Milbury Hospital is a secret facility in which young individuals with mutant abilities are held against their will. When five mutants struggling with their new powers realize that they aren’t just patients, but hostages, they must fight to escape and survive. Together Rahne Sinclair (Maisie Williams), Illyana Rasputin (Anya Taylor-Joy), Sam Guthrie (Charlie Heaton), Dani Moonstar (Blu Hunt), and Roberto da Costa (Henry Zaga) will do whatever it takes to find their freedom. The New Mutants are born here, and they’re just getting started.
The acting present throughout the course of The New Mutants is awkward, even uncomfortable. I don’t think it’s entirely the actors’ faults, however–as it seems that characters are written in an awkward fashion. There’s a level of honesty present in the odd nature of the characters, and they appear to represent some semblance of truth. Viewers understand that these are teenagers that are struggling with coming to terms with who and what they are, and being a teenager without superpowers is difficult enough. This sentiment is present throughout the entirety of The New Mutants, but the awkwardness that exists also comes as a result of the poorly constructed accents. Williams, Taylor-Joy, and Heaton each have unique and frustrating accents that force them to become overly awkward, and it takes so much away from each of these characters. As a result of the issues that exist within each character, it takes far too long for them to develop–and that’s annoying.
In addition to the horrific accents taking away from the characters, there is a sexual tension that exists that serves little purpose. The sexual tension present throughout the narrative distracts viewers from the characters, the multiple storylines, and just about everything else. Viewers spend an exorbitant amount of time attempting to figure out where they are being taken, but the sexual nature of The New Mutants never really amounts to anything. Having something take over a film, something that serves no purpose in the grand scheme of the film, is incredibly frustrating and a waste of viewers’ time.
There are a lot of moving parts in The New Mutants, some necessary and some unnecessary. The film isn’t long by any means, clocking in at just over an hour and a half in length, but with that said, I don’t think it even needs to be that long. Living beneath the surface of this somewhat convoluted film is a massively entertaining story (a horror twist on the X-Men films with which the world has fallen in love). There are issues that exist throughout The New Mutants that simply distract from the potential of the film (the things listed above are just a few of those issues), but the potential exists nonetheless. Had the story been more streamlined, more focused, I think that The New Mutants could have possibly been one of the better X-Men films. However, Writers Josh Boone and Knate Lee beat around the veritable bush for far too long, and they lose some viewers along the way.
Again, The New Mutants takes some time to develop, but at its core, it’s a horror film. This is a welcome adjustment in the world of Marvel, and it has the potential to invite an entirely new group of viewers. Seeing Marvel veer from the typical recipe of superhero films is a nice change, and it’s appealing in the grand scheme of the X-Men universe and cinema as a whole.
I’m not sure that the world had high hopes for The New Mutants, so it’s quite possibly not fair to say that the film fails to live up to expectations. However, the film takes time and explores avenues of the narrative that don’t need to exist–and the film suffers as a result of this. When viewers are finally introduced to the meat and bones of the film they get a riveting story and a wonderful addition to the X-Men universe. The New Mutants eventually turns into something fun, entertaining, and lively–but the treacherous road that viewers must travel in order to get to that point is too daunting, stealing from the film’s potential. Had Boone and Lee found their way within the story sooner, The New Mutants would have been something truly magnificent, but what the world gets is something very close to average.
Directed by Josh Boone.
Written by Josh Boone & Knate Lee.
Starring Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Alice Braga, Blu Hunt, Henry Zaga, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
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