The New Mutants

This potentially interesting horror comic-book film turned out to be such an eviscerated nothing. The New Mutants would like to lean on the characters, but the creators are virtually uninvolved with them. They'd like to differentiate themselves from other X-Men movies by setting them in the horror genre, but the scary scenes are more or less stripped down here. And while it looks pretty nice and the bunch of heroes are quite likeable despite their shallowness, it's not enough for a good movie. After years of waiting, a film that does practically nothing to impress has arrived in the cinemas. (08/28/2020)

New Mutants, a long-delayed affair that finally made it to theaters, would have been more at home on Netflix. It's not bad though, I was a bit annoyed that the whole film takes place in the dark and has very dark visuals (it felt like 480P quality in the cinema), but the setting in an institution is good and the characters are quite likeable, with Scream Queen Anya Taylor-Joy shining the most, already notching up 6. She's also appearing in the highly anticipated The Northman and Last Night in Soho, the girl just rocks, she's great and I'm rooting for her. Here she plays a sassy bitch and is also the best character in the whole film. The film is quite suspenseful and mysterious and the most interesting scene is the arrival of Smiley Man, who has a great mask and looked unpleasant. But the film is brought down by the very digital finale with the giant bear, which looked more teen fantasy than horror, but considering the problems the film faced it probably turned out better than expected. Story***, Action***, Humor>No, Violence>No, Entertainment****, Music***, Visual***, Atmosphere***. 6.5/10. (09/06/2020)

The name you're looking for is I Am Number Four. This was, in fact, a similar high school debauchery that was made for the sole purpose of groping the potential for creating a new young adult franchise and was transparent about it all the way through. With films like The New Mutants, you almost tend to personify the film medium due to how naturally resistant it can be to these attempts to simply monetize it purely, without any further ambition or ability. Perhaps only unloaded sadists who will groan at the way actors struggle with their accents and ultimately their roles might find some satisfaction. However, the discomfort of watching it is far more pervasive. Witnessing the discomfort of everyone involved in a film of only six actors is rather comparable to being the only one to attend the birthday party of an unpopular classmate. (11/24/2020)

This is a fairly well-made mutant spin-off, though its delayed release promised nothing better than average despite trying for a while to be more of a psychological horror movie; either the studio talked Boone out of it or I’m just too much of a hardened viewer. The climax is an orgy of tricks reminiscent of a bout of fantasy fisticuffs on acid. I was distracted the whole time, wondering if the lesbian relationship storyline could still be categorized as LGBT or if it was in fact bordering on zoophilia. Roughly comparable to the last X-Men farewell film, Dark Phoenix. (11/15/2020)

What should be appreciated is the attempt at genre-bending, however if you're going for a horror spectacle (and the trailers are very misleading in this regard), you'll be disappointed. Not that there aren't horror themes, it’s just that the whole thing comes across as completely mediocre without a shred of invention. The story and the comedic concept itself may be fine, but the film tempts you with something that ultimately falls woefully short of the 50% mark. As such, this attempt at an X-Men horror crossover got stuck somewhere in the middle of its journey. A great idea in brutally mediocre execution. (09/08/2020)