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-

SUICIDE SQUAD : Tuesday 9th August 2016.

I saw 'SUICIDE SQUAD' earlier in the week, and after much hype and eager anticipation the long awaited third instalment in the DC Extended Universe with its assembled mad, bad, disparate antiheroes has burst on to our screens across the world last week. Made for a cool US$175M, Directed by David Ayer and Co-Produced by Zack Snyder this film stars an ensemble cast of Actors and Supervillains, poised at the ready to wreak havoc and bloody mayhem on an unsuspecting Midway City - seemingly nestled somewhere between Gotham City and Metropolis. These titular characters first appeared in 1959 published by DC Comics but received a make over and a modern touch in 1987 by John Ostrander, upon which this film is based, and having been written for the screen by David Ayer too (watch out for the visual nod to Ostrander too in the film). This latest version sees our anti-hero strike force of imprisoned nefarious supervillains operating covertly under the jurisdiction of the US Government on high-risk black-ops missions in exchange for leniency of their prison sentences . . . assuming they survive their missions of course. The film has so far made US$295M.

And so here we have a secret government intelligence agency headed up by Director Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) working for 'ARGUS' (Advanced Research Group for Uniting Superhumans) who creates a task force of our deadly, dangerous, despicable super villains under the banner of 'Task Force X' affectionately dubbed 'The Suicide Squad' by Deadshot, for a top secret mission to thwart an unknown but powerful enemy. Taking place after the events of  'Batman v. Superman' which sees Superman supposedly dead, and leaving Batman to clean up the streets, and he does, bringing in Deadshot/Floyd Lawton (Will Smith) an expert marksman, assassin and doting father to his eleven year old daughter, and Harley Quinn/Harleen Quinzel (Margot Robbie) a former psychiatrist who used to treat the inmates at Arkham Asylum until she turned as mad as those she was treating - especially The Joker (Jared Leto) whom she just happens to be 'madly' in love with.

Incarcerated in Belle Reve penitentiary with Deadshot and Harley Quinn are Captain Boomerang/Digger Harkness (Jai Courtney) an opportunistic thief and assassin who uses deadly boomerangs to dispense with his prey and now serving three life sentences; El Diablo/Chato Santana (Jay Hernandez) who can command flame at will and is serving time because in days gone by he couldn't contain this skill and he torched those closest to him and numerous others; Killer Croc/Waylon Jones (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) with a reptilian skin condition and an animalistic criminal with a tendency to eat his enemies - he spends a lot of time in the water; and Slipknot/Christopher Weiss (Adam Beach) an expert with chemically treated ropes and a skilled assassin.

We are quickly introduced to these characters individually, we get a little back story which Waller discusses with her advisors over dinner and her plan for them, and by way of bold text up on the screen which is all well & good but you need to be particularly adept at speed reading for the time that data scrolls out in front of you (David Ayer take note!). Under the pretext of wanting to protect the planet from possible otherworldly attack with someone of Superman's strength, a rag tag bunch of the worlds worst career criminals with nothing to lose are assembled under the command of Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) as the field leader of The Squad and seasoned special forces combat soldier applying the wishes of Waller, although not always agreeing with them. She gets approval to assemble her team, and what can the aforementioned gang do but to accept, and they do with promises of reduced sentences, special privileges, and the full arsenal of the US Government at their disposal . . . as long a they behave themselves. As a precaution, each has implanted in their necks a rice grain sized incendiary devise that will be deployed should they rebel, attempt to escape, not follow orders or step out of line - just once!

One other recruit is Dr. June Moone (Cara Delevingne) an archaeologist possessed by an evil ancient force that transformed her in to a powerful sorceress known as Enchantress. Rick Flag is in love with June Moone, but she is able to transform into the witch-goddess by simply whispering her name. She is under the control of Waller who holds her ancient heart in a brief case, enabling Waller to command the Enchantress at will knowing that for now she is fully subservient to her wishes and that she will comply. However, as if on cue the Enchantress quickly turns on everyone, deciding to wipe mankind off the face of our planet for imprisoning her for so long (literally thousands of years!) She summons up her brother, Incubus, to lend some much needed support, creates an army of humans transformed into deadly stone like orc monsters; begins building a super machine to destroy the planet and along the way gets her heart back from Wallers grasp.

