When looking at long-lasting comic book franchises, the one that comes to mind that's expanded the length of over two decades is the popular X-Men franchise that kick-started in 2000 with Bryan Singer's critically acclaimed box office hit. While the series itself has experienced its share of ups and downs, one things for certain is that its status in film history is both cemented as well as being highly influential in the comic book movie genre. Fast-forwarding twenty years after the franchises launch, the series see's the release of the controversial spin-off titled The New Mutants. Based on the Marvel Comics team of the same name, the film designed as being an American horror film, stands as being the thirteenth and final chapter in the X-Men franchise. Plagued by numerous delays and production troubles with the film being filmed in 2017 and shelved from its original 2018 release date, The New Mutants finally receives its day in theaters as being one of the first few films chosen to help bring audiences back into theaters after being temporarily shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In all honesty, they're better off staying at home and reliving the glory days of the X-Men film franchise rather than risk their health watching another disappointing entry in the long-running series. The New Mutants isn't the terrible film that its production history would make one believe, but it's also nowhere near some of the franchises finest works. It ultimately falls into the category of being a mediocre effort at best that could've been a great film had more effort went into expanding its story, as well as maintaining the series heart.
Based on the 1982 best-selling comic book series, the plot for The New Mutants centers around five young teenagers finding themselves locked in a secret facility that prevents them from escaping through the use of a force field, leaving them no choice but to undergo medical tests conducted by a sole scientist (Played by Alice Braga), who tells them that they have superpowers they must learn how to control. What makes the story of The New Mutants significant in the X-Men film timeline, is the fact that it's the first film in the series to not directly have the team at the forefront of the story, but instead chooses to focus on an outside group of young teens carrying similar mutant abilities. With the plot presented here, the filmmakers had a chance to take the series in a different direction, that would've provided a much needed reboot of the franchise after the highly disappointing results of Dark Phoenix both quality and box office wise. The New Mutants provided audiences with a unique approach to the X-Men timeline with the story showing the perspective of young teens discovering their special abilities, and figuring out how to control them. What works for the film in terms of keeping it from being a complete failure is the appeal of its main cast, all of whom deliver performances that are believable and attempt to add some thrill to the overall experience. The film carries a promising premise that feels like it's never fully developed with the story lacking a true villain to make the audience care about what's happening on-screen. Despite boasting some interesting characters with a plot that stays true to the X-Men series, The New Mutants is a competent yet messy spin-off that lacks the emotional core of the series with the end result feeling like a terribly mediocre effort with plot twists that feel both predictable and painfully cliched.
Despite the films shortcomings with its overall execution, the cast stands as being one of its strongest points with the young group of talented actors making the most of the roles given to them. In the films main role, Blu Hunt shines as Native American mutant Danielle Moonstar, who can create illusions based on both the fears and desires of other people. Hunt does an effective job of making her character believable as well as sympathetic as a young teenager coming to terms with her special abilities. Along with Hunt, Maisie Williams does a solid job as playing Rahne Sinclair, a Scottish mutant with the ability to transform into a wolf. Williams does an impressive job of portraying a young person who struggles with reconciling this issue with her strict religious upbringing. Both Williams and Hunt demonstrate strong chemistry with their friendship/romance serving as the heart of the film. Anna Taylor-Joy steals the show as Russian mutant Illyana Rasputin, who possesses sorcery powers such as being able to manifest the Soulsword as well as using teleportation discs to travel. Her performance is spot-on with the audience enjoying her character despite hating the way she treats Danielle. Other noteworthy performances are Charlie Heaton as Samuel Guthrie, an American mutant with the ability to propel himself into their air with him being invulnerable while doing so. Henry Zaga also does well as Brazilian mutant Roberto da Costa, who carries the ability to manipulate solar energy. As well as the main cast of young teenager mutants come across, it's Alice Braga who manages to rise to the occasion with her solid performance as Dr. Cecilia Reyes, the groups mentor and medical doctor who carries the ability to generate productive fields around her. As a whole, the cast for The New Mutants has much to do with the film being an average effort instead of being completely forgettable. While they're not able to overcome the issues regarding the films writing and directing, they manage to make their characters appealing to the audience at the very least.
