The New Mutants (2020) 

By Emily Hubbard

The last of the 20^th Century Studios X-Men franchise is perhaps the most disappointing of them all 

• 1/5 Cameras 🎥
• Directed by: Josh Boone
• Starring: Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Blu Hunt 
• Where to find it: Sky Cinema/ Now TV 

No Copyright Infringement Intended

In the film industry, when a movie’s release date gets moved back multiple times it’s usually not a good sign (unless it’s because of a global pandemic). After being delayed no less than 5 times, you’d have been forgiven for forgetting The New Mutants exists, and you’d be better off for it.

Originally set for release on April 13^th 2018, this superhero ‘horror’, and the last X-Men film to be released by 20^th Century Studios before the company was bought by Disney, focuses on five teenage mutants being held in an eerie secret institution, run by Dr. Reyes (Alice Braga), that will supposedly train them to join the likes of Wolverine and Cyclops. All is not as it seems, however, as the group all start to see their biggest fears become reality. On paper, and from the first teaser trailer, this film has an interesting premise and seemed to divert from the usual mold of superhero movies by tapping into the horror genre. The end result, disappointingly, can barely be called horror at all. The jump scares aren’t effective, there’s no real sense of terror or dread, and I found myself laughing at scenes that were clearly meant to leave me with both of these feelings. One of the supposed reasons for The New Mutants’ delay was that it needed to be reworked to make it scarier, a statement that makes you wonder what kind of mess the original cut was.

Despite its lack of actual horror, something which should have elevated this film is its’ cast of promising young actors, with Game of Thrones alum Maisie Williams (Rahne Sinclair) and The Queen’s Gambit Emmy-nominated star Anya Taylor-Joy (Illyana Rasputin) at its helm, but even they can’t save it. Yet another reason why this film is so disappointing. Maisie Williams’ werewolf type mutant Rhane supports an unconvincing and rather distracting Irish accent and Anya Taylor-Joy’s inter-dimensional hopping Illyana is overtly racist for a large portion of the movie, a characteristic that makes it impossible to sympathise with her in the latter parts of the film. All of the other characters are completely forgettable and fail to convince the audience that they should care about if they survive the movie.

The film is also widely unoriginal in its’ narrative techniques. Instead of cleverly foreshadowing events or letting the audiences’ imagination run free, The New Mutants tells viewers what is going to happen by having characters watch episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer that directly relate to the films’ plot. For example, at one point Rhane is shown watching Buffy characters Willow and Tara’s iconic first kiss, foreshadowing her later relationship with Dani (Blu Hunt). Whilst I am a massive fan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and agree that the characters in this film are of an age where they would be likely to be watching it, its inclusion feels lazy.

I will say, however, that The New Mutants is a victim of both a studio clearly not having faith or caring about its final product, and an unfathomable amount of delays, some due to a global pandemic and therefore out of anyone’s control. This film would have been so much better if it was allowed to truly dip into the horror genre, leaving me hoping that these characters will get a deserved reboot in the MCU.