The New Mutants Review

The New Mutants is the last movie in the current X-Men series, a film that sees the superhero genre enter into horror territory.

Dani Moonstar (Blu Hunt) is a teenager who awakes in a hospital where she’s told that her whole tribe had been killed and that she’s a mutant. In the hospital are four other mutants, Rahne (Maisie Williams) who has the ability to turn into the wolf; Sam (Charlie Heaton) who has jet propulsion powers; Bobby (Henry Zaga) who can manipulate solar energy; and Illyana (Anya Taylor-Joy) can teleport and give herself a metal arm. Also, in the hospital is Dr. Reyes (Alicia Braga). But not everything in the hospital is what it seems.

The New Mutants was a notorious film because it was completed in 2017 and it had been sitting on the shelf for three years. There had numerous reshoots to bring in more horror elements, and everyone involved in the film has moved on. Disney has dumped out the film in cinemas just so they can fulfil their contractual obligations. As you imagine The New Mutants was a mess of a film.

There was some ambition when the film was first made. It was directed by Josh Boone who was hot off the heels from making The Fault in Our Stars and it had a cast of up-and-comers like Taylor-Joy (Split), Williams (Game of Thrones), and Heaton (Stranger Things). It was a film that aimed to be a smaller scale film in the superhero genre. Unfortunately for The New Mutants, the production was similar to the 2015 version Fantastic Four.

2015’s Fantastic Four also hired a young director and a cast of emerging actors but suffered from a troubled production and extensive reshoots. Both films tried to bring in horror elements, although in The New Mutants case Boone was forced to bring them in, whilst Josh Trank had to tone his horror ideas down in Fantastic Four. Both films were also claustrophobic feel to them. This was a deliberate choice in The New Mutants because it was set in one location.

Although The New Mutants had production issues like Fantastic Four they weren’t as obvious as with the 2015 film. Fantastic Four’s reshoots were incredibly obvious because of the time jump, the awful wig Kate Mara was forced to wear, and footage from the trailer that never appeared in the film. The New Mutants had a cohesive story and the only obvious bit of misplaced footage was when the film reused some scenes from Logan.

Boone’s previous film was a Young Adult romance and with The New Mutants, he did want to bring in more teen angst. All the young mutants were traumatised: they had killed someone when their powers manifested. Rahne and Illyana were the most interesting in that regard. Rahne was a practicing Catholic who was told she had a demon inside her. Whilst Illyana was a bitchy character who enticed conflict but had deep childhood trauma. Taylor was the most impressive performer in the film because her character was fairly unlikeable and I would say she was doing her best Villanelle impression: but The New Mutants was made at the same time as the first season of Killing Eve. The teen drama was added by a romance subplot between two of the inmates.

The film wanted to be a psychological thriller that looked at the issues affecting the characters. The horror came through the characters’ fears having a physical manifestation. The Smile Men were an effectively creepy image.

The biggest issue with The New Mutants was it felt hollow. The film was only 98 minutes and like other troubled productions (i.e. Fantastic Four and The Dark Tower) their run time is cut to a bare minimum just so it can fill a theatrical run time. The New Mutants was skin deep regarding its themes of teenage psychological issues and institutionalisation. Nor does it take advantage of its setting in the X-Men universe – it should be scary for a teenager to find out that they are a living weapon or use the social themes of the franchise. There was a great avenue for character drama because the teenagers would suddenly find out they are a member of a discriminated race.

The New Mutants tried to juggle two plots. The first was the characters facing their inner demons and figure out who was really holding them prisoner. But these plots were more plodded around instead of feeling like there was any urgency. The peril was only felt severe in the final act.

The New Mutants was made with enough competence to prevent it from being one of the worst superhero films. Its crime was being rather dull and being undercooked despite being in the oven for three years.