Review: New mutants mutates on screen after long disappointing wait

In the face of multiple postponements of the movie New Mutants, Disney finally decided to release the movie on Aug. 28. Despite the circumstances prohibiting many in-theater viewings, the movie did surprisingly well at the box-office but was not so satisfying. New Mutants is a new addition to the X-Men movie franchise, introducing brand new characters with extraordinary powers and extraordinary problems.

New Mutants was originally a comic book series written by Chris Claremont. It is an extension of the X-Men universe presenting us with five new mutant teenagers who do not understand the full potential of their power. They were sent to what they perceived as a hospital due to their troubled pasts with committing accidental homicides, with one scientist performing tests on them to help them gain some sense of their power. The storyline does well developing each character’s personalities throughout the movie as they start to care for each other and learn about each other’s past. Although the idea was there, the movie was unremarkable until the final act.

After the very first trailer was released, it was scheduled to come to theaters on April 13, 2018. However, because of the 20th Century Studio and Disney company merger, a global pandemic, and multiple reshoots, it took nearly two years for the production company to finally get it into theaters.Now that it has finally been released, the movie proved to fall below my expectations. Two years of development led me to think that the movie would be at its highest potential, but it instead had a basic coming-of-age storyline with boring writing. Instead of being known as a good movie, New Mutants will forever hold the reputation of being a dull movie that took ages to come out.

New Mutants, on the surface, is a special kind of superhero movie as it delves into the horror genre. While many superhero movies contain almost exclusively action, adventure, and comedic tropes, horror brings a fresh breath of air. Despite this refreshing change, the characters in the movie are too cliché. The movie presents us with angsty teens such as the mean girl, the rich boy, the nice guy, the nice girl, and the nice girl with terrifying powers. The only real standout character was Illyana Rasputin, played by Anya Taylor-Joy. Her acting ability really brought out the mean, cool girl vibes that made her performance enjoyable and her character very likeable. The CGI on the monsters were also incredible, but the horror aspect of this movie had you predicting and anticipating a scare easily.

Overall, New Mutants is a mundane film due to its bland execution of horror and poorly written story. New Mutants is expected to head to online streaming platform HBO Max first. I would only recommend this movie to those who are into generic superhero storylines and enjoy a scare.