The New Mutants

Released: August 2020

Director: Josh Boone

Rated PG-13

Run Time: 95 Minutes

Distributor: Disney/20th Century Studios

Genre: Action/Horror/Drama

Cast:
Maisie Williams: Rahne Sinclair
Anya Taylor-Joy: Illyana Rasputin
Charlie Heaton: Sam Guthrie
Alice Braga: Dr. Reyes
Blu Hunt: Dani Moonstar
Henry Zaga: Roberto da Costa

When you look at movie studio labels over the past century, you can see how those labels have changed and evolved.  Some from static pictures to fully animated logos.  Take Warner Bros. for example: Their logo started out as a flat static image.  Some studios already had animated logos.  Universal Studios has had an animated logo since the 30s.  Tri-Star Pictures had a Pegasus for its logo, and it got updated into a more epic logo during the late 90s.  So, why am I bringing up logos in my introduction?  Because when Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, we had no idea if the company was still going to exist.  Because of that acquisition, some movies got canceled outright, while others were put onto the backburner just waiting.  As it turns out, Disney decided to keep the 20th Century Fox brand alive, but with a different name.  20th Century Fox was one of the most iconic film companies over the past 80 years or so and the logo was as equally iconic.  When Disney bought 20th Century Fox, they didn’t want the film company to be associated with Rupert Murdoch’s news organization, so they changed the title to 20th Century Studios.  It’s the same animation and musical fanfare, but the logo is different.  It’s going to take some getting used to, but it does represent a change in direction for the company under Disney’s leadership.  Some movies like Underwater were released under the old logo because the films were actually finished before the merger.  There is a movie that has adapted the new 20th Century Studios logo, and that film is The New Mutants.

The New Mutants follows a group of angsty teens with superpowers as they are held in a special medical facility.  With the arrival of Dani Moonstar, a young girl with a very traumatic past, comes some very bizarre happenings throughout the facility.  Mysterious figures suddenly appear and chaos begins to ensue.  Throughout all this, the teens begin to discover that their “hospital” is more than what it appears to be.  While most of the X-Men movies have had this grand and global scale, it’s actually really nice to see a movie whose story is fairly contained in a single location.  The concept behind The New Mutants is actually really cool.  The movie is based on the Demon Bear storyline from the comics, but seeing as how I haven’t read those particular comics, I couldn’t tell you how faithful it is.  Unfortunately, The New Mutants doesn’t really offer a whole lot that’s new, outside of the atmosphere and location.

Let’s start with what does work.  First of all, the performances here absolutely fantastic.  Everybody is great.  Maise Williams from Game of Thrones actually has some pretty good chemistry with newcomer Blu Hunt, who plays Dani Moonstar.  Maise plays Rahne, who can turn into a wolf at a moment’s notice, and she’s pretty cool.  Anya Taylor-Joy is one of the most interesting actresses to come along in some time.  Her debut in Robert Eggers’ The Witch was a hell of a start.  She’s been making a namer for herself in movies like Split and shows like The Queen’s Gambit.  She’s set to appear as the title character in the upcoming Mad Max spin-off, Furiosa.  Here, she plays a Russian mutant named Illyana who can summon a sword and transport herself to an alternate reality.  She’s kind of the bully at first in the film, before things really start happening.  Charlie Heaton plays Sam, whose particular gift has taking off like a cannonball right off the bat.  Henry Zaga plays Roberto who has a tendency to burn things whenever he gets to hot, apparently.  In charge of these kids is Dr. Reyes, played by Alice Braga.  Braga plays Reyes with a cool demeanor, but makes herself more a threat than she actually appears.  The chemistry between all these characters is what keeps this movie going.

The New Mutants is a fairly low-budget movie, in terms of being an X-Men film.  Despite the low-budget, some of the visual effects here are pretty good, but a lot of the overly CGI characters and such are painfully obvious.  Keeping the film and story to a fairly single location was a smart move, especially with what they had in mind.  This movie was supposed to be described as a horror movie, but while it does have horror elements in it, The New Mutants is as far from a horror movie as you can get.  It’s more like The Breakfast Club meets….well…X-Men, and it doesn’t fully succeed at being either.  Apparently, there were a lot of issues getting this movie off the ground, and that would explain why it took years to be released.  Unfortunately, the final product isn’t exactly something I’d be jumping for joy at.  The horror elements are interesting, but they don’t end up being anything more than cheap jump scares and bizarre imagery.  It takes more than that to make a horror movie.  The final act of the movie is pretty damned good when the Demon Bear actually makes its appearance.  It gets pretty bonkers, but sadly, it’s just more of the same in over-crowded genre.  It’s a typical third-act that I really wish would just go away for a while.  Give us something different.

I’ve been reading and hearing from various sources that The New Mutants is the worst X-Men movie ever.  Have they not seen the clusterfuck that was Dark Phoenix?  I’m sorry, there was no saving that movie.  It was a weak rehash of X-Men: The Last Stand, which is still not a good X-Men movie.  No.  If The New Mutants is guilty of anything, it’s being a middle-of-the-road superhero movie with some pretty good acting and decent action.  Otherwise, it’s a fairly harmless film that you can watch at least once and not be completely horrified by.  I could think of worse ways to end the 20th Century Fox-era of X-Men movies…….Dark Phoenix, anybody?  It’s going to be a while before we see another movie in the X-Men universe, but they are coming.  Kevin Feige has a plan for them and the Fantastic Four, but it’s going to be years before we see them again.  It’s just as well.  I think the X-Men films need a new approach and I think that Kevin Feige can give it to us.  Honestly, would I still recommend The New Mutants?  Yeah, it’s not the worst way to spend an hour and a half.

My Final Recommendation: 7/10.  While not exactly a classic, it’s not the disaster that a lot of people think it is.