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The New Mutants
(20th Century Studios/Marvel Entertainment)
By Lucas Allen
Originally written by Chris Claremont for Marvel Comics in 1982, “The New Mutants” was a spin-off of the “X-Men,” about a group of teenage mutants dealing with their newfound abilities and tragic backstories. The new film version is meant to start a new franchise spun off from the Fox/Marvel series in spite of the transition to Disney and last year’s “Dark Phoenix” bombing at the box office.
As the story goes, the film went through numerous delays not just because of the pandemic but because of creative differences between the studio and director Josh Boone. With the movie finally unveiled to the public, is it worth the long wait?
The movie solely takes place in a mysterious asylum, where Dr. Reyes (Alice Braga) is overseeing a small group of mutants who each came in under different circumstances. Sixteen-year-old Dani (Blu Hunt) is the latest patient to come in after a family tragedy, but without any idea what her powers are. From the start, she has a tough time fitting in, especially with bullying Illyana (Anya-Taylor Joy) a Russian teen with powers of teleportation. However, she does develop a close friendship with wolf-girl Rahne (Maisie Williams) while understanding better what speedster Sam (Charlie Heaton) and human torch Roberto (Henry Zaga) went through to get there.
But what the youngest mutants didn’t know is that Reyes has her own sinister purposes for exploiting her patients. Worse, the asylum seems to be possessed by the patients’ worst nightmares and flashbacks. As the mystery deepens, the five-some has to find a way to escape their prison and face their inner demons.
The concept of a superhero horror film has plenty of potential the same way Marvel Studios has been mashing up different genres recently to keep things fresh. But once again, the X-Men curse rears its ugly head with this movie suffering from tonal and stylistic inconsistencies. It’s tough to figure out which scenes were originally shot, re-shot, or re-edited when they seem to feel mismatched from one another. If this was a Marvel Studios production, at least a simple choice of style and tone would’ve been done better with a more experienced filmmaker and a bigger budget.
Another thing that didn’t work is the horror aspect that the movie was selling the most. The suspense and the “scare-you-out-of-your-seat” moments is marred by lack of quietness and characters expositing their dialogue. It could’ve learned from the Blumhouse school of horror storytelling in how to properly scare your viewers with a good story to tell. Instead, the whole movie is too noisy, the CGI is laughable and not all that scary. The noisiness comes to ahead in the climax, which the characters suddenly have to fight an unbelievable CG behemoth. Whatever drama they were trying to tell in the first two acts is tossed out the window and replaced with the similarly stale ending of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”
Characterizations are flat and none of the actors could ever elevate it. Some of the actors spoke in monotone and most of their dialogue is so much exposition, it’s difficult to get interested in the action. The worst piece of acting belongs to Anya-Taylor Joy because of her hilariously fake Russian accent and the way her character was written as 100 percent unlikable. Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams on the other hand seem to be trying the most to try to give a good performance especially during her dramatic scenes with newcomer Blu Hunt.
Though an admirable attempt, “The New Mutants” isn’t worth the long wait and certainly not worth the full ticket price. Whatever the studio had in the first place ends up being a joyless exercise in noise pollution. It’s disgraceful to see a superhero franchise go down like this. Hopefully, seeing Wolverine and his mutant crew in the MCU alongside the Avengers will be more worth the wait than this.
THE MOVIE’S RATING: PG-13 (for violent content, some disturbing/bloody images, some strong language, thematic elements, and suggestive material)
THE CRITIC’S RATING: 1.5 Stars (Out of Four)
