One day someone is going to track back through the history of Dark Phoenix and find out not only how this most recent X-Men feature went so wrong, but also how those responsible allowed it to flounder so badly. It is, to date, the last of the X-Men films – presumably until Disney’s Marvel Studios decide how to incorporate the characters into their Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Dark Phoenix adapts the popular comic book storyline of 1980, in which mutant Jean Grey is possessed by an incredible alien power. It is one of the defining story arcs in Marvel comic books, and indeed had already been partially adapted for cinema in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. That attempt was a critical and commercial failure, leading to a partial reboot of the X-Men movies with X-Men: First Class. When that revised saga hit the appropriate point again, the decision was made to undertake the “Dark Phoenix Saga” again.

Given the wealth of available material to adapt, it seems odd to tackle the same story twice. What is even less explicable is the writer/director chosen to helm Dark Phoenix was Simon Kinberg – one of the writers that helped make such a hash of things back in The Last Stand. This fresh attempt is not poorly made exactly as The Last Stand was; instead it is a fairly risible effort for all new reasons.

On a mission into Earth’s orbit, Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) is attacked by a rogue blast of cosmic energy. Her powers begin to expand, putting her friends and herself in terrible danger. When a group of shapeshifting aliens come to Earth seeking Jean’s new powers, her X-Men colleagues must band together to keep her safe.

The biggest problem with Dark Phoenix is that it does not have enough time to tell its story. Kinberg has just under two hours to re-introduce Jean and the X-Men, demonstrate her powers, show how she is attacked by the Phoenix and over-powered, show her come to distrust her friends and come under the Phoenix’s influence, introduce aliens to the X-Men screen universe for the first time, and resolve a narrative involving a good dozen or so characters. There are simply too much being juggled at once: balls are dropped, and there is no time to be anything but rudimentary. This extents to the broad ensemble of heroes, few of whom receive more than a cursory glance in terms of depth or distinctiveness. The film goes to the lengths of casting Jessica Chastain as its villain, and gives her nothing of note to do. The same goes for the pre-existing cast, including Jennifer Lawrence and James McAvoy. They are a talented, widely liked group of actors, and they are left floundering.

There is a strange attempt in the more recent X-Men features to match the story to a different decade in time. First Class was set in the 1960s, Days of Future Past in the 1970s, and so on. While it is an interesting idea, it does lead to a bizarre lack of ageing among the key characters. In First Class Magneto is about 28, while actor Michael Fassbender was 34 at the time of its release. Another three films on, and the Magneto of Dark Phoenix should be 58; Fassbender was only 42. The odd longevity affects pretty much all of the characters, and proves rather distracting.

The action seems weak, with underwhelming camera work and editing leading the film to seem more made-for-television than a studio blockbuster. Hans Zimmer’s Vangelis-esque score is distinctive, but does not reflect the rest of the X-Men films to date. Even the costuming is lacklustre and a little embarrassing at which to look.

Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox certainly had an effect: a mooted two-part film was abandoned, and sequences linking this to Fox’s spinoff The New Mutants were cut out. This was not intended as the final instalment of a 20-year movie saga; it had that responsibility thrust upon it after the fact. Despite these challenges, there is no excuse for this level of quality. Bangs and whimpers and all that: the failure of Dark Phoenix is a mercy killing.