Directed by Josh Boone who previously helmed the 2014 critically acclaimed romantic drama The Fault In Our Stars, he becomes the latest filmmaker in the line of X-Men film directors to take a stab at helming the franchise. Although his efforts is less disappointing than the works both Brett Ratner and Simon Kinberg both delivered with X-Men 3 and Dark Phoenix respectively, Boone also doesn't reach the stamp of high quality that acclaimed filmmakers such as Bryan Singer, Matthew Vaughn, and James Mangold left on the series with their films. Boone's work here serves as being serviceable at best but severely lacking in regards to both the seriousness, as well as the emotional core that those filmmakers tapped into handling their stories. Despite being billed as a horror style flick, The New Mutants often feels as if it's confused in terms of whether it wants to be such or an X-Men film or supernatural thriller. The film also feels as if it suffers in the editing department with the first two thirds of the film being spent on fleshing out the main characters with the audience waiting for a big payoff to justify its slow pacing, only to be left feeling underwhelmed when its third act doesn't quite get there. Although the film lacks substance in regards to being horror themed with a few scenes being genuinely effective in terms of being creepy (The Pool Scene for example), its gritty atmosphere is effective enough in adding some much needed suspense and tension to the scenes. The films cinematography is well-shot with the CGI blending in reasonably well with the rest of the movie, despite being rather hit or miss at times. The score by Mark Snow is well done in terms of adding to both the tension as well as the emotion of the story. In terms of Boone's overall work as the films director, his work feels uneven and lacking in both a clear and distinct vision for the story. It's apparent that he wants to give the film a horror movie feel in comparison to the previous X-Men movies but his efforts at doing so feel restrained due to the movies PG-13 rating. Boone's desire to make the film horror oriented often feel like a flirtation with taking the series down that road rather than actually doing so. The few moments where the film aims to go down that direction are somewhat effective, but don't completely achieve the reactions they set out to generate. An example is a sequence in which the young teenagers are being pursued by a group of monsters with vampire like teeth. Such a sequence despite being mildly effective, would've been more terrifying if Boone was allowed to go all out with the creepiness of the creatures instead of them wearing questionable outfits, which take away from the intensity of those moments. Where Boone succeeds with the film directing wise is balancing out the ensemble cast of teenage actors, along with generating solid performances out of them. As well as Boone does with working with the actors and doing a serviceable job with handling the films key technical elements, he also shows himself to be no Bryan Singer nor Matthew Vaughn in regards to crafting a well-rounded story regarding mutants.
The films screenplay also written by Boone with Knate Lee as co-writer, is at its strongest when fleshing out its main characters. The story covers themes pertaining to good vs evil, mutations, the fear of both using as well as revealing one's powers, carrying survivors guilt and trauma with the character of Dani feeling guilt for her father's death, and the group learning to control ones powers. With these themes introduced, the core of the story is mainly about the main characters fighting both the good and the bad within themselves in regards to deciding what kind of person they want to be with their special abilities. What makes the X-Men franchise resonate so we'll with audiences as well as lasting as long as it has, is how it's able to make audiences connect with both the characters and themes of the story. At the core of each X-Men film that was strong in quality, is the heart they possess in delivering the struggle that mutants face in regards to being accepted within society. The emotional message that The New Mutants attempts to drives home with audiences, is that everyone is capable of being both good and bad with them ultimately being left to choose who they want to be. As well-intended and noble as the message for The New Mutants comes across as being, it ultimately doesn't feel as thoroughly nor as effectively fleshed out as it could've been if the story was further expanded on rather than being rushed to fit its short 100 minute running time. The biggest problem with the script for The New Mutants is how bland and generic it feels despite boasting an interesting concept. The newer characters are interesting but their storylines serve as being typical tales of loss and grief within the series with nothing new shown to separate them from the other similar mutant stories we've seen before. In addition, they're also given dialogue that ranges from being rather stale to downright cringe-worthy at times. The one subplot in the script that feels naturally developed and reasonably fleshed out is the love story between Danielle and Rahne with it feeling like a gradual growth of the two characters relationship rather than appearing forced. The audience also never truly feels the threat in the story that puts the young teenagers in jeopardy nor tests the good or bad side in them to determine which side they ultimately choose. For a film that aims to be a horror movie, there's very little of such elements present to make it constitute as one with the overall plot being slow-moving for the most part with it only coming alive with its third act. Despite some strong aspects of the screenplay, the overall effort feels both messy and unfinished as the audience feels a severe lack of a larger threat within the story along with the films main antagonist feeling like a corrupt generic scientist studying the mutants for her own personal gain as well as receiving orders to terminate them from a higher authority, whom the audience never gets the chance to see. The script for The New Mutants leaves numerous questions for the audience to ask but gives very little answers, while also serving to further confuse and mess up the current timeline of the X-Men movie franchise.
