Dark Phoenix: Comic vs Film - Studio Interference (video essay script)

So its the 40th anniversary of the Dark Phoenix Saga! A classic comic book storyline that was recently adapted into a film. This video is an in-depth analysis on the movie. Where I examine how it stands as an adaptation and on its own.

But first, lets talk about the backstory of the film. The story was adapted before in X-Men: The Last Stand as a subplot. Many people believe it was the writers’ choice but doing a little bit of research will tell you that was Fox’s call. Chris Claremont, who is the writer of the source material confirmed this. He had a cameo in X3 and wrote the novelization for it, so he knows what he’s talking about and he really disliked how that movie handled the story.

So X3 co-writer Simon Kinberg acted as writer, director, and producer for this movie. Wanting to tell the story the studio didn’t let him and Zak Penn tell last time. Because why not? Deadpool’s origin was adapted twice. Unfortunately, just like the Gambit movie it was not meant to be. Because Fox bitched out again.

I’ll start by summarizing the original storyline, which parallels The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I don’t think that’s coincidence either. Because in Phoenix: The Untold Story, the creators mentioned wanting to do a Jekyll/Hyde scenario with Jean.

The story of Jekyll and Hyde is viewed by many to be a metaphor for the nature of drug use and multiple personality disorder. It involves Henry Jekyll who created a drug that unleashes the repressed dark side of his personality, which reflects how drugs lower inhibitions. In this state, Jekyll develops an alter ego called Edward Hyde and commits violent acts. But being Hyde makes him feel so great that he becomes addicted to the drug and keeps on taking it.

However, he starts to turn into his another self uncontrollably, which resembles symptoms of multiple personality disorder. Hyde grows stronger and stronger until Jekyll takes his own life to keep his dark side from permanently taking over.

Now look at the Phoenix story: It begins with Jean Grey on a space shuttle being consumed by radiation of a solar flare. There she becomes one with primal force and unlocks the full potential of her mutant abilities, granting her godlike power.

Jean described her new cosmic power to be like a drug because she was in ecstasy whenever she used it. It was said to be the ultimate physical and emotional stimulant.

And like Dr. Jekyll’s drug it also caused Jean’s personality to become wilder and less under control when she used it. Her alter ego was called the “Phoenix”, a reference to how Jean died on the space shuttle and reformed herself. Just like a Phoenix. I know about the retcons that came years later but the movie is going with the original interpretation.

This story is where the Hellfire Club first appeared, who were the villains in X-Men: First Class. They wanted to use Jean’s power for their own gain. So they tried to manipulate her into being their Black Queen. They did this by having this guy called Mastermind project illusions into her mind that fulfilled her repressed dark desires.

He frees the negative part of Jean and it grows stronger and stronger. She slowly becomes consumed by her dark side. She starts to act more aggressive and misuse her powers.



She eventually becomes the Black Queen but soon realizes it’s all a ruse and breaks free of Mastermind’s control, helping the X-Men defeat the Hellfire Club. But it’s too late as her Phoenix self takes over, becoming the Dark Phoenix.

She flies off into space to absorb the energy of a star because she’s now addicted to her power and wants more of it. That causes the star to go supernova and kill an alien race called the D’Bari, who were allies of the Shi’ar Empire lead by Empress Lilandra. The Shi’ar attempt to avenge them by executing Jean and the X-Men try to defend her. But Jean’s story ends the same way Dr. Jekyll’s does: taking her own life to keep her dark side from taking over.

People with only a surface level understanding of the story often think it’s all about Jean being this big bad for the X-Men to stop. Because it looks that way on the cover. You should know the saying. Jean isn’t the central antagonist of the story. Its ten issues long and she’s only Dark Phoenix for two issues, which doesn’t happen until halfway through the storyline. Its basically divided into two parts, with the Hellfire Club being the antagonists of the first part and the Shi’ar being the antagonists of the second part.

