Skip to main content

A Review of “The New Mutants (2020)″

 

image

The New Mutants was the last film in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise movies. It’s a spinoff movie based on the comic/team of the same name and focuses on lesser-known mutants Mirage, Wolfsbane, Cannonball, Sunspot and Magik. The premise is simple “Five teenage mutants undergo treatments at a secret institution that will cure them of their dangerous powers. Invited by Dr Cecilia Reyes to share their stories, their memories soon turn into terrifying realities as they start to question why they’re being held and who’s trying to destroy them”.  I remember watching the first trailer and it was very interesting especially since it portrayed this movie as a horror x superhero movie which was something new. However, it had a lot of background development problems with Fox executives wanting reshoots to make it more horror causing a delay, Disney merging causing it to be in limbo, the coronavirus causing it to be delayed again. It eventually released 3 years after being filmed. The question is was this movie worth the long wait?

image

Firstly, the cast is pretty good and deliver for the most part. They do a good job for what they have been given and are convincing enough in their accents and portrayal of their character archetypes. Additionally, the chemistry between the entire cast is good even when they are antagonistic against each other. Wolfsbane (Maisie Williams) and Dani/Mirage (Blu Hunt) are great in scenes involving them together and Magik (Anya Taylor-Joy) is charismatic and dislikeable at the same time. Secondly, the third act of this movie is pretty enjoyable to watch with its surprisingly good action scenes and good CGI. Seeing the characters powers are also visually fun to watch. It is also the first superhero movie to give a proper representation to the lesbian community and not in the dumb “Star Wars” way.

image

Unfortunately, there isn’t anything else to praise about this movie. The first two acts of this movie are so boring and extremely slow-paced. The first act has a lot of setups to introduce us to the characters and the director (Josh Boone) does this by having constant talking. It was just so mundane and uninteresting to the point that I was begging for something exciting to happen. There is a scene where all 5 of them decide to have fun by taking a lie detector test and it is so draining to watch. The main character Dani gives a monologue about some Demon bear that feels like it is going on for way too long. The second act starts to have things happen but when these things happen they only last 10 seconds before going back to some boring conversations again.

image

The characters aren’t great themselves as they are all cliche archetype. We got Dani whos the nice POV main character, the nice girl Wolfsbane and nice boy Cannonball (Charlie Heaton), the asshole boy Sunspot (Henry Zaga) and asshole girl Magik. They all remain these type of characters from beginning to end with maybe Magik somehow not being an asshole anymore with no explanation. None of the characters has any depth to them and you barely know anything else about these characters as their past are not completely elaborated on.

image

None of the “surprises” in this movie is even surprising as the story is entirely predictable. The antagonist is predictable and all the explanation for the things occurring in this movie are also predictable. The horror aspect of this movie is all in the second act and there are barely any of it which is hugely disappointing. Furthermore, they are not even that scary. The superhero aspect of the movie is not handled well either due to pacing issues and boring characters. It also feels like scenes are missing from time to time such as the aforementioned Magik personality change where one scene before she is frightened and then 15 seconds later she is suddenly a badass without fear. Potentially the reshoots were going to fix this but sadly it never happened.

image

Overall, this movie is a gigantic disappointment. Even though the movie had a great and unique concept, it doesn’t matter when the execution is poor. It’s not a good superhero movie and it’s not a good horror movie either. Thankfully, the movie is just 90 minutes and the third act of the movie can give you some enjoyment but there are better superhero and horror movies than this.


 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Review of “Wicked: Part I (2024)”

  I am not the biggest fan of musicals and it is the one genre in movies I rarely watch. I knew of the popularity of the Broadway show “Wicked” but I never brought myself to ever watch it. Now, there is finally a movie adaptation of the show. I did enjoy the legendary 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz” and a prequel about the Witch is an interesting idea hence why I gave it a shot. Does this movie defy gravity or is it wickedly bad? Firstly, the production of this film is phenomenal. The song and dance numbers are all incredibly choreographed. It is impressively visually seeing close to 100 people all dancing in unison. The songs and dance feel very flamboyant and campy but it works in the film. In terms of the actual songs, I liked a fair amount of them, especially “Defying Gravity” at the end. I also appreciate how this movie uses lots of actual practical set design. It makes the world of Oz feel more real and believable. There are some genuinely huge-looking sets in this...
Post a Comment
Read more

A “QUICK!” Review of “Kandahar (2023)”

  This is a 2023 action movie about a US operative having to fight his way out of Afghanistan with his interpreter while being hunted. Wait isn’t that the same plot as Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant? It’s a little weird that this movie came out just a month after The Covenant with almost the same plot. The 3rd act and the ending is also VERY similar. The difference comes in execution and unfortunately, Kandahar isn’t as good. The first hour is incredibly slow as it setups the whole plot but it takes ages. The relationship between the main lead and the interpreter isn’t that strong. The message isn’t delivered in a very meaningful way. There is also not a lot of action set pieces even though there is a stellar night sequence in this one. It’s just another passable movie starring Gerald Butler.
Post a Comment
Read more

A Review of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)”

  I once said after watching Black Panther, that it would be cool if there was an all Asian cast similar to it. There were some all Asian cast movies like Crazy Rich Asian (2018), but that is a romcom, and Mulan (2020), but that was bad. In comes Shang Chi which is the first Asian lead Superhero movie ever. The premise is “Martial-arts master Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) confronts the past he thought he left behind when he’s drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization”. So does Shang Chi succeed in giving us a good all Asian cast big blockbuster or is it just another failed attempt? Firstly, the action sequences and choreography are some of the best from Marvel since Captain America and the Winter Soldier (2014). Martial arts are the focus of the action scenes in Shang Chi and they are beautifully choreographed. We get the classic wire-fu/floating style of Crouching Tiger but we also get some Jackie Chan style with the utilization of the environment for the a...
Post a Comment
Read more