THE NEW MUTANTS : Tuesday 8th September 2020

I saw 'THE NEW MUTANTS' at my local independent movie theatre earlier this week and here we have this long awaited M Rated horror film in the Superhero genre which is based on the Marvel Comics of the same name, and is intended to be the thirteenth and stand-alone last instalment in the 'X-Men' franchise. Written and Directed by Josh Boone whose previous film making credits are 'Stuck in Love' his debut in 2012 and 'The Fault in Our Stars' in 2014, this film was originally slated for an April 2018 release date. That date was then pushed back to late February 2019, then again to early August 2019, and then once more to April 2020. It was then pulled due to COVID-19 and finally saw the light of day with its release Stateside two weeks ago now, and in Australia last week. Costing somewhere in the region of US$70M to make, the film has so far taken US$21M and has gained largely mixed or average Reviews. Initially intended to be the first instalment in a trilogy, since Disney purchased Fox in March 2019 and the rights of the film reverted back to Marvel Studio's, any talk of subsequent films in this series appear to have been largely quashed.

Here the film opens up with Danielle 'Dani' Moonstar (Blu Hunt), a Native American Cheyenne teenager, seen running from the destruction of her reservation during a tornado. Dani's father William (Adam Beach) hides her in the burnt out trunk of a tree before an unseen entity kills him, leaving her the only survivor. After being chased by the entity and knocked unconscious during an unusual snowstorm, Dani comes around shackled to a bed in a hospital run by Dr. Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga).

Reyes reassures Dani that she is now safe, and informs her that she is a mutant, although her abilities have not yet manifested themselves. She further advises her to remain in the hospital until she learns what her abilities are and is able to control them. She is released from her shackles and told that she has the freedom of the facility and to mix with the others. The hospital is twenty miles from the nearest town.

The next day Dani is introduced to four other young teenagers - Rahne Sinclair (Maisie Williams), Illyana Rasputin (Anya Taylor-Joy), Sam Guthrie (Charlie Heaton) and Roberto da Costa (Henry Zaga). Reyes has brought each of them to the hospital after they have all suffered tragedy for psychiatric monitoring. Rahne is a Scot who escaped her religiously strict village after being branded as a witch, Illyana, a  Russian, was haunted by her past in child slavery, which manifests itself as otherworldly beings called the 'Smile Men', Sam, an American, brought down a whole mine on his father and coworkers, and Roberto, a Brazilian from a monied family, burned his girlfriend to death. All of them are displaying mutant abilities, but not all of them are yet able to control them. Rahne is a lycanthrope and able to turn herself into a wolf, Illyana has inter-dimensional sorcery powers, Sam can fly at jet speed from a standing start and Roberto can manipulate solar energy. Reyes is also a powerful mutant who keeps her patients from leaving the facility by engulfing it with unbreakable force fields. 

Subsequently the five of them start to believe that they are being trained to join the 'X-Men' which would account for the strict rules they must live under and the constant remote surveillance. Reyes also constantly reminds them that they are considered a danger to themselves, each other and the public at large and should not leave until they have learned to fully harness their abilities. Dani and Rahne forge a strong bond almost straight away, eventually forming a romantic relationship, while Illyana continues to taunt Dani as the outsider. When Dani fights back, she discovers that Illyana's only friend is a hand puppet of a purple dragon who she calls Lockheed, and who never leaves her side. Soon, the group all begin to have horrifying visions of their past tragedies, one of which results in Rahne getting branded in the neck with a 'W' sign - denoting 'Witch'. Illyana concludes that the visions result from Dani's powers finally manifesting itself and that she is able to create illusions based on a person's psyche. Reyes consults her employers, the Essex Corporation, who instruct her to collect Dani's DNA and to euthanise her.

Reyes takes Dani away under the guise of conducting more tests but Rahne suspects that something is wrong. While Dani goes under and is being gassed, Illyana and Sam are attacked by the Smile Men while Roberto tries to break through the heavily fortified and secure house, but is unsuccessful in his attempts. Reyes in interrupted by the commotion coming from elsewhere in the house and Rahne rescues Dani, who then uses her powers to learn of Reyes's true intentions before Rahne arrives in half-wolf form and mauls Reyes face with her claws, forcing her to flee.

The five regroup and deduce that to escape, they have to kill Reyes to deprive the force fields of their power source. They find her and Reyes traps them inside individual force field domes, revealing that she was training them to be killers for the Essex Corporation. Before she can crush Dani to death, the entity, the Demon Bear, who had been following Dani and was the real reason her reservation was destroyed, arrives and mauls Reyes throwing her body around like a rag doll, killing her.

Illyana summons her powers to jump between dimensions and is joined by a fire breathing real life version of Lockheed to take on Demon Bear. Sam and Roberto join the fight too, conquering their mutant fears in the process. Rahne tries to connect through to an unconscious Dani until she is forced to fight the Demon Bear alone as a wolf. Still unconscious, Dani is visited by her father's spirit, who encourages her to wake up and face her fear. Dani awakens, draws the attention of the Demon Bear and confronts it calming it into submission until it dissipates. As day breaks, the group emerge from the wreckage of the hospital and the main house. Sam hurls a lump of coal that was a keepsake from his coal mining father into the air from which they learn that the force field is down. They head out together to face an uncertain world.

For the thirteenth and allegedly final film in the 'X-Men' franchise, this instalment comes across as being truly unlucky for some! Whilst looking to combine the mythology of the 'X-Men' saga with the horror genre and coming-of-age nuances, this film barely scratches the surface of our protagonists back stories; makes a passing comment about the organisation behind all the testing, analysis and power it wields; and fails to dig deep into the troubled minds of the five teenagers in question. That said, the quintet here do appear to share a certain on screen chemistry together, albeit the standout performances are from Williams, Taylor-Joy and Heaton who have all honed their acting chops a lot more than Hunt and Zaga have, and it shows, in spades. As a horror film it fails to scare, as a Superhero offering is fails to launch and as a coming of age story featuring two teenage girls getting it on together this adds little to the plot. Perhaps if this had been released two and a half years ago as originally intended we might have viewed it differently; perhaps if the planned reshoots had been allowed to go go ahead; perhaps if the editing process had not been so disjointed; perhaps if the various studios involved along its route from production to release had shown a little more restraint and some more understanding of Boone's vision; and perhaps if this film hadn't been released in the worst year in cinema history then maybe, just maybe, there may be more positivity surrounding this film.

'The New Mutants' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-