Now this movie was originally planned to be a two-parter as hinted back in 2017 by Olivia Munn. Based on concept art, the first movie would have focused on the return of Emma Frost with a new Hellfire Club. The second movie would have dealt with the cosmic aspect of the story. Based on what VFX supervisor Greg Butler said in an interview with io9. Where he says that they were originally planning on going in a more cosmic direction. But didn’t because that part of the Phoenix belongs in the second part of a two-film story.

There were also reports from 2017 saying that Jessica Chastain signed up to play Lilandra. Even she says that her character kept changing constantly.



Unfortunately, in late pre-production the studio made it into one film. As reported by Deadline Hollywood and confirmed by Chris Claremont who cameoed in this movie as well. The two films were going to be Phoenix and Dark Phoenix.

Now that the backstory is out of the way lets talk about the film we got. Some people say they rushed to make Jean a villain. The worst thing Jean does is kill Mystique and it was an accident that she regretted. Jean doesn’t do anything really villainous in this movie nor is she suppose to according to the people who worked on the film. Because she was suppose to be a villain in the cancelled.



Remember, this was suppose to be a two-parter. Chris Claremont told Popcorn Talk that the movies were called “Phoenix” and “Dark Phoenix”. I’ve recently reread Uncanny X-Men #100-138. This was definitely planned as a two-parter, because almost everything in this film is adapted from before Jean became the Dark Phoenix.



This movie is clearly a rewritten version of the first film. Where they replaced the Hellfire Club with random aliens for some god-forsaken reason. They want to wipe out humanity and rule the world just like the Hellfire Club did in X-Men: First Class. They have a fancy mansion like the Hellfire Club. They are led by a blond haired woman with psychic powers. Who was obviously Emma Frost in an earlier version of the script. According to Simon Kinberg she is suppose to play the Mastermind role. Just like in original plan for X-Men 3 featured Emma Frost being the one to manipulate Jean. As I said earlier, they tried to tell the story Fox didn’t let them tell last time.



The film even adapts Jean’s comic origin story shown in Bizarre Adventures #27 and X-Men Origin: Jean Grey, which I’ve also recently reread. Here’s a brief summary:

When she was a child she witnessed her friend Annie Richardson get fatally injured in a car accident, which traumatized her. That triggers her mutant powers and she felt everything Annie was feeling as she was dying. Later Jean developed post-traumatic stress disorder, having vivid flashbacks of the traumatic event and re-experiencing it.



Her trauma also kept her from shutting off her telepathy and so she cut herself off from others. One time when Jean was overwhelmed by hearing thoughts she lashed out at people with her telekinesis to make the voices stop.



Charles Xavier comes to help Jean with her powers and her mental condition. Her dad asks that he take his daughter’s powers away but Charles refuses saying that Jean’s powers are a gift. He also asks him to erase Jean’s memory of the traumatic event, but instead he suppresses her telepathy until she learns to cope with the experience.



Eventually, Charles succeeds in helping Jean. She outgrows the part of her that was afraid to let go of the memory of Annie and in the end Jean gains control of her powers.



Now lets compare that to the film. Which states that the force triggered the trauma in Jean’s mind that Professor X had repressed because it would easily make her mentally unstable. That she had all this pain and anger inside her that was coming out all at once. Anger is a common reaction to psychological trauma that can lead to uncontrollable anger management issues.

Jean displays other emotional symptoms of being traumatized throughout the film. Such as guilt, shame, self-blame, anxiety, fear, and withdrawing from others. She also has an episode of psychosis at one point.

They definitely took inspiration from Jean’s comic book origin story. There are interviews before the film’s release that say its about Jean struggling with her mental health. In another Simon Kinberg says that Jean’s telepathy goes out of control due to her traumatic memories, like in the comic. She lashes out at people with her telekinesis to make the voices stop, also like in the comic.



That’s another reason why you can’t say she was the Dark Phoenix in this movie. Because most of the stuff she does are things her comic counterpart did as a child. Now would you have called Jean a villain in X-Men Origins: Jean Grey? No, of course you wouldn’t. That would be silly.

Now there are obvious changes of course. Instead of witnessing the death of Annie Richardson being what traumatizes Jean it’s causing the death of her own mother, but they still kept it as a car accident. There is a special feature on X-Men: Apocalypse where it states that Jean felt her mother dying, just like with Annie. So its definitely based on that.

