Review: The New Mutants

New Mutants was in production for quite a while. I first caught wind of the film about four years ago, and from my understanding, it was supposed to be an x-men film with a horror twist, which sounded really unique and exciting. I’ve always been a big fan of comic book films and tv, and within the past few years, the horror genre has grown on me tremendously. I was really thrilled at the idea of a horror-hero film, and I’ve been looking forward to the release of this film since I first heard about it.

After finally seeing the film, undeveloped is probably the best word I could use to describe it, which is somewhat ironic given the amount of time it spent filming, re-filming, and in post-production. This article, written by Will Ashton for the website CinemaBlend, details the New Mutant’s decidedly unlucky production timeline. It’s especially interesting to read that almost every decision the studio made in regards to this film would turn out to be a bad one (I did try to look for a more delicate way to word that but it just wasn’t working, truth hurts). Reflecting on these poor production choices in hindsight does make it seem especially like a story you know is going to end badly, but the casting and initial premise of the film should have resulted in a good product. Around the time of the original release date in 2018, stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, and Charlie Heaton seemed to be particularly well-cast with Taylor-Joy’s horror movie skills on display in the Witch (2015) and Split (2016) and Heaton’s prominent role as Johnathan Byers in Netflix’s wildly popular program, Stranger Things (2016-). And of course, Maisie Williams was busy portraying the well-loved Arya Stark in one of the most popular television shows of all time, Game of Thrones, which ended in 2019 (GOT spoiler: the scene where Arya finally ends the Night King remains undefeated, that’s a top-10 tv moment and you will never convince me otherwise). 

Production misfortunes aside, as I mentioned earlier, most elements of the New Mutants just weren’t fleshed out enough. The characters were vague and lacked any real definition, which does tend to happen in stories that follow groups of people but even the main character of the film, Danielle Moonstar (played by actress Blu Hunt), who has the most attention given to her character, never seems to grow into a more interesting protagonist. Don’t get me wrong, all of the characters have tons of potential but they all (maybe with the exception of Taylor-Joy’s Illyana Rasputin and William’s Rahne Sinclair) have similar backstories: “I killed someone I care about with my powers and now I’m traumatized” that are presented in similar ways which adds to the sense that the characters aren’t very unique.

Even the story of the film felt like it was incomplete. There were some horror elements, but the filmmakers didn’t follow through enough to create any unique or striking imagery. And the complete lack of objectives or character goals caused the film to lose momentum, which it does try to regain towards the final part of the story but for me it was sort of, too little too late.

And I cannot end this article without mentioning how absurd the set of this film was. The events of the story take place at a confusingly large old hospital, which genuinely baffled me while I was trying to watch because there are only 6 people in this entire facility. SIX. PEOPLE. And only one of those people was an adult, if you’re supposed to be monitoring potentially dangerous mutant teenagers, why is there only one faculty member? There was only one doctor. ON THAT ENTIRE CAMPUS. If the kids are supposed to be so dangerous why would there only be ONE person watching them??? Please someone explain this to me because it still just doesn’t add up.

All things considered, New Mutants was mediocre. It’s especially disappointing because of the great cast and a story that should have been an interesting new spin on a pretty well known Marvel property. The New Mutants looks good on paper, but it just never manages to grow into a fully realized thing of its own.

Image credit: IMDB