The New Mutants is a superhero movie with a veneer of horror about a group of young mutants just discovering their powers who are being kept at a secure facility in order to undergo therapy to, supposedly, prepare them for release. The movie opens on Dani(Blu Hunt) awakened by her dad in their home when some kind of disaster is devastating her reservation, she fleets and falls unconscious only to awaken in the facility under the watchful eye of Dr. Reyes(Alice Braga). She meets the other teens in attendance who have various powers- Rahne(Maisie Williams), Illyana(Anya Taylor-Joy), Sam(Charlie Heaton), and Bobby(Henry Zaga). At first at odds then beginning to grow closer(a la Breakfast Club) the group then begins to be plagued by dark visions and Dr. Reyes motives come into question.
Hunt is a little green here but to be fair she's asked to do some substantial heavy lifting, although not totally effective she's passable. Williams is clearly committed and does a better job than the relatively light subject matter really calls for and her and Hunt's chemistry is wonderful if a bit, appropriately, twee. Taylor-Joy, Heaton, and Zaga are all decent but the movie comes in at a very clipped 90 minutes and although the momentum never suffers some of the character development does.
Competent, contained, and entertaining there is certainly room for improvement but this defacto X-Men spinoff lands securely in the 18-25 demographic in which it was intended. There is no real sign of why this production was so troubled, delayed multiple times with reshoots, as it works just fine although not particularly inspired. The haunted house lay on to the superhero story is an interesting one and would have paid greater dividends if more time had been spent on flushing out the characters outside of one brief montage.
Currently available to rent on most VOD platforms.
Rent It.
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