Josh Boone's long-awaited The New Mutants is particularly difficult to dissect: not because its story is confusing in any sense but because nearly every aspect of this film is so poorly executed that it's hard to determine the true root of its problems. This film is an incredibly terrible, final addition to Fox's X-Men universe and one that turned out to not deserve the hype it has been building for years. From the performances to the chemistry between actors to the script and direction to any kind of attempted choreography, this movie is just a shoddy attempt at introducing some new characters into this shared universe. If there is one thing inside of me that has been slowly dying over the past few years, it's my excitement for seeing the latest superhero story. With a few notable exceptions, I was expecting this uniquely creative film to be the one to hopefully revive this past love but, unfortunately, this disappointing return to the movie theaters has just been yet another nail in the coffin.
After her entire community is killed by an unknown force, Danielle Moonstar (Blu Hunt) wakes up in an eerie hospital, in which kids her age with mutant powers are being held and controlled. Not knowing why she is there or what her powers are, she gets to know Rahne (Maisie Williams), Illyana (Anya Taylor-Joy), Sam (Charlie Heaton), and Roberto (Henry Zaga), as the five of them begin to question the real reason that they are being held captive by the facility's Dr. Reyes (Alice Braga). I will start out by saying I have been decently intrigued by this movie for a while now and especially given its strange circumstance of being consistently postponed, I was actually interested in its seemingly fresh take on the origin story. Setting a superhero film inside one, minor location, and really pushing the limits of the characters is a take that I thought was incredible. There is so much potential to play around with genre in this environment and for a film with a cast as talented as this one, I expected to be fairly blown away. Unfortunately, this new type of superhero premise might be the only good thing about this entire film, as the script by Josh Boone and Knate Lee and direction from the former was supremely disappointing. The writing throughout this film is just as cliché as you would expect from any half-assed blockbuster of today, to the point that I was able to entirely guess what characters would say seconds beforehand. There is nothing profoundly wrong with the plot and themes The New Mutants tries to touch on, but Boone and Lee borrow and recycle bland amounts of everything that ends up presenting absolutely nothing new. Every single one of these characters were so underdeveloped that I never cared about them in the slightest, even knowing that nothing bad was going to happen to them. Given generic powers such as being fiery, blasting off like a rocket, and literally just being a werewolf were some of the dullest traits that Boone could have focused on for his characters. The only memorable character was Taylor-Joy's Illyana and her other-dimensional sword but even then, I never felt the adrenaline that one is supposed to during the action sequences.
Above everything else, these glaring issues were only elevated by the misguided direction from Boone. This film was supposed to take a new approach to the genre and be the first superhero-horror film but apparently, that was either made up by the marketing department or was just never fully committed to. The New Mutants barely dips its toes into horror and when it does, it's quite interesting for the half-second that something creepy is on screen. But this film would have been much better and much less tonally fragmented if Boone were to have entirely committed to making a horror film. The elements of Illyana's past with the faceless monsters provided a great deal of tension for me but that possible terror was intercut with a lame joke or just abandoned altogether. This became irreversibly frustrating because when a compelling idea is introduced, it is almost immediately shot down by the tropes that this film falls victim to. The other massive problem that this film suffers from is the unidentifiable chemistry between the entire cast. There are so many rich examples of films about teenagers that any audience member can just feel how good of friends the actors and actresses are, even off-set. This one is definitely not one of those movies, as Hunt, Williams, Taylor-Joy, Heaton, and Zaga seem like they had only met each other for the first time. Along with their irritating and unnecessary accents, their performances are just atrocious and the presence of their characters simply made every interaction between each other so awkward. Any attempted romantic subplots in this film felt incredibly forced because of just this and while these cast members are very talented on their own, they just do not belong in this comic book world. On top of everything wrong with this film, the fight scenes and visual effects were undeniably corny and the action actually began to feel improvised because of how clumsy it felt. I could honestly keep going with how discouraged I became with this movie regarding its lazy filmmaking and casually racist undertones but that would require much more energy than I'm willing to give (which this film definitely does not deserve).
I love the idea that Boone attempts with The New Mutants, introducing these characters through a minimal and low-budget horror setting, but I can now definitely see why this has been pushed back and rescheduled for quite literally years. However, it's a great thing not that many people are going in hordes to the theaters right now because they, just like I, would be presented with such a vastly underwhelming return to the movies. Fox absolutely should have kept this one shelved but hey, at least with the right precautions and safety measures, I'm back to the movies baby!
My Rating: ★½
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