[5.8/10] I don’t know, guys. If I wanted to watch Star Wars, I’d just watch Star Wars. Cards on the table, I have fond memories of this arc from childhood, but this is not the most encouraging start to the famous Phoenix Saga.
Most of this comes off some combination of implausible and mechanical. I don’t want to slate a show about people with magic powers too much for plausibility, but it seems awfully easy for the X-Men to just sneak into a government facility, get on the shuttle craft, and successfully make their way to a space station without much in the way of resistance or trouble. You wonder why they’re not able to solve every problem this easily given how smoothly this whole thing goes, which lowers the stakes for the adventure.
Once they get onto the space station and meet the bad guy, things ought to theoretically pick up. But Erik the Red is an also-ran Darth Vader in thrall to his emperor. The presence of some rebel ship trying to break through to strike against the Empire is derivative. And there’s not much in the way of combat or visuals to really excite.
There’s a few morsels of goodness here, though. The setup of Professor X getting a vision from far beyond, one he can’t quite explain but compels him nonetheless, is downright tantalizing The idea of something unknowable, that nevertheless spurs him to send his team on a mission where even he isn’t sure of the goal does a good job of selling what’s to come.
More to the point, while the setup is a bit contrived, Jean deciding to pilot the shuttle so that everyone else can escape is a big choice. She frankly hasn’t had much to do in the show thus far, so watching her take command and put her life on the line like this is pretty cool. I also dig the responses from both Cyclops, who’s so against it and self-sacrificing himself that Jean has to stupefy him to get him to stand down, and Wolverine, who understands but is still sad about the whole thing. At least the tease from there is a good one.
Overall, the site infiltration and space nonsense doesn’t do much for me, but the big choice from ean at the end at least partly redeems the outing.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-05-02T21:18:41Z
[5.8/10] I don’t know, guys. If I wanted to watch Star Wars, I’d just watch Star Wars. Cards on the table, I have fond memories of this arc from childhood, but this is not the most encouraging start to the famous Phoenix Saga.
Most of this comes off some combination of implausible and mechanical. I don’t want to slate a show about people with magic powers too much for plausibility, but it seems awfully easy for the X-Men to just sneak into a government facility, get on the shuttle craft, and successfully make their way to a space station without much in the way of resistance or trouble. You wonder why they’re not able to solve every problem this easily given how smoothly this whole thing goes, which lowers the stakes for the adventure.
Once they get onto the space station and meet the bad guy, things ought to theoretically pick up. But Erik the Red is an also-ran Darth Vader in thrall to his emperor. The presence of some rebel ship trying to break through to strike against the Empire is derivative. And there’s not much in the way of combat or visuals to really excite.
There’s a few morsels of goodness here, though. The setup of Professor X getting a vision from far beyond, one he can’t quite explain but compels him nonetheless, is downright tantalizing The idea of something unknowable, that nevertheless spurs him to send his team on a mission where even he isn’t sure of the goal does a good job of selling what’s to come.
More to the point, while the setup is a bit contrived, Jean deciding to pilot the shuttle so that everyone else can escape is a big choice. She frankly hasn’t had much to do in the show thus far, so watching her take command and put her life on the line like this is pretty cool. I also dig the responses from both Cyclops, who’s so against it and self-sacrificing himself that Jean has to stupefy him to get him to stand down, and Wolverine, who understands but is still sad about the whole thing. At least the tease from there is a good one.
Overall, the site infiltration and space nonsense doesn’t do much for me, but the big choice from ean at the end at least partly redeems the outing.