Kevin Smith Found X-Men: Dark Phoenix To Be Totally Watchable

The final film in the X-Men saga arrived with utter disappointment, getting bashed by both critics and fans alike to the point where it grossed the lowest amount in the entire franchise. But Dark Phoenix still exists, and now that it’s on home video, more people are having the opportunity to see the movie — and it might turn out that it’s not as bad as everyone said. Well, at least according to Kevin Smith, who recently admitted on his FatMan Beyond podcast that he didn’t hate the movie as much as everyone else in the general public.

Smith admitted to co-host Marc Bernardin that he decided to watch the movie at home before recording the latest episode, though he admitted his experience was heightened by the fact that he had a delicious hummus snack.

“I thought it was totally watchable, and for the first half I was like, ‘F—kin right on, they’re doing it. What is everyone talking about? I didn’t think it was that bad,’” Smith explained. “And then the third act kicks in and you’re like ‘Oh, I see.’ But it wasn’t like the third act was- honestly, I liked it a lot more than the third X-Men movie, Apocalypse.”

Smith went on to explain his problems with the movie, which included the fact that none of the original cast were involved to send off the franchise they started with 2000’s X-Men, or the fact that Jessica Chastain’s mysterious character was poorly constructed due to all of the re-writes and reshoots the movie endured.

There were rumors that Dark Phoenix ultimately made major changes because of conflict with Marvel Studios, which was set to use the Skrulls as their “villains” in Captain Marvel, which forced 20th Century Fox to make major changes when their acquisition by Disney was all but completed.

Director Simon Kinberg admitted that his project had issues, ultimately taking the blame for its failures during an interview with KCRW.

“It clearly is a movie that didn’t connect with audiences that didn’t see it, it didn’t connect enough with audiences that did see it. So that’s on me,” Kinberg explained. “I loved making the movie, and I loved the people I made the movie with.”

Dark Phoenix is now available on Digital HD, and will be released on Blu-ray and DVD next week on September 17th.