turning the Sentinels against their creator. In the end, Raven is the heroine, and the future – the entire original trilogy – no longer happens.

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) – Horseman – Death (Monique Ganderton), Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Storm (Alexandra Shipp)

Following the trend of moving forward a decade, this movie is set in the 1980s, though we get a prologue in ancient Egypt that introduces the villain En Sabah Nur. He’s a mutant able to transfer his consciousness to another’s body and absorb their power, so this blue-skinned baddie has many abilities. Handy when your goal is to enslave humanity.

The resistance entombs him mid-transfer, but not before they’re wiped out by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Monique Ganderton plays their leader and gets a few kills before she sacrifices herself to protect her master. Too bad, because she made a better impression than the main female villains.

Those two women would be young Storm and Psylocke, recruited by the resurrected En Sabah Nur to be his new lieutenants. Also joining him are Angel and – drum roll – Magneto. His anger, combined with enhanced abilities, makes him even more dangerous. Xavier and the X-Men do their best to contain the threat, but the villain’s almost godly powers make him the most dangerous foe they’ve ever faced. The ancient mutant is intent on restoring his rule and creates a giant pyramid through sheer will alone.

Storm and Psylocke get shiny matching armour sets, but their battles with the heroes are sadly nothing special. Storm has a change of heart when she witnesses Raven (her hero) stand up to En Sabah Nur. Psylocke uses purple energy weapons – swords and whips – and puts up a struggle, but her screen time is still short and she’s often on the wrong end of a beatdown. The henchwoman’s best moment is riding with Angel to attack the X-Men jet, but the heroes simply teleport away and Psylocke makes a narrow escape.

Magneto redeems himself, but even with his help the ancient mutant is strong enough to survive a combined onslaught from all the X-Men. So, Xavier instructs Jean Grey to unleash her true power. Even En Sabah Nur can’t survive the Phoenix, and turns to dust. Her talent for utter destruction provides a glimpse of what’s coming in the next film.