The New Mutants (2020) Movie Review
The New Mutants is the last of the X-Men movies (for now). You know they will be rebooting this franchise at some point. It doesn’t feature any of the traditional X-Men you know and love. It’s an entirely new cast with faces you haven’t seen before and powers that are new.
When I heard that Josh Boone would be directing The New Mutants I was a bit surprised. His only previous projects were Stuck in Love (2012) and The Fault in Our Stars (2014), both movies heavily focused on romance. But I was intrigued to see what Boone would do and what kind of spin he’d put on the final installment. I was also excited to see Maisie Williams post Game of Thrones and Charlie Heaton in something other than Stranger Things. Since The New Mutants had a few big names and was on the heels of the success of Logan (2015) I thought the movie would be headed in an interesting direction. Unfortunately, the movie fell a bit flat for me.
We begin by meeting Dani Moonstar (Blu Hunt) as her family is killed in a mysterious incident that is later referred to as a tornado. She wakes up in some type of hospital with the mysterious Dr. Reyes (Alice Braga). There are other teenagers at the hospital and each has their own reason for being sent there. We learn this is more of a rehab facility than a hospital and it likens itself to a jail early on. The group of teenagers is locked in by a force field. There are no visitors allowed and there is no way to escape the facility. Dani befriends the incredibly sweet Rahne (Maisie Williams) and they embark on a romantic journey. At one point Dani adorably worries that Rahne isn’t real but merely an invention of her imagination because Rahne is so nice to her.
The others in the facility aren’t as welcoming as Rahne. Sam (Charlie Heaton) is a Southern boy who killed his family while working in a mine. Roberto (Henry Zaga) is from a rich family and brags that they will eventually pay for him to leave. The oddest member of the group by far is Illyana (Anya Taylor-Joy). She carries a puppet on her hand called Lockheed and talks to it constantly. You don’t get a good look at anyone’s powers until midway through the movie. In fact, poor Dani doesn’t even know what her powers are for most of the movie.
The New Mutants suffered most from a lack of a distinct genre. It tries to be scary (Dani’s power is revealed to be making others live through their worst fear over and over) but it’s not really anything other than slightly intense. Illyana’s backstory is alluded to vaguely where a group of faceless men do things to her as a child but you never learn much else. Rahne’s biggest fear is her old priest who beat her senseless when she tried to confide her powers to him. Dani’s biggest fear turns out to be a large bear who attacks everyone. Not exactly the scary stuff they were undoubtedly aiming for. The movie is also sort of a romance with Dani and Rahne sharing a teenage romance (yay for an LGBT story!), but even that feels bland.
There isn’t a lot of action until the end of the movie where it culminates in a final fight scene. The scene would have been more impressive if we had seen the group use their powers before. We gather that Rahne can turn into some sort of a wolf, Roberto essentially becomes a burning man, Sam starts trembling and can travel at what seems like lightning speeds although his actual powers are never quite clear. Illyana’s powers were the most confusing to me. She had some sort of magical sword and could jump into other locations. Her puppet also turned into a dragon while she was using her powers. So I don’t know if it was an alternate reality or dimension or exactly what was happening.
The New Mutants had the potential to be a gripping tale with excellent actors who could portray just about anything. However, what followed was a lackluster journey of a group of teens with few interesting story lines and no real stakes at play. It was a disappointing way to end the X-Men franchise to say the least.
Film or Movie: Movie
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You love Maisie Williams and want to see her as someone other than Arya Stark
2. You’ve watched all of the other X-Men movies and feel duty bound to finish the franchise
3. You like group teen movies
Head to my X-Men Movies Ranked list for more X-Men movie reviews!
