Tuesday, November 17, 2020

The New Mutants (2020)

A strange orphan of a film, appropriate for one concerning a group of orphaned mutants, 'The New Mutants' was actually filmed back in 2017 with eyes on an early 2018 release. The film fell victim to various problems principally the take over of 20th Century Fox by Disney so that its late August 2020 release in recently Covid reopened theaters, amounts to a dumping, an inglorious whimper of an end to the once genre defining Bryan Singer X-Men franchise. 

Always a lose franchise in its continuity, this film feels even more orphaned in that it is not at all clear where it is supposed to fit in time line wise with the other movies. Not that that matters much as this film concerns new characters who we well never seen again. A group of 5 young, ethnically and geographically diverse mutants (Russian, Irish, Brazilian, Native American, and Kentuckian) brought together for testing at an isolated former Catholic school. The cast includes Maise Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, and Alice Braga as the facilities mysterious lone administrator, also a mutant. 

Directed and co-written by Josh Boone, best know for 2014's 'The Fault in Our Stars', this is an appropriately teen angsty X-Men movie, an even contains a young lesbian romance. For the most part pretty predictable and un inspired, the cast does a decent enough job and I found I liked the ending. On the whole unexceptional filler, though new comer Blu Hunt makes a good first impression as the lead. **

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