Given all the films that have been delayed in recent months, someone thought this was the best time to resell the continually-delayed The New Mutants, directed by Josh Boone. It claims to take place in the same universe as Fox’s X- Men films, but apart from a few mentions of them this could easily be a standalone film.
The plot concerns a young teenager named Dani (Blu Hunt), who wakes up after an accident in a mostly derelict hospital and finds out that she may be a mutant on the verge of developing her powers. She is introduced to a few others in similar circumstances, including a Scottish girl with a lot of marks on her body (Maisie Williams), a southerner who seems incapable of any happiness (Charlie Heaton), a former rich kid no one else likes (Henry Zaga) and a rebellious sorcerer (Anya Taylor-Joy, who assumes one of the strongest Russian accents I have ever heard). Then some very unusual things start happening all around them, so they start to find a way to escape while contending with the one doctor running the place (Alice Braga).
Most of the performances are satisfactory. Hunt as the newcomer and Williams work well together and Braga does come over as someone who is trying to be patient and sympathetic to what was happening with her patients. Zaga didn’t impress me, but Heaton did what sounded to me like a decent southern accent. Taylor-Joy appears to be the comic relief and pulls it off well.
Boone and Knate Lee wrote the script, which succeeds in achieving a feel similar to X-Men, using the concept of young people with powers in a society that will struggle to accept them. There are, however, a few elements to help it to stand out a bit more – the backgrounds of the characters are considerably more serious than in preceding films, and the tone of light superhero action is replaced with one of horror. We get to know basic information about the characters, some scares happen, then it all becomes stuck in ‘escape-the-haunted-house-movie’ territory for the last act, except for a lot of the action being augmented by superpowers. The scares aren’t shoved in your face endlessly, and after each one there is adequate time to take a breath but the film never drags. There’s also a peculiar obsession with what I can only assume is foreshadowing; this is fine, but it chooses to show it by having the characters watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer and there are even blurred DVDs of it in the background. Besides the acting, some of which was better than expected, I thought that was the only real surprise the film gave me.
The lighting really sets the tone of the film and there’s not a bright light to be found. It’s very gloomy, but not to the point of absurdity that the early entries of the DC expanded universe were known for.
I’m having a hard time believing it but the man who composed the score is Mark Snow, whose most well-known work is the theme for a little 90s SF show called The X-Files. So, it’s not unreasonable to expect something memorable from him, but unfortunately there isn’t anything, which made it even more surprising when his name came up in the credits. As odd as it sounds, if there’s any memorable music here it’s the use of a moody rendition of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) that could be heard in some of the films trailers. It’s also somewhat appropriate, given that the song is often used to illustrate the subject of youthful rebellion.
Apart from some clichéd characters, another main problem is that given the short runtime, some characters feel a bit underdeveloped. I wasn’t too sure of what happened in the back-story of Taylor- Joy’s character, but it must have been Important considering how some of the films monsters look. The ending is something of a let-down, clearly intended to set up a sequel and a franchise in its own right. However, if you know what happened with Fox as a business while this film was being made, it just feels odd, knowing that it’s probably never going to come to fruition, at least for several years.
And so Fox’s endeavours with the X-Men have come to an end for now. There were ups and downs, a lot of good performances, memorable moments, and it helped to introduce the world to a way of making superhero films without being excessively dark or camp. If this is what Fox can do, I wonder if Kevin Feige and the MCU will top it?
B-
