Film Reviews by Amy Diaz
I got in my car and drove to an actual theater to see The New Mutants, a very “get ready for a five-part franchise!” movie about characters in an X-Men universe.
The movie didn’t offer me, a movies-only follower of the X-Men stories, any specific indication of when we are in the X-Men cinematic universe timeline and only the occasional mention of the X-Men by way of tie-in. Wikipedia says that while the movie once had sequel hopes, the Disney purchase of Fox means there probably won’t be a Part 2. So, a movie that feels like it wasted all its time on setting up characters that will never pay off feels especially like a missed opportunity.
Danielle Moonstar (Blu Hunt), called Dani, is our way in to this corner of the expanded mutant universe. After a mysterious something crashes through her reservation, destroying everything and everyone (including Dani’s beloved father) in its path, Dani wakes up in a hospital bed in a locked room in an institution. Dr. Reyes (Alice Braga) tells her that she is being held here, for her own safety, until they can figure out what her special ability is, which Reyes says manifested itself during the “tornado” that destroyed the reservation. There’s a bunch of yada-yada-ing about Dani knowing it wasn’t a tornado and Reyes telling her it was and then later that it wasn’t and either the movie did a clunky job of explaining the whole discovery-of-Dani’s-powers thing or I was too bored by this part of the setup to pay attention or some amount of both.
Dani eventually meets the other “patients” at this facility, other teens with abilities: Illyana (Anya Taylor-Joy) can disappear at will, conjure swords from thin air, has a puppet that can turn into a real dragon and is super mean (all of this is connected to her deeply disturbing and traumatic childhood, which feels like a too-dark story element that this underbaked potato of a movie doesn’t earn). Rahne (Maisie Williams) is a sweet girl who turns into a wolf and quickly befriends Dani. Sam (Charlie Heaton) used to work in the Kentucky coal mines and can blast off and zoom around and, er, stuff. Bobby (Henry Zaga) is from a wealthy Brazilian family, likes himself a lot and can flame on, Human Torch-style (Wikipedia suggests that this isn’t an entirely accurate way to describe the character’s powers but, whatever they were in their comics source material, that’s how it’s portrayed here). Dani doesn’t know what her powers are but she hangs out with the others, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and hoping that perhaps this whole hospital stay is the first step on the road to X-Men membership.
The bare bones as I’ve described them sound promising, and elements of this movie have good ideas behind them. But the movie takes half of its run time, maybe more, to get going. And while the characters are potentially interesting I didn’t find myself particularly invested in the stories of any of them. The stakes feel low, not in a “personal story versus saving-the-world” way but in a “we’re saving stakes for the second movie” way.
Would I feel differently about this movie if I hadn’t made my first trip to a theater since forever to see it, if it had been on Disney+? I’d probably be more inclined to forgive some of the weakness because, hey, Williams is frequently doing interesting things with her character and it’s only 94 minutes long. But no matter the viewing experience, The New Mutants isn’t quite X-Men enough to make you feel like you’re watching an X-Men movie, even one of the Logan or Deadpool side-project variety, but it isn’t strong enough to stand as its own story either. C
Rated PG-13 for violent content, some disturbing/bloody images, some strong language, thematic elements and suggestive material, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Josh Boone with a screenplay by Josh Boone and Knate Lee, The New Mutants is an hour and 34 minutes long and is distributed in theaters by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.