With the approach of summer vacation, fans of the X-Men franchise will soon enjoy a visual feast on the big screen.

随着暑期档拉开帷幕，“X战警”的粉丝们将第一拨迎来大片盛宴。

On June 6, the new superhero film X-Men: Dark Phoenix will open across Chinese mainland theaters, marking a conclusion of the nearly 20-year-long X-Men series.

6月6日，《X战警：黑凤凰》将登陆内地影院，而这也将是超级英雄系列的鼻祖“X战警”近20年传奇的谢幕之作。

Over recent years, superhero films have dominated cinemas worldwide to become the most popular and lucrative genre.

这几年，超级英雄影片几乎以压倒性的优势，成为全球最热门也最赚钱的影片类型。

Despite how confusing it might be for ordinary audiences to know every character and their background, such films always have a unique appeal thanks to the special effects-studded spectacles featuring disasters and heroic battles.

对于路人观众而言，或许会分不清谁是谁，也闹不明白哪个超级英雄是哪家公司的。但在大屏幕上看到山崩地裂、群雄并起、英雄力挽狂澜，总是令人热血沸腾，而这也正是特效大片经久不衰的魅力所在。

 To some extent, the reason why superhero films adapted from comics are so fascinating to North American fans is the same as why Chinese moviegoers once fancied martial arts films. They all feature larger-than-life tales that make us temporarily forget about how common we are in reality.

从某种意义上，漫画超级英雄对于北美观众的陪伴，恰如武侠片之于国人的念念不忘，都是造梦工厂在大银幕上隔绝了庸庸碌碌的人生，为我们营造了一个英雄崛起的绚丽世界。

But Dark Phoenix is a bit different.

但《黑凤凰》大概是最不走寻常路的。

The film is about an antagonist.

因为这部影片将是一部反英雄的超级英雄片。

Jean Grey, or the titular Dark Phoenix, has turned "bad" now.

琴·葛蕾,也就是美貌的凤凰女，变“坏”了。

 It occurred in the long and convoluted history of Marvel.

这个事儿，说起来话长。

Marvel Comics is 80 years old, and Jean Grey, who debuted in 1963, is now 56 years old in the history of the comic world.

漫威有着80年的历史，首次登场于1963年的琴·葛蕾今年也56岁了。

In the past half century, Marvel Comics stories have spawned a number of animated series, TV dramas and films, featuring a lot of time-travel and multiuniverse events.

这半个多世纪来，在那么多的漫画、电影、电视剧和动漫中，有许多穿越时空和多重宇宙的事情发生，让整个“X战警”的时间线冗长而复杂。

 Ensemble of X-Men heroes

Jean Grey also has experienced many twists. Aside from a series of milestone incidents, including seeing the death of her friend, becoming the host of a dark power,  and discovering her lover Cyclops having an affair, she is also killed a couple of times and comes back to life.

琴·葛蕾本人也经历了少年时目睹好友车祸、救队友反被黑暗力量附体，挚爱镭射眼出轨，被杀了几次，又复活了等等没完没了的反转。

 Considering that Disney has already finished the acquisition of Fox, it's exciting to see that X-Men will quite possibly join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And it also means Jean Grey will have more twists in the future.

考虑到现在迪士尼收购了福斯，“X战警”也回归到漫威大家庭，想必，琴·葛蕾在未来半个世纪，人生阅历会更丰富曲折吧。

But if you still have very limited knowledge about the blockbuster, it's time for a refresher on its history.

总之， 如果你现在对今年暑假这部打头阵的大片还知之甚少，是时候来补补课了。

Jean Grey is a mutant. Mutants are a kind of subspecies of humans. With the mutation of genes, they possess superhuman powers. But compared to Thor, the Asgardian god, and Superman, an alien, mutants are obviously quite different as they are still creatures on the Earth.

琴·葛蕾是个变种人。顾名思义，变种人还是人类，属于人类的一个亚品种。由于基因组突变，他们拥有了超越人类极限的能力。和“雷神”这样天神系、“超人”这种外星来客有很大区别的是：变种人仍属于地球原产物种。

 Officially, Namor the Sub-Mariner is considered the first mutant superhero ever featured in Marvel Comics, making his debut in 1939. He is the son of a human father and an Atlantean princess.

在漫威历史上，第一个变种人是“海王”。这个海王并不是隔壁公司DC已经找温子仁拍出大片来的那个海王，而是一个名叫“潜水海员纳摩”的超级英雄，最早登场于1939年的漫威漫画，他的父亲是人类，母亲是亚特兰蒂斯的公主。

 Namor the Sub-Mariner 海王纳摩 With Hollywood's decadeslong effort to adapt the famous superhero comic stories into cinematic epics, the most well-known mutants are now the X-Men. And Dark Phoenix is the most powerful in the X-Men franchise.

当然，随着好莱坞把超级英雄们一一搬上大银幕。“X战警”成了大家最熟悉的变种人，而“X战警”中最强大的就是拥有凤凰之力（Phoenix Force）的“黑凤凰”。

 Jean Grey was the younger daughter of Professor John Grey of the History Department of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The college really exists in real life and was founded in 1860.

