Sunday evening, I watched Dark Phoenix at the theatres with my sister. I was somewhat excited, not because it was another X-Men movie, but because I wanted to see if they could pull off Jean Grey’s complete 180 arc. I was both impressed, and disappointed.
Now, I haven’t watched any of the other X-Men movies, so it was slightly confusing, but I had my sister there to whisper who was who and what was going on. So I can’t base this off of Jean’s previous entries in the other X-Men movies. So I won’t be exploring her complete arc, just the separate arc in Dark Phoenix.
Let’s get to it, shall we?
All right, before we get into the actual writing advice, can we just establish how cool Magneto and Jean are?
Okay. Now we can move on.
For the sake of describing this kind of character arc, I have named it the ‘trench’ arc. It’s not something you’re going to find explained in any books on writing, as it’s a fairly new concept. In fact, I had no idea anyone else besides me wanted to even do something like that until I saw the trailer for Dark Phoenix.
Let me explain what the ‘trench’ arc is.
The ‘trench’ arc is when you take a character through a negative arc, then through a positive one. You’re making the character do a complete 180 turn. Think Peeta from the Hunger Games. This arc is seriously tricky to pull off, especially for a main character. And Dark Phoenix did pull it off. But at the same time, didn’t.
I discussed this kind of arc with a fellow writer Martin Detwiler and here’s what he had to say on the subject:
“[This] kind of arc…takes that several steps further, but follows a similar pattern with a trough in the middle. [Referring to the positive arc.] The difference is that at their lowest point, they put themselves back together (or have been put together by an outside influence) the wrong way, and must undergo a second deconstruction phase to allow for the final upswing that brings them back to their original state as a good character.”
This kind of arc is seriously complex, and is not easy to pull off. Which is why Dark Phoenix both failed and succeeded at it. Here’s how.
#1 – Too Much Too Fast
The biggest problem Dark Phoenix had with pulling this off was the pacing. As my friend Martin Detwiler said in our discussion:
“…this kind of arc is best explored over the course of several books in a series, rather than in one book.”
This is true for movies as well. The overall arc of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame was too much for one movie, so it was spread out into two.
Jean’s transformation was too fast. Even though the movie was two hours long, it felt shorter because of the lack of exploration of the arc. She went from sweet Jean to evil Jean, to fierce Jean in the space of two hours.
To fix this, they could have slowed down the arc, and focused more on Jean’s journey, then trying to fit as much action into the film as possible, as well as minor arcs of every single character in the film. While it is good to give other characters their own arcs, sometimes having them already established through previous arcs is good enough when it comes to focusing on a much larger project like the ‘trench’ arc.
#2 – In Her Head
This is where they got it right. The movie focused mostly on Jean and her emotions through her whole transformation. Because it’s not just physical, it’s mental as well, just like with any other arc. Focusing this way allowed us to see things from Jean’s perspective and sympathize with her. She wasn’t bad so much as afraid and misunderstood. She couldn’t control her abilities, which led to fear and hate.
Again, this would have been pulled off better if it was spaced out in two movies instead of one, but it was still good, nonetheless. And Sophie Turner’s acting was nothing short of amazing.
#3 – A Victim of Lies
With the ‘trench’ arc, the character will most likely be the victim of lies. They are scared and vulnerable, and the bad guy swoops in, takes them apart, and puts them together the wrong way.
In Dark Phoenix, you saw a glimpse of this. Jean goes looking for help from those she trusts and not-so-trusts, but is turned away. That leaves her feeling wounded and vulnerable. That’s when the bad gal stepped in. (I wasn’t ever able to catch her name.) El Bad Gal shows Jean she’s not afraid of her and thus manipulates her for her own purposes.
This is the best angle to go with for this kind of arc. Only, in Dark Phoenix, it was half-baked. Jean turned around too fast. This random woman shows up and feeds her lies and Jean trusts her in the space of minutes. Building the trust between characters, proving that El Bad Gal wants ‘what’s best’ for Jean through action and not just word, would have cemented her lies and given Jean more reason to trust her, then just showing Jean through physical story-telling.
It could be argued that this isn’t a true ‘trench’ arc because Jean doesn’t really turn evil so much as just desperate to understand what’s happening to her. But just like with every story, Jean was just a victim of circumstance. She was inhabited by a cosmic element that not only heightened her powers, but gave her new ones as well. And the ‘trench’ arc is very flexible in how you want to use it and render your characters, just like any other arc. Your character doesn’t have to be inherently evil, just no longer viewing the story’s Truth in a positive light anymore. It’s like a positive character arc on steroids.
As Detwiler said,
“So we must be careful to map out the reasoning for these changes and make them internally consistent to the character. It seems very easy to make this too shallow and therefore unbelievable, or too complete and therefore like a roller coaster.”
Dark Phoenix managed to make Jean Grey’s arc too complete and very much like a roller coaster. It was believable, but not rendered carefully, and done too fast, so that it was unsatisfactory.
***
Just like with any character arc, we must be careful with how we do it. And studying how others complete theirs, we can figure out what will and won’t work for our own stories. It is a delicate process that shouldn’t be done flippantly, but with great thought and planning.
Thank you to Martin Detwiler for allowing me to quote him in my post.