Review: The New Mutants

For all it’s ups and downs, the Fox X-Men series has been a staple of comic-books movies for over 20 years and with Hugh Jackman hanging up his claws in 2017, the decision to open a new chapter of the franchise with a new roster of characters was the smart choice for going forward with the franchise. Personally I was very excited to see what The New Mutants had to offer, turning the X-Men into an all-out horror movie with shades of Dream Warriors sounded great, add in a cast and director who hadn’t steered me wrong yet and I was set to see a new start for the X-Franchise in 2018.

Then the delays came, then the rumours about reshoots, then the news of no reshoots, then more delays, then Disney mergers, then COVID. For two years, the film sat on the shelves waiting for some form of release, be is theatrical, direct to video or streaming on Disney +. Eventually the film was released, got so-so reviews and what was supposed to be the bold first chapter in a new age of X-Men got cast aside as a forgettable limp-dick ending to the franchise before the characters moved to the MCU.

But like I said, I was interested in the setting, I liked the franchise, I liked the cast, I figured having seen every other X-Film I was going to see this one too regardless of the reviews and I’d make me own mind up. Turns out the film isn’t as bad as everyone said it was, not as good as I was hoping but not the failure it was made out to be.

The film opens on a Native American reservation being pummelled by a tornado, teenager Dani Moonstar is led out by her father only for something in the storm to violently kill him and knock Dani unconscious. When she wakes, she’s in a psychiatric hospital where she is informed that she is the only survivor and that her bloodwork shows that she is a mutant, but since it’s unclear what her powers are at the moment she is advised to stay in the hospital until such time as she can control them.

Under the supervision of Dr Reyes, Dani is introduced to her fellow patients, Russian witch Illyana Rasputin, Kentucky Cannonball Sam Guthrie, Brazillian hothead Roberto de Costa and wee Scottish Catholic girl Rahne Sinclair. All have their own individual powers and ways to try and control them but all of them are kept under strict lock and key with the hospital being surrounded by an impenetrable force-field. While some believe they’re being kept safe to train and become X-Men one day, other aren’t so convinced, and with Dani’s arrival, the quiet life the patients have led is suddenly and violently broken apart by horrors inside looking to hurt them all, and horrors outside that have been following Dani for miles.

Truth be told, this isn’t a bad story, it’s a little too simplistic for its own good, but the bones for something great are there. It’s biggest problem is the runtime, at just over 90 minutes long there’s not enough time to introduce the characters, build up the horror then bring it all together for the climax, the beginning and the end are fine, it’s that middle part with the horror element which gets sidelined a little too heavily, going for a more PG-13, in-your-face approach that doesn’t last nearly long enough. Maybe that’s a personal thing since the horror angle was a big selling point for me – and I would’ve loved to have the rumours of an R-Rating be true even though I knew there wasn’t a chance – but it did upset me to see how uninspired the horror elements were.

On a more positive note, as the introduction to a new team and their dynamic with each other, the film actually did quite well, as short as the runtime was, everyone got their own tragic backstory and we learnt enough about them all to give a shit about this new team. The best parts of the film were honestly just watching them all talk and laugh and occasionally fight with each other with the underlying mystery of what’s happening to them pushing the story forward. There’s definite flaws, with the comparisons to Dream Warriors being a little TOO heavy at points, but it worked for what the film was offering so I won’t judge it too harshly.

Character work was definitely the film’s highpoint, with such a small cast of relatively unknown mutants it was fair-game for anyone to take the reigns and have their moment to shine, while Dani is arguably the main character since she’s the outsider brought into this hospital at the start, the film does a great job of making it an ensemble piece more than Wolverine and Pals again. The only outsider to this was Dr Reyes, played by Alice Braga who is very much in the supporting cast category. Even still, Braga does an admirable job with Reyes, giving the character this interesting mix of warmth and coldness depending on what she needs to be doing at that moment. It makes for an ambiguous but intriguing character who you’re never really sure what to make of until the end, especially in regards to Dani and what Reyes wants to do with her.

Dani herself, played by Blu Hunt, makes for a solid lead character, she’s a mutant who doesn’t know what her powers are or why she’s being locked in a hospital, this is a whole new world for her and it’s clearly terrifying. Hunt has this vulnerability to her that makes Dani so easy to care for, she’s scared and alone for the first act with the questions about what’s going on stopping her in her tracks at every turn. Not that Dani is totally helpless though, as the film goes on and Dani becomes more comfortable with her new surroundings the threat now comes from what her powers are and what they can do, not to spoil anything but Dani factors in quite heavily to the horror elements and that adds a whole other layer to her character that she needs to work through, it’s a nice touch that definitely adds to her character into becoming her own creation rather than an audience surrogate.

Dani’s first real friend upon arriving at the hospital is Rahne Sinclair, played by Maisie Williams sporting a surprisingly decent Scottish accent. Rahne is from a religious community, which basically means the sermons were all fire and brimstone, and since Rahne is a mutant with the ability to turns into a wolf, she’s been outcast and branded as something to fear and at times is evens cared of herself. Following on from Arya Stark, this is a much different role for Williams, playing Rahne more subdued, more timid, the arrival of Dani and their subsequent relationship gives her something to fight towards, in the third act once shit has hit the fan you can see her coming out of her cage and she’s doing just fine. Rahne arguably has the most claim to the emotional core of the film and Williams performance backs that up in spades, her scene with the Reverend is surprisingly intense but it sells her character so well and what she’s going through.

