I don't know where your snippy attitude is coming from, so you can go ahead drop it right now. Regardless of whether or not Signer intended to use the cosmic Phoenix, the point is that he intended to use a version of Phoenix that would have been handled much differently than the one used in X3 visually. In X3, Phoenix is closer to Claremont's original concept--Phoenix is only an alter ego of Jean Grey's mind.
What Singer had set up, what with the giant flaming bird under Lake Alkali, Jean lighting up in psychic fire, her eyes glowing, are all traits of that point to a Phoenix concept closer to that in the comic series, a different entity that embodies the form of a Phoenix.
What we have in X3 is just a case of schizophrenic personality disassociative disorder, one of those personalities giving itself a monicker of 'Phoenix' wholey unrelated to anything that could revive her or focus any kind of universal power through her. It's just what Jean would be if she wasn't afraid to use her powers at all. So I'm sorry, no. Comic Dark Phoenix uses psychic fire because she posseses and actually "is" the Phoenix Force.
Before being posessed by the Phoenix Force, Marvel Girl never exhibited psychic fire, just pink TK energy. Even when the real Jean came back, she never used psychic fire unless she actually harbored the Phoenix Force, it was still her trademark pink TK/TP energy signature.
So my point was that if we're never dealing with a cosmic entity in X3, then it follows suit that they wouldn't give the character graphics that resemble psychic fire, since it's a complete non-sequiter for anyone who isn't aware of what 'Phoenix' means in the comic series. The fact that X2 shows the theme around Jean Grey leading up to her analagous "death" saving the other X-Men, including a big flaming bird at the end points to a cosmic Phoenix.
Even interviews have stated that Singer intended for Phoenix to be the major plotline in X3, followed by Dark Phoenix in X4, which is where I draw my conclusions for Singer's intial ideas for some form of Phoenix that isn't just the unhinged id of Jean Grey.
And while I enjoyed the hell out of X3, I am disappointed because I felt as though with the indications built up by Singer that a) he would have stayed on to tie up the plotlines he had begun or b) that Ratner's team would have picked up where he left off both in storyline and imagery instead of taking a hard turn to something else.
If it was never Singer's intent to harbor a cosmic Phoenix, then he better have had a damn good reason behind the bird and the fire, because anyone who isn't an X-Men fan wouldn't understand how Jean being a strong telekinetic/psychic would ever lead to her being a pyrokinetic who suddenly likes gigantic birds. Psychic fire only made sense in the context of an actual firebird, and would only continue to make sense afterwards if used as a psychic illusion (such as Jean just casting psychic illusions that fit her history as the Phoenix). As I don't think Singer's detached from his audience, I can either assume that he would explain why Jean likes to cast psychic illusions of herself surrounded by a big bird and on fire, or that he'd be writing in something that actually explains why Jean was on fire, such as the Phoenix Force. The latter makes the most sense to me.