Waller summons up the Squad on the basis that Midway City is under fierce attack from terrorists, and their mission is to extract a high-profile individual from the top of a tower block in the city centre. Just before leaving for their mission, the team are joined by Katana/Tatsu Yamashiro (Karen Fukuhara) an expert in martial arts and sword play wielding the mystical 'Soultaker' Samurai blade that captures the souls of those it kills. Katana has got Flags back. As the helicopter taking the Squad into the now evacuated city is en route it is attacked by Incubus and brought down, but all escape unscathed. However, they are attacked by hordes of the stone like orc monsters created by Enchantress once on foot, but are able to overcome them and make it to their final mark at the top of the tower block. Waller it turns out is the subject of the extraction, who quickly dispenses with her own immediate team with a well aimed pistol to several heads to cover up any involvement she has in what has just gone down. This shows Flag and Deadshot exactly what they are dealing with, and what Waller is capable of.

Meanwhile The Joker infiltrates the facility where the nano bombs are made that have been implanted into the Squads necks, and is able to disarm that which is in Harley Quinn's neck. He then makes off in his own helicopter to extract Harley Quinn from the others, by raining down rapid machine gun fire on Flag and his crew on foot below. Harley Quinn escapes up a rope thrown down by The Joker from the helicopter above, and they fly off into the night, but the aircraft is soon shot down by Wallers men. Harley Quinn escapes seemingly unhurt and rejoins her Squad members, but The Joker is believed perished in the wreckage. Immediately after, Waller is extracted by helicopter from the roof top, and her helicopter is shot down too, and she is carted of by the stone like orc creatures of the Enchantress.

With Waller now compromised, an all powerful evil force at work intent on destroying life as we know it, and the prospect of returning to incarceration The Squad decide enough is enough and they haul up in a deserted bar for some much needed refreshment and self consolation. Flag joins them, destroys the device that would activate the nano bombs in their necks, and says your free to go. But The Squad decide that they have a chance to prove themselves and do something worthwhile (like save the world!) and so they regroup. They track down Waller, Enchantress and Incubus to a deserted partially flooded subway station where they hatch a plan to destroy Incubus first as he poses the biggest threat. A NAVY Seals team intend to plant a bomb in the sewer below, but need Diablo to summons his set of particular skills with fire to help distract and thwart Incubus to position himself over the bomb at the point of detonation. This attempt is successful, but it costs Diablo his life in the process.

With Incubus gone, all attention centres on Enchantress who with her heart back is now all powerful. Ultimately she overcomes The Squad and offers them anything they can dream of in exchange for their submission, loyalty and honour. Harley Quinn gives in and sidles up to the Enchantress. Kneeling before her, and beside Katana's Samurai sword, which she lifts up and plunges into the stomach of the Enchantress ripping out her heart with her hands in the process. Killer Croc then throws an explosive package into the centre of the still functioning all powerful machine which Deadshot fires at with a well aimed shot so destroying the weapon of mass destruction, enabling everyone to live happily ever after (well, until the next global crisis anyway!) Flag takes the heart of Enchantress and crushes it to dust, so freeing June from the evil ancient curse. The Squad are returned to Belle Reve with ten years taken off their sentences and allowed certain special privileges, that include Deadshot being allowed access to his beloved daughter (see he is human after all), and Harley Quinn an espresso machine in her cell.

Just when you thought it was safe to look away, in bursts The Joker to spring his love, Harley Quinn from incarceration, much to her surprise and delight. In a mid-credits scene, we see Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) around the dinner table with Amanda Waller. He offers her protection from the backlash brought about by the shenanigans of the Enchantress in exchange for access to a Top Secret dossier that 'ARGUS' has on the ever increasing metahuman community and their known activities. He flicks through its files revealing, amongst others, Aquaman, and so setting up 'Justice League, Part One' due in November 2017.

I did enjoy 'Suicide Squad' for all the adverse press it has so far received, but I did feel let down by all the hype and expectation that went on months before its release. The film moves along at a cracking pace, has a thumping soundtrack, but there are plot holes and editing flaws in here aplenty as the story jumps around and in places is half-baked. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Will Smith at Deadshot carry this film without doubt and are both convincing and engaging in their roles, but many of the other characters are superfluous or simply under developed. Jared Leto plays a good Joker, but not in the same league as Heath Ledger's, and as someone sitting on the periphery of the Suicide Squad he adds little value to the story other than his relationship with Harley Quinn, or perhaps he's just in there for effect. There are several brief scenes with Batman/Bruce Wayne for continuity sake that do add value, and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller portrays the formidable, ruthless and intimidating Director well too. The effects are well delivered, but really nothing we have not seen in other similar comic book adaptations and certainly nothing that stands out with a 'wow' factor. With 'Man of Steel' bringing in US$668M, this years 'Batman v. Superman' US$873M, the DC Extended Universe needs a sure fire winner at the Box Office. Will this third instalment in that universe be the commercial success needed despite the luke warm reviews so far received? One thing is certain . . . you can't believe the hype, and for me the guys at Marvel set the standard by which DC will be judged, and they have!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-