The New Mutants, directed by Josh Boone, claims to take place in the same universe as Fox’s X- Men films, but apart from a few mentions of them this could easily be a standalone film.

A young teenager, Dani (Blu Hunt), wakes after an accident in a mostly derelict hospital and finds out she may be a mutant on the verge of developing her powers. She is introduced to others in similar circumstances, including a Scottish girl with a lot of marks on her body (Maisie Williams), a southerner incapable of any happiness (Charlie Heaton), a former rich kid no one else likes (Henry Zaga) and a rebellious sorcerer (Anya- Taylor Joy). Some very unusual things start happening, so they start to find a way to escape while contending with the one doctor running the place (Alice Braga).

Most of the performances are satisfactory. Hunt and Williams work well together and Braga does come over as someone trying to be patient and sympathetic to with her patients. Zaga didn’t impress me, but Heaton did what sounded to me like a decent southern accent. Taylor-Joy appears to be the comic relief and pulls it off well.

Boone and Knate Lee wrote the script, which has a feel similar to X-Men, with the concept of young people with powers in a society that struggles to accept them. But here, the backgrounds of the characters are considerably more serious and the tone of light superhero action is replaced with one of horror. The scares aren’t shoved in your face endlessly, and after each one there is adequate time to take a breath, but the film never drags.

It all looks very gloomy, but that suits the mood of the film and it’s not carried to the point of absurdity that the early entries of the DC expanded universe were notorious for.

The score is by Mark Snow and is disappointingly unmemorable, given that his best-known work is the theme for The X-Files.

Apart from some clichéd characters, another main problem is that given the short runtime, some characters feel underdeveloped. I wasn’t too sure of what happened in the back-story of Taylor- Joy’s character, but it must have been important considering how some of the monsters look. The ending is something of a let-down, clearly being intended to set up a sequel and a franchise in its own right. However, if you know what happened with Fox as a business while this film was being made, it just feels odd, knowing that it’s probably never going to come to fruition, at least for several years.

So Fox’s endeavours with the X-Men have come to an end for now. There were ups and downs, a lot of good performances, several memorable moments, and it helped to introduce the world to a way of making superhero films without being excessively dark or camp. If this is what Fox can do, I wonder if Kevin Feige and the MCU will top it?

Director: Josh Boone
Writers: Josh Boone, Knate Lee
Stars: Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton
Andrew Moodie
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