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We just got our second trailer for Dark Phoenix, which is pretty much the end of the road. Even if it hits it big, the X-Men property is probably being rebooted with new cast members and new arcs intermingled with Walt Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe. If it bombs, well, then what's done is done. As I watched the trailer, which offers more fantasy elements and a sharper connection to the X-Men series, but still looks like a rehash of the 2006 sequel that fans allegedly hated but yet grossed more in North America than any other team X-Men movie, I kept thinking of the climactic song from Anna and the Apoclolypse.

In one corner, you have the MCU fans, Walt Disney and certain segments of the comic fandom arguing that a reboot for this IP is long overdue, that this franchise is broken and the series is done. In the other corner, you have the folks behind Dark Phoenix swearing that there's good in this franchise (the actors, its ability to stand apart from the MCU formulas, the sheer fact that it lasted this long without a hard reboot, etc.) and it's worth trying to save. But if it is X-Men's time to go, then we can only hope that Dark Phoenix will give us one hell of a show.

This franchise has lived long enough and been important enough to deserve to end its continuity with its head held high. Yes, I think it's a mistake to retell the Dark Phoenix story that was partially adapted in X-Men: The Last Stand. The general audiences will just see a movie that reminds them of another movie. This trailer doesn't help matters, again offering similar sequences (a tragic showdown in Jean's childhood neighborhood, an attack on a mutant transport caravan, Magneto and Xavier arguing about relative morality, etc.) and even a whopper of a spoiler that merely replicates The Last Stand's big mid-film plot twist.

It's not that the film looks bad. Heck, disconnected from its IP and from the POV of someone who hasn't seen the prior movies, it looks like an intense sci-fi melodrama. But to fans and most audiences, it looks like a grimdark, grounded variation of something we've already seen before. Think The Amazing Spider-Man playing like a grimdark version of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man or the last Fantastic Four movie playing like a grimdark version of Tim Story's Fantastic Four (or, more accurately, the Roger Corman version). These versions of these characters, save for maybe Fassbender and McAvoy, aren't popular enough for the whole "see this old story redone within this continuity" pitch.

And that's a shame, because, warts and all, this 12-movie franchise (not yet counting The New Mutants) was a gamechanger. Bryan Singer's X-Men took the groundwork done by Spawn and Blade and put the comic book superhero movie "on base" before Spider-Man brought everyone home. Like a classic western hero, it made multiplexes safe for bigger and more fantastical superhero movies and yet now finds itself out-of-place and of-of-sync with the times. The continuity established by X-Men: First Class deserved better than to become the also-rans alongside Wolverine spin-offs and Deadpool solo flicks. Dark Phoenix threatens to end the franchise not with a bang but with a whimper.

Whether Dark Phoenix can avoid looking like a rerun, Simon Kinberg, Fox and friends are doing all they plan before X-Men goes to its grave. There's good in this franchise and it's worth trying to save. So, come June 7, 2019 (where it will face Secret Life of Pets 2), raise the curtain, hit the lights, as James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Sophie Turner and villain Jessica Chastain strike up the band for the final night. And if it's this version of X-Men's time to go, let's hope Simon Kinberg's Dark Phoenix gives us one hell of a show.

There's always so much to unpack about a movie trailer: the stars, the plot, how much of the plot is being totally given away. But in many cases, the part of the trailer that sticks with you the longest is the music. Be it a pop song or a piece or orchestral score, it's the music that most often makes a trailer.

This Week's Tune(s): "Sunshine (Adagio in D Minor)," one of the major movements in John Murphy's score for the 2007 Danny Boyle sci-fi drama Sunshine. And "Journey to the Line," from Hans Zimmer's Oscar-nominated score to Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line.

Back when we discussed the TV spots for Gravity, we talked about the Sunshine score and how it's often employed by both trailers as well as films themselves to borrow a sense of otherworldly high stakes. No film franchise fits those parameters better than the X-Men, particularly in this story that spans timelines and versions of reality. It's a remarkable piece of music that has seemingly been lab-tested for maximum excitement levels, because it's used so often.

