What happens when you mix poor writing, undeveloped characters, slow pacing and a horrendously dull lead performance? You create a movie that forces the audience to question whether the three-year delay was truly due to a Disney-Fox merger, or whether the studio knew the quality of the content was lacking.
The New Mutants is a 98-minute feature film adaptation of a lesser known *Marvel X-Men comic-book series, and it revolves around five young mutants who are isolated from society in a specially protected facility. The club, if you could even call it that, consists of Rahne/Wolfsbane (Maisie Williams), Illyana/Magik (Anya Taylor-Joy), Sam (Charlie Heaton), Roberto/Sunspot (Henry Zaga) and Dani (Blu Hunt). While imprisoned “for their own good,” the five characters must learn to control their powers while also facing a new and unavoidable enemy: themselves. Unbeknownst to them, and with the doctor (Alice Braga) analyzing from behind the scenes, controlling their powers is of great importance as their own fears begin to manifest, leading to terrifying events that could kill them.
Getting into the movie, the sense of a last hoorah was afoot; this being the last X-Men film from the pre-Disney-Fox. The tragic aspect of this situation is that this movie should have been enjoyable, at least in respect to the different style of comic-book film that was advertised. This concept comes after Fox dipped its toes into the water of diverse genres of comic-book movies with the likes of Logan (*2017) and the Deadpool films.
However, unlike the aforementioned films, The New Mutants often struggles with an identity crisis of trying to be the horror film originally planned, versus the slow and numb film that was shot. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of dark images that are scary in terms of the type of villain and fears they represent, but there are relatively no horror moments present.
Another difficult aspect that viewers must overcome when watching is the lack of character development and some lazy writing moments. Each of the mutants is, eventually, shown to have some sort of crazy power, which is interesting to witness, but the characters aren’t given any substance. Rather, they each portray a certain stereotype of a character. Unfortunately for the actress, whether it reflects her capability or not, the final edit of the film leaves a sour taste in the mouths of viewers every time Dani is on screen. While I can’t speak to the talents of Blu Hunt, the moments she was on screen were some of the worst, with the acting feeling poorly executed. Again, this issue could be with the way it was edited or the direction given to the actress, but it was almost unbearable.
By this point it may seem that this film is unwatchable, and while it is bad, there are a couple aspects that I really enjoyed. The first is Anya Taylor-Joy’s magnetic and eerie portrayal of Illyana/Magik. While the film itself may not be scary, this performance is one that involves many creepy mannerisms and voice-changes that are likely to leave the watcher uneasy. The other aspect of this film that is genuinely beautiful is the LGBT relationship that develops between two of the five mutants. To avoid spoiling the moments, I will just elaborate that this is truly the first superhero film to give depth to a LGBT relationship and character(s).
Overall, I cannot recommend this film to the average viewer, as even hardcore Marvel fans will be left disappointed by the final iteration of Fox’s X-Men universe. While originally intended and heavily marketed as a horror superhero film, the final product replaces the horror with slow pacing and watered down suspense to give you a film that likely won’t be remembered.