I was going to criticize the movie for having Dani and Rahne’s relationship go smoothly and not having Rahne’s religious background be a problem they need to work through, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that Rahne’s religion already has her questioning her mutant abilities, that alone gives her a strong arc to fight through leaving her and Dani to have their own love story that doesn’t need to resort to homophobic clichés. I’m tempted to actually applaud the film for actually giving an LGBT relationship that much freedom in a comic-book movie.

The two lone dudes of the group are Sam Guthrie, played by Stranger Things Charlie Heaton, and Roberto ‘Berto’ de Costa played by Henry Zaga, both of them have similar backstories which is why I’m lumping them together but both handle things differently. Sam’s powers give him the ability to shoot off like a rocket and be completely invulnerable while running, but in learning of this power he accidently dropped a mineshaft while working in Kentucky, killing his father and several workers. While Sam might have gone introverted to try and understand what happened, he is clearly is trying to come to terms with it and control himself so it doesn’t happen again, but he’s also getting frustrated with the lack of answers for what was clearly an accident, there are times when Sam feels like an afterthought but his flashes of anger at points do inject the film with a bit of life in the quieter portions and Heaton does a fine job with what he’s given.

Where Sam retreated in on himself to understand what happened to him, Roberto put on the mask of a rich kid asshole to hide what he’d done from himself, Zaga definitely had a swagger to him, a level of confidence that made him out to be a right douche but out of everyone – arguably even against Dani – he’s the one who has absolutely no control over his powers, and has shown no signs of even trying, which considering he can turn his skin into the surface of the sun is concerning. Much like Heaton, Zaga does feel a little more sidelined compared to the others, but I do really like what he did with Roberto, his arc towards accepting what he did and overcoming his own cowardice is simple but effective for this type of film, everyone has their own trauma to work past but Roberto having that gap in the middle where he actually gets more scared because of facing his past made his stand out a little more.

Rounding out the team was Illyana, played by Anya Taylor Joy who is clearly having a blast with the role, playing Illyana like the Fuck You Queen of Mother Russia. Like Roberto, Illyana is hiding her trauma behind a mask of confidence and sadistic glee, but unlike Roberto, Illyana is not only well versed in her powers but she makes no qualms about showing off in front of the others. She’s a textbook case of doesn’t play well with others and is just fine about that but when her own demons start coming back on her, that facade drops and we see Illyana as the traumatised little girl that has gone through some horrendous shit and likely doesn’t even recognise who she is anymore. There’s a difficult line to balance with Illyana but Anya manages just fine, using her natural charisma to keep Illyana on the right side of bitchiness and not making it too hard to like her so when she finally comes into her own and breaks loose, it’s all the better to witness.

Having only seen Josh Boone’s work in the romance genre – Fault In Our Stars is a solid flick and I won’t hear anything else on the matter – I was curious to see what he did in horror, with his inclusion on the remake of The Stand it’s obvious that he has an eye on the genre but had never done anything with it yet. As previously mentioned, the horror elements don’t add up but that doesn’t mean that Boone does a bad job, the attempt was there to make a Superhero Horror Movie and as cool as that sounds – it’s literally the phrase that got me interested in the film – the limitations of the time and the PG-13 rating meant that Boone doesn’t do much more than show scary monster men with big mouths for 20 minutes before leading into the finale with a goddamn Demonic Bear creature, and possibly even a dragon, it’s kinda crazy but I had fun with it.

But again, that’s not to say there’s not horror elements, some of them do work within the context of the film once everyone starts reliving their traumas, as much as I would’ve loved these scenes to pad the film out a little bit longer and really draw out the tension, what we got gave the film some proper intensity and I kinda liked it for that. Rahne’s in the showers against the Reverend, Sam in the mines with his father, Roberto in the pool with Illyana, these moments informed us about the characters whilst also twisting the mystery about what’s going on, the pool scene especially with where it ends up feels lifted straight out of Dream Warriors and I can appreciate Boone’s efforts to push the PG-13 rating as hard as he could. And there is a definite push here with the film touching upon more mature topics like religious persecution, LGBT relationships, sexual abuse, survivors guilt, stuff that you wouldn’t expect a comic-book movie to have but makes it all the better for being there.

It’s a shame that the Disney merger came at a point where Fox was trying to bring new blood into the X-Men franchise because for all it’s flaws, The New Mutants actually shows a lot of potential, knowing this is the first in a trilogy we’re likely never to see complete is unfortunate but honestly, for what we got I did like it. The plot is basically a superhero version of Dream Warriors but that’s not really bad thing, the main cast all get their moment to shine and the team dynamic that builds between them all makes me sad that we’ll never see it again, especially Dani, Rahne and Illyana who all take the film and run away with it, and while Boone doesn’t exactly nail this as a horror movie, the increase of intensity and maturity alongside the comic-book wackiness makes it more unique than you might have expected.

In short, better than I thought, not as good as I hoped for. Certainly a better ending for the franchise than Dark Phoenix but that’s not exactly saying much is it?

7/10