The New Mutants Movie Review

The New Mutants (2020)

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Written by: Josh Boone & Knate Lee
Directed by: Josh Boone
Starring: Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Alice Braga, Blu Hunt, Henry Zaga
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer

Plot
Five young mutants, just discovering their abilities while held in a secret facility against their will, fight to escape their past sins and save themselves.

Verdict
To be mutants in the X-Men universe, their powers aren't very interesting. Unfortunately the characters are boring too. When you combine that with an introduction that lasts more than half the movie, there just isn't much draw. It feels like a budget movie with the setting constrained to the facility campus. Movies without the funds makeup for it with creativity. This movie isn't creative. It attempts to bridge the YA and horror genre and does very little with both.
Skip it.

Review
Originally scripted to be more of a horror movie, the studio wanted to focus on the young adult aspect of it during filming. After the success of It (2017), the studio wanted to reshoot scenes to make it scarier. While you can see both of these influences on the movie, the biggest issue is the lack of plot.

This is another entry into the X-Men franchise that introduces unfamiliar characters, and unfortunately does very little with them. This had the chance to be more than just a special effects laden super hero movie. Logan managed to be compelling by focusing on an old man dealing with his mythos. It didn't even need a well known hero in the lead to be a good movie.
This movie had a ton of potential. This easily could have done YA and horror, the missing piece is likable and engaging characters. I expected the climax to be the five young adults working together to win. They do, kind of, but it doesn't hit the mark. Nor does it help that the antagonist sounds silly when describing this.

Charlie Heaton, Anya Taylor-Joy, Blu Hunt, Henry Zaga, Maisie Williams play the new mutants.

Five young mutants are housed in an isolated facility. From the start we know something sinister is going on here. This place isn't what it claims. From there, each person's worst nightmares begin to manifest. These nightmares provide backstory, but halfway through the movie we're still in the introduction phase.  What's the point, and where is the plot?

You've got young adults dealing with new found powers, at least that seems like the premise, but only one of them doesn't know her power and another has no control over his. This facility doesn't seem to do much training.
This movie tries to do too much, and doesn't do enough with anything. If this focused on young adults dealing with the stress of life and these powers, that works. Throw in some horror elements and this would be passable. Instead the movie checks boxes of include a scene of young adults becoming infatuated, include some horror elements and jump scares, check. There isn't a through line. It could isolate sets of characters and have them fight their literal fears while becoming friends. The final battle could be all of them combining their powers and what they know about each other to defeat the enemy. None of that happens. The characters exist for the plot, when the plot should exist for the characters.