By George Haerle

For Grays Harbor News Group

Despite some critics calling it the worst X-Men film to date, “Dark Phoenix” is moderately entertaining as a sort of mindless summer blockbuster. As long as you don’t get too hung up on its rough edges — and the fact that the ending downright contradicts “Days of Future Past” from a few years ago — X-Men movie fans will get some enjoyment out of it.

That being said, it has some genuinely great action scenes. It’s sort of surprising that one of the more rough-and-tumble, whiz-bang X-Men films is also on the mediocre side.

Taking place after the less-than-stellar “X-Men: Apocalypse,” an accident during a rescue mission causes telekinetic mutant Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) to exhibit an extremely powerful and deadly spike in her abilities, releasing an entity within her known as the Phoenix and forcing the X-Men to go up against one of their own.

At times the awful script is so noticeable it will cause an eyeroll or cringe; it feels like a first draft. Sophie Turner’s line delivery and character development amount to “Oh no, I can’t control my power! What’s happening to me?” on repeat. James McAvoy seems content just to fulfill his contractual obligation as Charles Xavier, as he just doesn’t seem quite able to pull off scenes that seem to require emotionality. And Michael Fassbender tries his best for one more decent performance as Magneto, but he isn’t given the fantastic dialogue he had in previous films.

But they aren’t so bad, especially when compared to Jessica Chastain’s performance as Vuk, a sort of body-snatcher alien antagonist who is so uninteresting and underdeveloped that you start to wonder if they used an android in her place. Jennifer Lawrence isn’t much better, practically phoning in her performance in her final appearance as Mystique.

But the supporting cast picks up the slack where the lead actors stumble. Tye Sheridan will hopefully get cast again as Cyclops when Disney inevitably puts its own spin on the X-Men films (after purchasing the film rights). His performance is far more interesting than most other takes on the role, whether in cartoons or previous X-Men films with James Marsden.

Kodi Smit-McPhee gets a few great moments to shine as Nightcrawler, and what few scenes Alexandra Shipp has as Storm are far more engaging than Halle Berry’s take on the character. But perhaps noblest of all is Nicholas Hoult’s final portrayal of Beast, who honestly gives a 100% performance with what little he is given to work with. He is the only one in this film who is effectively emotionally resonant.

But if one thing is excellent, it’s the pacing and overall unfolding of the unpolished story. The flashback introducing Jean’s traumatic past and how the movie follows up on that is pretty engaging and tragic.

With a few script rewrites, “Dark Phoenix” could have been one of the better films in the series. Instead, it falls somewhere just below the middle of the X-Men film ranking. Basically, it’s better than “The Last Stand” but not quite up to snuff of the moderately good original “X-Men.”

As previously mentioned, the few action scenes are absolutely top-notch and the visual strong point of the film. They have a hard-hitting, punch-counterpunch quick-cut way of unfolding that would have been awesome to see in every other X-Men film not titled “Logan.” (That movie is perfect, and would have been a much superior ending to this series than “Dark Phoenix”.)

There are worse ways to enjoy a quick couple of hours than seeing “Dark Phoenix.” It’s a decent matinee viewing or Redbox rental, but not worth the money to go all out for the evening tickets, popcorn and soda. If you’d prefer the traditional summer blockbuster movie experience, go give “Godzilla” your money.

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“Dark Phoenix” is currently playing at the Riverside Cinemas, 1017 S. Boone St. in Aberdeen.

George Haerle holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing for media and lives in Cosmopolis.

Disney James McAvoy (left) and Michael Fassbender (right) lead the X-Men in “Dark Phoenix.”