琴·葛蕾是巴德学院历史系教授约翰·葛蕾的小女儿。巴德学院坐落于美国纽约市的哈德逊河畔安南戴尔。这个真实存在的学校初建于1860年，是美国极负盛名的一流文理学院。

 Bard College巴德学院

At the age of 10, Jean Grey was playing with her best friend Annie Richardson when Annie was hit by a car. The emotion that Jean felt as she held her dying friend awakened her own latent telepathic powers and she experienced Annie's own emotions as she died. But the accident also manifests her powers including telekinetic ability.

10岁那年，琴·葛蕾正在和她的好友安妮·理查德森玩，但后者被汽车撞了。当看着好友在眼前死去，琴·葛蕾的心灵感应能力被激活，她完全感受到了好友临死前的痛苦，自己也濒临崩溃。但她的超能力也因此被强化了。

Soon, Professor Xavier took her in and she joined the X-Men. Besides her, the team comprised of Cyclops, Beast, Angel and Iceman.

很快，X教授找到了她，并让琴·葛蕾加入到X战警中。和她第一批并肩作战的，还有镭射眼、野兽、天使和冰人。

Notably, she was in a relationship with Cyclops.

众所周知的，她和镭射眼成了一对情侣。

This is the turning point which constitutes the key plot element of the new film. The X-Men crashed their spaceship during an emergency space mission. Jean tried saving them by controlling the ship but exposed herself to lethal levels of space radiation, dying in the process. Determined to save Cyclops, she called for help in her last moments. Her call was answered by the Phoenix Force, a cosmic entity and the sum of all life forces in the universe.

接下来，就到了关键转折期，也是这部新片最重要的情节之一。在执行一次紧急太空任务时，X战警撞毁了他们的飞船。琴为了保护队友，牺牲了自己，置身于致命的太空辐射之中。但因在临死前还念念不忘镭射眼，她的呼唤得到“黑凤凰”的响应。

 The Phoenix Force is an immortal entity and is the prime universal force of life. It was born of the void, between states of being. It is the origin of all psionic energy and will exist forever in all realities of the omniverse.

现在该解释下“黑凤凰”了。这个说成中文，就是“毁天灭地的洪荒之力”，是一种玄之又玄的黑暗力量。它诞生于虚空之中，是所有能量的源头，也将永久存在于所有的时空之中。

Many are really looking forward to seeing how the Dark Phoenix force will conclude the legend of the 20-year-old X-Men films.

至于“黑凤凰”究竟会给X-Men的20年传奇划上一个怎样的句号？的确令人充满期待。

The film was shot over six months beginning in the spring of 2017 in and around Montreal. Production designer Claude Paré took the realistic approach that Kinberg wanted to heart, crafting a moodier look for the film.

现在可以知道的是，这部影片的拍摄和准备，也是经历了很长的时间。从2017年春季开始，《X战警：黑凤凰》开始在蒙特利尔拍摄，整个拍摄周期大约为6个月。艺术指导克劳德·帕雷采用了金伯格想要的现实风格，打造了一个很情绪化的视觉风格。

 琴·葛雷吸收太空辐射变成黑凤凰Dark Phoenix

Among Paré's tasks were constructing the neighborhood where Jean had lived as a young child. She goes back to the modest street to solve a mystery about her past, but the trip becomes the site of an explosive standoff between Jean and the X-Men, resulting in Raven's untimely death. The neighborhood street was constructed entirely from the ground up.

在前期筹备时，帕雷的任务之一就是构建琴童年时生活的社区。她回到这个街区，想要解决有关自己过去的谜题，最终这里却成为琴与X战警对峙和冲突的地方，瑞雯也最终在这场冲突中死去。这个社区是完全平地而起，从零开始构筑的。

Just as much effort went into creating the fictional country of Genosha, an island nation where Fassbender's Erik lives peaceably among exiled mutants including two new characters, Black Queen Selene and Red Lotus. The community was constructed about an hour outside of downtown Montreal.

剧组在创造影片中的虚构国家基诺沙时同样花了不少力气，这个岛国是变种人的世外桃源，法斯宾德饰演的艾瑞克平静地与一群被放逐的变种人生活在一起，这里也将引入两位新角色：“黑皇后”赛勒涅与红莲。剧组在离蒙特利尔市区一小时车程的地方构建了这处场景。

"It's a refuge for mutants who don't have anywhere else to go. It has a classic commune vibe — people living off the grid, being self-sufficient," actor Michael Fassbender once said.

而粉丝们最钟爱的角色之一、“万磁王“的扮演者迈克尔·法斯宾德曾给过这样一个意味深长的解释：”这里是哪些无家可归变种人的庇护所。这里有着典型的公社气氛——人们与世隔绝，自给自足。”

恰恰是这种生而不同，却又为俗世不容的悲剧感，让X战警有别于其他超级英雄故事，有了映照于现实世界的历史深度和文化高度。

又到了看电影学英语时间：

telepathic:心灵感应

Jean Grey has the telepathic ability.

mutant:变种人

The X-Men are a team of mutant superheroes, published in comic books by Marvel Comics.

superhero:超级英雄

The X-Men series is one of the best superhero film franchises.