The New Mutants

This may technically be a spin-off from the X-Men films, but The New Mutants probably works best if you just think of it as its own thing.  Not the disaster that some people were expecting, but equally, it’s unlikely to blow you away either – the end result is a solid, if unremarkable, final entry in Fox’s X-Men series.

Premise:  After Dani Moonstar (Blu Hunt) survives a mysterious disaster that wipes out her Cheyenne reservation, she awakens in a specialist hospital that treats ‘new mutants’ who pose a danger to society because they can’t yet control their powers.  Under the care of Dr Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga), Dani gets to know the other patients – Rahne Sinclair (Maisie Williams), Illyana Rasputin (Anya Taylor-Joy), Sam Guthrie (Charlie Heaton) and Roberto da Costa (Henry Zaga).  But soon an unseen terror beings to stalk them all…

Review:

Let’s address the elephant in the room straight off the bat – The New Mutants has one of the most convoluted and troubled production histories of any recent blockbuster, and as a result, its release was pushed back several times from its original April 2018 slot to September 2020.  Some of the delays were due to proposed reshoots (that ultimately never happened), some delays were the result of the Fox/Disney merger (under which Disney acquired the rights to the X-Men characters for future Marvel Studios projects, effectively ending Fox’s 20-year ­X-Men film series), and some delays were the result of the Covid-19 global pandemic.  But we can now finally see the film – in the form director and co-writer Josh Boone originally intended (without the proposed reshoots) – so the question is, was it worth the wait?

In all honesty, the answer is probably ‘no’ – but that’s perhaps because it’d be very difficult for any film to live up to that kind of expectation (or overcome that level of negative buzz).  The New Mutants is not the disaster that many people have been expecting since the first delays were announce two-and-a-half years ago … but it’s also fair to say that it’s a rather generic superhero origin movie that spends most of its tight 94 minute run-time setting up a film franchise that was never to be.

“…tells a superhero origin story through the lens of a horror movie…”

Probably The New Mutants’ greatest strength is its attempt to tell a superhero story through the lens of a horror movie.  Admittedly, it’s still a very teen-friendly, certificate-15 horror movie, but it is a horror movie nonetheless, in a way that you can’t quite imagine an MCU film ever would be (especially since Scott Derrickson left the Doctor Strange sequel over ‘creative differences’, after originally announcing that he wanted it to have more of a horror tone).  The New Mutants has some genuinely spooky moments, involving everything from traditional jump scares, to scenes alluding to the physical (and possibly sexual) abuse of children.  In this sense, the film is nearer the Logan end of the superhero movie spectrum than most of the other X-Men films.

Of course, the horror tone can be a double-edged sword, as horror aficionados may consider the film too watered-down for their tastes, while the subject matter makes the film unsuitable for younger comic-book movie fans.  And as effective as the atmosphere is, it can’t entirely disguise the fact that the plot is a fairly paper-thin origin story when all is said and done.

“…the cast is great, particularly Maisie Williams & Anya Taylor-Joy…”

That said, the film’s other saving grace is its cast, particularly Maisie Williams and Anya Taylor-Joy.  Williams plays Rahne Sinclair (aka Wolfsbane in the comics), and hers is perhaps the most grounded of all the performances in the movie.  Williams’ take on Rahne is a million miles away from her Game of Thrones character, demonstrating an emotional openness that couldn’t be further from Arya Stark.  In fact, the touching and believable burgeoning romance between Rahne and Dani Moonstar (aka Mirage in the comics, played by Blu Hunt) is one of the best elements in the film, despite that fact that Dani’s character is the least developed and (in my opinion) most irritating.

Anya Taylor-Joy also has a lot to do as Illyana Rasputin (aka Magik in the comics), who is clearly the most emotionally damaged of the five patients.  Her character is initially a clichéd ‘troubled teen’, bullying newcomer Dani (including by making several racial slurs) as a way of deflecting attention from her own vulnerabilities – but Taylor-Joy manages to keep her character the right side of redeemable, so that when the audience (and Dani) learn what trauma lies in Illyana’s past, her bridges haven’t been completely burned.

“…the scale of the threat is much more intimate & personal…”

The rest of the cast, unfortunately, don’t have nearly as much to do.  Charlie Heaton gets to delve a little into the backstory of Sam Guthrie (aka Cannonball in the comics), but not in any real depth, and Henry Zaga’s Roberto da Costa (aka Sunspot in the comics) is only vaguely sketched out, so you never really get beyond the surface of either character.  Alice Braga gets a little more to do as Dr Cecilia Reyes, but at the end of the day, her role is largely expositional.

The origin story format means that the majority of the film is spent establishing the characters and the premise, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for much else to happen.  During the final act, some elements work far better than others (for example, some antagonists are genuinely creepy, while others are just a big CGI menace that doesn’t really engage the audience).  Some of the developments towards the end are very predictable and clichéd, but more odd that than, one third act revelation in particular relies on the audience recognising the name of a major villain from the comics who’s never actually appeared in the film series.  That said, after the world-threatening mess that was the climax of X-Men: Apocalypse, I did like that the scale of the threat in The New Mutants is much more intimate and personal.

“…more for ‘X-Men’ completists than casual movie goers…”

All in all, although The New Mutants has a fair number of flaws, it’s not a bad film either.  Its tight 94 minute run-time means it never drags, and its handful of interesting ideas and effective scenes make it worth a watch.  In a way, it’s ironic that the Fox/Disney merger has killed the plans for a New Mutants trilogy, as there could be potential to take these characters in some interesting directions from this initial launching point.  But that’s not to be, which means that The New Mutants may be an entry for X-Men completists more than casual movie goers.