‘The New Mutants’ Review: A Dark and Creative Venture for the Superhero Genre
“The New Mutants” from director Josh Boone is a film that has become one of the most anticipated movies in recent years purely because of the drama and rumors that circulated around its many pushbacks. Having gone through five delays while finally releasing in theaters this August, “The New Mutants” generated a lot of its own hype from the tantalizing mystery of frequent delays and corporate silencing of the actors in discussing the film.
From the very first moments, the movie sets its tone and sticks to it. We are presented with the sort of bleak and grim vibe that we will feel throughout the film. We get a sense of how the movie will be from very early on, and we also immediately know that this is not a conventional superhero movie, nonetheless Marvel movie. Similar to “Deadpool” and “Joker” taking a more controversial path than standard popcorn blockbuster superhero flicks, we get some of that here. This movie deals with real-world weight and heavy topics that wouldn’t normally be discussed in a Marvel film.
“The New Mutants” was marketed as a superhero-horror film, and we received what we were promised. The film has a few scattered moments of brevity and light (that still worked in their contexts within the film), but by and large the movie keeps its macabre tone throughout. We get several jump scares, psychological thrills, disturbing imagery, and terrifying visuals that all work to create a spine-tingling atmosphere for the film. Aside from flickering lights, dark hallways, and creepy creatures, even the score resembles the horror genre with the eerie way the chords play out to put you on edge.
What makes these moments more effective is seeing our main characters react to them. The characters grouped together as the titular “New Mutants,” are easily the strongest point in this movie. The main strength of the group is their diversity, both in personality and national origin that presents many varying perspectives and reactions to the events in the film. We get a sense of their uniqueness and get to spend some time with each of them discovering their own dark and uncomfortable pasts.
The two standouts of the cast were easily Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin and Maisie Williams as Rahne Sinclair. Taylor-Joy turned in a stellar performance as someone with a hardened exterior who is just trying to protect her deep insecurities and becomes strangely likeable and charming throughout the course of the film. We also get to see Taylor-Joy flex her character Magik’s powers which comes with some interesting and inventive action and visualizations. Williams gives another solid performance as someone who is immeasurably good-natured but knows deep down, she feels things that are not what she has been told is good and we get to explore that conflict with her.
One thing to really appreciate in this film is that it all takes place largely in one setting, the mental hospital in which they are all being kept and treated by Dr. Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga). And with that, the movie had to get creative in generating new and interesting scenarios for the characters to face. The film also teases some very exciting X-Men and Marvel Easter eggs that careful-eyed viewers can see and enjoy.
While this film may seem small and lacking big budgets and massive blockbuster sequences, it was never intended to be anything else. The film was made to be a low-key, down-to-earth psychological horror as a character-driven narrative following these teens struggling with the emergence of their mutant powers. For a property such as this, the scale and setting worked perfectly as a close-knit, personal story. We spend a lot of time with our characters, explore their pasts and their personalities, and we feel the sort of torment and dread being locked up in this institution facing their worst fears.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest detractions from the film is the main character, Dani Moonstar, played by Blu Hunt. While it was refreshing to see a new face take in a lead comic role, one that is ethnically correct nonetheless, Hunt frequently could not hold her own in scenes with seasoned talent like Maisie Williams or Anya Taylor-Joy. A lot of her deliveries fell flat and seemed too artificial and sadly this took some from her character by giving a mixed performance.
While a lot of the interactions between the characters seemed like genuine interactions among teenagers and young adults, there were several moments that were poorly written and came across as a soap opera/teen melodrama with some cringe-inducing dialogue and character interactions that seemed the opposite of what real people would say.
The film also seems to lack a real purpose or story motivation. Most of the time in superhero movies, this will be spurred by the main villain, but this movie lacks a real actual main villain. Dr. Reyes, who serves in some capacity as an antagonistic character, is given virtually no backstory or real development so we do not get a sense of who she is and why she is doing what she is doing. This makes it hard as an audience to be invested in the threat that she poses. Similarly, other conflicts, such as the underwhelming final conflict, seem very artificial and plot-convenient as if the writers decided they needed to add in a final conflict to close the movie out. Because a real central main villain does not really exist in this film, it can make portions of it especially in the middle act feel slow and drag and mill about without anything advancing the plot.
Reyes especially helps us ask a lot of questions relating to the institution and the mutants that go largely unanswered by the end of the film. Certain referenced characters and story threads do not fully get fleshed out near to satisfaction, and it leaves plenty open that would have been better closed. This is a consequence of the 94 minute runtime, easily one of the shortest Marvel movies ever, which could have been padded with an extra 30 minutes to address some of the questions that we were all presented with and interested in answering.
The movie makes a great effort to try and stand on its own with its own universe, however, implies a grander universe out there. The way the story and the characters are structured, it would serve this film a lot better were it to explore the most down-to-earth version possible, such as exploring if mutants started appearing in our world right now. This would be the most interesting way to approach the plot that was squandered in the film.
While “The New Mutants” delivers on its promises of grim and chilling tones, provides some interesting characters with largely laudable portrayals, and explores interesting themes inherent to the superhero genre, the film unfortunately suffers from some dicey writing issues. The story structure is simultaneously squished into a short runtime and spread incredibly thin regarding different aspects of the plot, and it feels like a storyboard plot that was not quite fully filled in.
It was an enjoyable experience to finally return to theaters, however unless you are a big fan of comic book movies or the X-Men comics, this movie would probably be best enjoyed rented at home.