The first reaction to the trailer X-Men: Dark Phoenix trailer screened at CineEurope 2018 has declared it a "fantastic action thriller."

Artur Chachelov, a contributor to the Russian website Kino Metro, wrote that the trailer for director Simon Kinberg's sequel "looks better than expected," gets "rid of the excessive gloom of the teaser" and is "positioning the project as a direct continuation" of the Fox franchise.

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That praise comes after actor Evan Peters' promise of a darker tone, but falls in line with comics veteran Chris Claremont's hope for the film and trust in Kinberg's vision.

Kinberg makes his directorial debut on Dark Phoenix, he's a franchise veteran who co-wrote 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand and 2016's Apocalypse and produced the three most recent X-Men films, as well as Logan, Deadpool and Deadpool 2, and the upcoming New Mutants and Gambit.

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Opening Feb. 14. 2019, X-Men: Dark Phoenix stars Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Alexandra Ship as Storm, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler.

(via Dark Phoenix)