'The New Mutants' Review
PG13: For violent content, some disturbing/bloody images, some strong language, thematic elements and suggestive material
Runtime: 1 Hr and 38 Minutes
Production Companies: 20th Century Studios, Marvel Entertainment, Genre Films, Sunswept Entertainment
Distributor: 20th Century Studios
Director: Josh Boone
Writers: Josh Boone, Knate Lee
Cast: Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Alice Braga, Blu Hunt, Henry Zaga
Release Date: August 28 2020
Rahne Sinclair (Maisie Williams), Illyana Rasputin (Anya Taylor-Joy), Sam Guthrie (Charlie Heaton) and Roberto da Costa (Henry Zaga) are four young mutants being held in an isolated hospital for psychiatric monitoring. Dr. Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga), believing the teenagers are a danger both to themselves and to society as a whole, keeps a close eye on them as she struggles to teach them how to rein in their mutant abilities. When newcomer Danielle "Dani" Moonstar (Blu Hunt) joins the other patients in the facility, strange occurrences begin to take place. The hospital's patients are plagued by hallucinations and flashbacks, and their new mutant abilities--and their friendships--will be tested as they battle to try to make it out alive.
I’m going to start this review off noting that my dumbass went from New York to Connecticut just to see this. I didn’t do it because I wanted to see The New Mutants––though my curiosity as to how much of a mess it ended up being was so damn high––I did it because my mental health has been so low lately. It’s been over 5 months since I stepped foot into a theater, and considering the state of America (especially in this past week alone), my mental health has been in the gutters. I was originally going to wait for Tenet to go on this short planned trip but at the end of the day it wasn't the movie that mattered, but how the trip and experience to get to the theater served as self care during an emotionally draining time. Even if the movie is a complete damn mess.
The performances here vary between stale to terrible. There’s hardly any chemistry between them; the only performer who I see is really trying her best with the material she’s given is Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana/Magik. She’s the only character who has somewhat of a consistent personality and Taylor-Joy does a good job of portraying this bitchy, stone-cold mean girl, which is new for her. It would’ve been more impressive if she didn’t have to do this terrible Russian accent or if her character wasn’t racist as well so I can fully compliment her. She’s not particularly good but damn she’s the only one who is trying to bring life to this.
At least this is the shortest X-men movie ever made!
Man, where to begin with something as messy as this?
We’re all well aware of the movie's troubled production history from Fox constantly delaying it, poor test screenings, reshoots, Disney acquisition, Disney delaying it, and COVID-19. It’s as if the universe just wanted this movie to die, because it was very much aware of how bad the outcome of it all was going to be. And boy did it not disappoint.
Screenwriter/director Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) should’ve been the last person to be given the keys to the property. From a directional standpoint he does a piss poor job at establishing any sort of clear identity of what this movie should be from the get go. Say what you will about all the other X-Men movies, even the bad ones, but at least they all had a clear idea of their identity. As overblown messes those previous entries were, at least the audience was able to make sense of them. Boone on the other hand has no idea whether he wants this to be
An X-Men movie
A psychological horror flick
Or a YA coming-of-age drama
Needless to say, he fails to accomplish being serviceable in any of those three genres. It lacks any genuine scares, missing most of this horror beats due to awkward shot composition. The film barely references the X-Men and doesn’t present any clear continuity to the universe for they mention Professor X and yet use footage straight off from Logan...y’know the movie where Professor X and most of the X-Men are deceased. Then all character arcs are so rushed, much like the pacing of the film.
The tone is completely mundane as you’re stuck with these bland, one-dimensional teenagers all with their own set of tragic backstories who are trapped together in a facility that’s best described as a conversion therapy but for mutants. The characters are all either timid, depressed, and/or mean-spirited and you don’t like nor root for any one of them. None of the characters grow. To writers Josh Boone and Knate Lee, what defines a character arc is having these mutants learn to embrace their abilities and that’s it. The writing is so bad that most of the characters barely have much of a personality, the relationships they build between each other are far too rushed, and most importantly, they barely resemble much of their source material.
We’re living in 2020, where bully characters in shows and movies are now written to be mean without being racist, xenophobic, ableist, etc. It’s not that much of a challenge to make an asshole character, but Illyana Rasputin here is a racist. Given that Danielle "Dani" Moonstar is the only Indigenous character in the film and Illyana is the mean girl, she spews nothing but racist insults like,“Hey Pocahontas,” or, “Hey Standing Rock,” to Dani throughout the first half of the film. Illyana never apologizes to Dani for her racist behavior. Instead, Dani, the oppressed, show an act of kindness towards Illyana, the oppressor. Because of that, Illyana starts acting nice towards her after. White male screenwriters! Aren’t they great! Yay, they saved racism.
Most of the ensemble cast here are already known for doing incredible things, proving they are talented performers. That being said, most of them are completely miscast. You have these characters who are supposed to be Russian, Scottish, American, and the people they got to play them were either English, English, or English, and their accents are so inconsistent in their delivery. As aforementioned, I like Anya Taylor-Joy’s performance but damn her thick Russian accent kept going in and out. Same goes for Maisie Willams as Rahne as she hardly dons a Scottish brogue. Then Charlie Heaton has a terrible Kentucky accent as Sam Guthrie; The accent is non-existent whenever he’s calm but whenever a situation intensifies, the stronger his yee-haw accent becomes. It’s embarrassing to see this variety of talented actors deliver such bad performances under a director who never was concerned with his performers delivering their accents consistently. It’s as if they could’ve gotten actors that actually fit the nationalities of these characters instead of this being as White as it is.
I really wanted to like Blu Hunt as Dani, who is the central focus of the story. But she’s completely underwritten, given the worst dialogue, and is portrayed very much like a token character. It’s supposed to be her story, yet she’s the most passive character. The film enforces a perpetuated White stereotype onto her character so much, that part of her arc is her facing her fears of being killed by a giant demonic bear. A character who can create illusions of everyone’s fears, turn it into life, but she herself is afraid of a GIANT DEMONIC BEAR. Dani Moonstar, the character who is one of the most powerful badass mutants, is barely given any personality outside of being the audience’s avatar. The only aspect about her that’s somewhat character driven is how the romance blossomed between her and Rahne, but even then that’s also rushed and underdeveloped.
Everything about The New Mutants is a damn mess so it’s fitting to see how Disney just dumped it out in the middle of a pandemic. At face value it’s an evil move but watching play out, it’s better described as a deserving kiss of death. There was no possibility of this being anything close to salvageable, regardless of the studio and time of release. If there is anything to be learned it’s that:
Fox’s time with the X-Men has ended long ago and they are in desperate need of new management.
Fuck Josh Boone. He’s a terrible filmmaker and shouldn’t have been given this property in the first place.
However this franchise ends up being rebooted, talented filmmakers of color should finally be given the keys to the X-Men franchise. No more White male screenwriters/filmmakers should ever handle this franchise ever again especially after this.
X-Men is one of the best comic book properties that properly discuss relevant social issues such as racism, inclusion, and diversity. This is a movie that truly goes against what the X-Men franchise stands for and this is the last straw. Press that reboot button Disney, I’m ready.
Rating: 1.5/5 | 32%