Xavier does the opposite of what his comic counterpart does and alters Jean’s memory instead of her powers. Because he did that in the original timeline and Wolverine showed that would lead to the tragic fate Jean had in The Last Stand. Xavier in the comics also indirectly caused the events of the Dark Phoenix Saga in a similar way. More on that later.



The movie is overall an adaptation of Jean’s origin story and the build-up to Dark Phoenix. Where Jean’s repressed anger from childhood trauma serves as the negative part of her being freed. Something Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn wanted to do with X3.

Simon Kinberg told Glamour in an interview that he wanted to ground the story in something real. Some people can found Jean’s experience relatable and it helps to have a relatable protagonist. Some viewers did actually connect with Jean in that way and that was the intent. So you would care about Jean when she actually became the Dark Phoenix in the cancelled sequel according to Chris Claremont. He feels the filmmakers tried their very best with various things out of their control and after rereading the entire saga I can see why he feels that.



This was meant to be a character study of Jean Grey more than anything else. I’m sure not everybody agrees with that statement because some felt that Jean was not developed and/or the focus of the narrative.



This is due to a fundamental misunderstanding of the source material where many people think Jean wasn’t responsible for her own actions but the force inside her. The source of this misconception is the animated series version of the Dark Phoenix Saga, which portrayed Jean as being possessed rather than being corrupted by a cosmic drug like in the comic version. So many people believe that applies to this version, which it clearly doesn’t as I’ve shown. Her outburst of anger are the result of buried trauma from her childhood that the force just simply dug up. Which makes Jean’s violent behavior a character flaw, so she has much more depth as character than some people give her credit for.



There are interviews stating that the force acts like an addiction drug with an euphoric rush. There is even a clip in the trailers that suggests this that didn’t make it into the final cut. There are several interviews mentioning scenes that flesh out ideas from the original storyline that was cut. According to Vaughn Gharakhani (who is a film editor that saw the original cut) that was the studio’s doing, which I believe. In an interview from October 2018 Simon Kinberg said that the runtime of the final cut would likely be over two hours. That explains why the movie feels so rushed. But my point is they were going for the Jekyll and Hyde angle of the original storyline. The force acts like a drug that removes Jean’s inhibitions.



Jean has all the qualifications of a traditional protagonist. She has the most screen time by far, she is the one that goes on a journey facing obstacles along the way, and has the biggest character arc. And her arc is essentially the same as the one Professor X had in Days of Future Past, where he too couldn’t control telepathy due to the trauma of losing his legs and the people loved abandoning him. That is what Charles meant by the mind of a psychic being fragile, he knows from experience and that likely factored in his decision to repress Jean’s trauma. His arc was about him learning to hope again and that made him stronger. That is basically Jean means by this:



“My emotions make me strong.”



I know a lot of people don’t like this line and/or don’t get it. She is saying that the emotion of hope made her. These parallels are likely intentional as Simon Kinberg said this had connections to Days of Future Past. He actually planned to do Dark Phoenix before that movie came out, there are interviews going all the way back to 2014 where he said it. Even the opening voice over narrations of both films are similar as they talk about taking control of your destiny.



So this is 100% Jean Grey’s movie. Professor X’s role is essentially the same as it was in the source material, Mystique is a just a plot device to get Jean at her lowest, and the stuff involving Beast and Magneto is just a subplot to prevent second sag. I’m going to prove that by doing a story structure breakdown in my next video and to refute claims that this movie was plotless. The only reason why some people say that is because they went in with the mindset that Jean was going to be the antagonist due to the misleading marketing campaign and was just waiting for that happening, overlooking the actual story that was unfolding.

If you don’t know how the three act structure works I recommend watching Lindsay Ellis’ video on it. I’ll be examining all eight sequence and comparing it to the source material to further prove the other points I made in this video.





Link below description for the second part of this thesis.

https://jimmy-o-face.tumblr.com/post/612597121997258752/dark-phoenix-comic-vs-film-story-structure