New Mutants

A few weeks ago I finally got around to watching, "The New Mutants". As it is a comic book based movie AND in the X-Men universe, I am obligated to watch. This is the service I provide to YOU, dear reader. I will spare you all the details about how troubled the production on this movie was and dive right in.

Right off the top, this is a bad movie. It's a shame because you have some good actors that have gone on to become bigger names. In this movie, you have a mutants with varying powers and they are confined to a house to make it a like a locked room mystery. This is a gross misuse of these characters to confine them to a setting like this. I didn't look into it, but I can suspect that maybe budget was one issue. If you don't have the money to do these characters right, you shouldn't do them at all. I say this because they chose the characters that have different iconic displays of powers. 

I don't have a problem with the characters they chose. I actually love the choices. They are all new mutants I recognize. We have Sunspot, Cannonball, Wolfsbane, Dani Moonstar and Magik. The problem is the following: Sunspot becomes a being of solar power. Think of him as a low rent Human Torch. Cannonball turns his lower body into combustion so that he can fly around like...a cannonball. Wolfsbane is practically a werewolf. I'm being reductive, but just stick with me. Magik can warp around and has a gigantic sword. Dani can create psychic illusions of someone's worst fears. As I name these off, you can see how a lot of special effects would be required of each. The movie gets around this by having them use these RARELY. A no-no in a super hero movie.

Let me stress this again. For a movie, you should not confine characters like this to one static setting. This movie has a bland and dreary color palette that doesn't allow anyone to shine. Also, the mystery isn't all that great and is resolved rather quickly. This kind of thing works in the context of one episode of TV show.

There was also one deep cut X-Man, Cecilia Reyes that included in this movie. She is more of an evil scientist never feels quite right. She also has a power that would be more useful if she used it more, but that isn't that kind of movie.

Outside of the cast, the only thing this movie gets right is that it is short. It clocks in at a little over an hour and a half. Unless you're curious or a completionist in the worst way like me, you can avoid this movie. It is clear it will have no impact on anything for any of the eventual X-Men movies we will get. 

I DO think it is something that should be a TV show.