The New Mutants

Starring: Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Alice Braga, Blu Hunt, Henry Zaga, Adam Beach, Thomas Kee, Marilyn Manson (voice)
Directed by: Josh Boone
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Horror, Mystery
2020

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Five young mutants are held in a secret facility, purportedly for their own good. They soon begin to suspect something unnatural is stalking them.

Review:

Tim: When The New Mutants was finally released, it did so mostly unnoticed. It came out during the pandemic when people weren't going to the movies. After a long delay and tons of bad press, we finally got to see the first "X-Men horror movie." Josh Boone's film isn't good, but it's not the trainwreck many claimed it would be. I thought it was on par with Dark Phoenix, although both films represent low points for the X-Men franchise. The purchase of Fox by Disney will hopefully resurrect this fallen franchise.

This is the 13th film set in the X-Men Universe, and the franchise has shown its age. I will say that I appreciated how unique this movie was- it features a group of new mutants (I know) and it's set mostly in a single location. Josh Boone doesn't direct a good movie, but at least he shows the franchise could have continued in different ways. The ideas in this movie are solid- a group of young mutants being held in a care facility face an unseen, nightmarish threat. This is a far cry from the typical "save the world" X-Men movies. I enjoyed seeing a film about mutants that took a very different approach. Boone's execution isn't great, but the ideas were well worth exploring.

The best part of the film is undoubtedly the cast. They brought together a great group of young talent. I do actually feel sad that we probably won't get to see them reprise these roles. Maisie Williams headlined the cast. I loved her in Game of Thrones and she's solid here. Her character feels outshined by some of the others, but she gives a solid performance that is definitely supporting. Anya Taylor-Joy is a tremendous actress and I had fun watching her in this role. She is able to showcase some of her acting range and it was a fun change of pace from The Queen's Gambit. Taylor-Joy can just about do anything and I really appreciated this film showing that off. It was fun seeing Charlie Heaton, too. I'm a fan of his work on Stranger Things and while his character didn't get enough development here, he was still good on screen. I do wish we got to know his character a bit more. I wasn't familiar with her before this film. I thought she gave a good performance, but the movie needed a starmaking turn in this role. She's surrounded by more experienced actors and it shows. I didn't think she was bad, but we really needed to love her character and that doesn't happen here. Henry Zaga was okay, but he felt somewhat disconnected from the rest of the cast. Others felt like they had actual chemistry together, Zaga did not. Alice Braga was decent in her supporting role. While not everyone in the cast is great, there's enough strong performances for this to emerge as the film's best strength.

I thought the visuals for fine for this movie. So many X-Men movies are visually impressive and this one wasn't. I didn't see that as a big issue for the story Boone was trying to tell, but the movie certainly feels like it has a significantly smaller budget than we're used to seeing in this franchise. It's never overwhelmingly obvious, but it does become apparent when you think about it. I actually liked the contained story, but the movie would have benefited from a slightly higher budget.

The story has some worthwhile elements. It feels like it tries to be about something, to capture something essential about being an adolescent and trying to find your place in the world. The script has some of these deeper themes in it, but Boone can't quite execute as well as he needed to. Still, Boone's previous experience working with teenage characters translates well here. I didn't dislike the story, but it ultimately falls flat. It feels like The New Mutants could and should have been a much better movie. That being said, it was still a decent movie. That's not good enough for this franchise (the bar has been raised higher than that), but this film isn't the complete disaster it was made out to be.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Dark Phoenix