Someone at 20th Century Fox must have really needed to hit a home run with this trailer, then, because one piece of omnipresent and undeniably rousing trailer music is then followed up by another: "Journey to the Line," from Hans Zimmer's spectacular score for The Thin Red Line. It's a good time to be Hans Zimmer in Hollywood. He produced what is arguably (but barely) summer's most triumphant score in Man of Steel, then scored two of the fall's more high-profile releases (Rush and 12 Years a Slave), and even when he's not specifically scoring a film, his Inception-y fingerprints are all over it (hey there, Captain Phillips).

So naturally, trailer-makers would be in a Zimmer frame of mind these days. "Journey to the Line" is likely Zimmer's most famous piece of score music, having been utilized countless times beyond the original film's parameters. Steve McQueen used it to great effect in his film Shame, which puts his decision to have an action-oriented composer like Zimmer on a film like McQueen's 12 Years a Slave in a much more sensible perspective.

The question is, does the employment of two of the most recognizable pieces of movie music in the last 15 years make the X-Men trailer pop, or does it relegate it to the bin of overuse? "Fan-made" is always a pejorative when discussing trailers, and were it not for the heretofore unseen Days of Future Past footage on display, you'd probably be able to talk me into believing some skilled and enterprising young fanboy had designed this trailer. It is undeniably rousing and moving, but there's something to be said for a trailer that digs up a piece of music that hasn't been done to death and puts its stamp on it. I feel dirty even saying a bad word about either of these two pieces of music, but you can't exactly deny that they're well-worn territory.

Overall Trailer Tune Effectiveness: If you're going to be the 500th film to use the same piece of music, that music had better be the best in the business. In this case, it just might be.

X-Men: First Class was an enjoyable popcorn movie that explored the early days of the not-yet-stuck-in-a-wheelchair Professor X (James McAvoy), still-a-good-guy Magneto (Michael Fassbender), and all of their friends. Set around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, it was a nostalgic look at the 1960s, the Cold War and John F. Kennedy. The trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past makes it clear the heady days of the 1960s are over. The party has ended: welcome to the depression of the 1970s. In other words, break out the flared corduroy:

In line with several recent superhero films, the trailer opts for closeups of actors looking somber. There is despair and bombast (it also steals music from Sunshine and Inception to overwhelm you with emotion)

Wolverine is still the go-to mutant, and perhaps the only X-Man who can carry a film on his own. You know exactly how X-Men: Days of Future Past is going to go. Wolverine will claw a few people. Professor X will be telepathic and preachy. Storm will, of course, make it snow; Magneto will angrily bend spoons; Mystique will be blue and naked.

Unfortunately, trailers for all the X-MEN movies have looked amazballs, but only X-MEN: FIRST CLASS has delivered. Which is odd, because Wolverine is the best of the X-Men, and he is literally in FIRST CLASS for a single line.

But, I digress. DAYS OF FUTURE PAST appears to combine the best of both worlds, not just Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and young Xavier (James McAvoy), young Magneto (Michael Fassbender), and young Mystique (super hottie and superstar Jennifer Lawrence), but also the classics, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen return to their roles as the older Professor X and Magneto, respectively. We even got a wee bit of Storm (Halle Berry), Rogue (Anna Paquin) and Kitty Pryde aka Shadowcat (Ellen Page).

There is really no mention or any great shots of the long-delayed Sentinels, so I look forward to a second trailer that shows their involvement. Obviously, they are responsible for the near extinction of all mutants, but we have yet to see one in action. And I want to so badly!

After several delays, it seems Marvel and Disney+ are finally ready to release their continuation of the original X-Men: The Animated Series television show and have unveiled a teaser trailer to hype the impending return. Does this new show have what it takes to simultaneously recapture its audience from 27 years ago and inspire a new generation of fans to get pumped about Homo superior before the inevitable MCU live-action movie? The ComicsXF staff fired up the clip on YouTube to offer the following 10, er, X reactions.

Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him on Twitter @AustinGorton

Scott Redmond is a freelance writer and educator fueled by coffee, sarcasm, his love for comic books and more "geeky" things than you can shake a lightsaber at. Probably seen around social media and remembered as "Oh yeah, that guy." An avid gamer, reader, photographer, amateur cook and solid human being.

Hello, and welcome to another edition of The Monitor, WIRED's look at all that's happening in the world of pop culture. Have you gotten over your Oscars hangover yet? Good, because we've got a new Dark Phoenix trailer, some sad news about The Suicide Squad, and Mahershala Ali's new sci-fi project all on deck. Step up.

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