The New Mutants - Movie Review

Critics Score - 6 of 10

General Audience Score - 8 of 10

A new batch of mutants was supposed to land in theatres last summer but Covid had different plans and this movie went almost completely under the radar for many people. If you’re just now thinking of catching up with it, will it be worth your time?

PROS - What if the world of mutants and X-Men was real? What kinds of scenarios would play out as children became of age and started developing powers and abilities? The New Mutants is an inventive, outside the box take on kids growing up in such a universe. While the film has no direct character ties to the X-Men universe, there are references to them once or twice during the film. But along with some originality, these mutants have some things going for them that make it worth going back to catch up with it.

The movie starts off with a bang as Dani (Blu Hunt) tries to escape from an unknown terror that threatens her Indian community. She then wakes in a hospital run by Dr. Reyes (Alice Braga) who makes it seem she’s Dani’s friend, but something seems a little off. Before long the rest of the tiny cast is introduced including the lovely Illyana (Anya Taylor-Joy), Sam aka “Kentucky” (Charlie Heaton) from the Stranger Things saga and Dani’s love interest Rayne (Maisie Williams). All these actors are doing perfectly acceptable work with their accents and clunky dialogue, with many lines being terribly predictable. The movie maintains a good bit of mystery about itself by holding many of it’s cards close to the chest. It’s able to keep a brisk pace up while mutants powers and secrets keep revealing more of the plot as Dani explores her hospital surroundings and interacts with the other reluctant habitants. But once the true nature of Dani’s power starts becoming evident, this movie really takes off in some wild and exciting directions. With so few characters, Dani’s main enemy is easy to spot early on, but the additional threats and their origin help the film stay engaging and in some moments even scary.

CONS - The New Mutants doesn’t offer much of anything meaningful by way of commentary. Although it was nice to see some LGBTQ superhero representation onscreen, it ultimately felt like token service as opposed to really having something smart to say. While Dani and the rest of the mutants predictably congeal by the end of the film, the character development just wasn’t strong enough to really feel like anything important had happened. But at just over an hour and a half, this movie may have saved itself from getting slowed down by unnecessary backstories and more difficult dialogue. Though none of the performances manage to separate themselves from the pack, who wouldn’t want to watch Anya Taylor-Joy speak to herself with a purple Pterodactyl puppet. Ultimately we’re left with a superficial coming of age superhero story but the originality, decent special effects, pacing and spooky moments help the watchability tremendously. 

SUMMARY - If you’re a fan of superhero movies, you’ll probably have a good time with the creative take on the genre. If not, this film does enough right that you can still enjoy it, but some will leave wondering what’s really that New about these Mutants.