Having seen The New Mutants, it's no secret as to why the studio subjected the film to numerous reshoots and release delays with it being visibly clear upon watching the film that they didn't feel confident enough with the films quality for it to be successful in terms of repositioning the X-Men franchise with its own spin-off series. Their worst fears appear to be somewhat justified as The New Mutants isn't strong enough of a film to stand on its own feet in regards to rebooting the series, but it also isn't the complete failure that many critics and reviewers make it out to be. The film is neither groundbreaking nor terrible with it ultimately falling somewhere in between being a mediocre effort at best (Which in itself is a shame as the right retooling of the script as well as more creative freedom in regards to telling the story along with embracing its desired horror movie roots, would've made it the reboot needed to rejuvenate the long-standing franchise). For a film that desires to be a teen horror flick mixed with a firm grip on the X-Men mythology, it falls way short of the mark and ultimately needed more of a push in regards to making it truly effective. As a film that's intended to help bring audiences back to the theaters during the Covid-19 pandemic, it misses the mark on that count as well with there being nothing present within the film that warrants audiences flocking to the reopened theaters to see it. Despite some decent acting from the films talented young cast, an interesting concept that could've and should've been explored more in depth as its already been handled before with other comic book films, and what appeared to be an appealing makeover of the series to audiences, The New Mutants suffers from the classic case of deja vu that audiences will unquestionably feel upon watching it with the running time being too short along with the overall film being too uneventful to make the audience truly invested in the new storyline. Fans of the X-Men film franchise and overall mythology are wise to disregard all of Fox Studios efforts to continue the series past Logan, and just wait for Disney (Who now holds the rights to the franchise) to properly reboot the series with a fresher and less convoluted timeline. As a film, The New Mutants works best as a standalone effort that feels generic but can satisfy as being mild entertainment. As a film that desires to be apart of the X-Men timeline, it both tragically as well as frustratingly misses the mark with its overall quality not being worthy of standing among some of the finer moments of the series that were handled much better by filmmakers, who showed more enthusiasm and heart used in executing their stories. This is not a film that's worthy of the wait that X-Men fans have put into seeing it, and should look to the future of the series instead with Disney now at the helm as Fox Studios have shown that they've lost sight of what made the series so successful in the first place, which was the well-balanced of the films action/thrills mixed with the sincere directing of its filmmakers that connected the audience with their stories. At the very least, they have the past glory days of the series to look back on and rewatch. The New Mutants isn't on the same caliber of disappointment as Dark Phoenix nor completely collapses as a film much like that one, but that also isn't really saying much when looking at the type of effort that went into making both films in comparison to some of the series best works.
Final Verdict: For comic book fans and those of the X-Men franchise, The New Mutants serves as being another disappointing entry in the long-running yet uneven franchise.
No comments:
Post a Comment