"The New Mutants" suffers under a confusing, underwhelming script and characters

The last Fox Studio-owned X-Men film, The New Mutants, was slated for a 2018 release, but it was delayed twice for reshoots. It was delayed a third time because of COVID, but now it’s finally here. But was it worth the wait?

Not really.

Now that I’ve seen it, I feel like the buildup worked against the movie. The reshoots, done to make the film scarier after the first trailer in 2017 was well-received for its horror elements, didn’t improve the poor critical reception. I wish I knew what exactly was reshot, but maybe I’ll never know.

I thought the movie itself was underwhelming. Not great, not bad, but pretty average, which is a shame considering the source material. If you’ve read my other blog posts, you know I’m a huge X-Men fan. I didn’t read the New Mutants because the comic was cancelled the year I was born, but I’m very familiar with X-Force, the sequel series starring 90’s-riffic machine gun-toting guy from the future, Cable.

The gist of the movie is this: Teenager Dani Moonstar arrives at a mysterious hospital after her Indian reservation is destroyed by an unseen threat. She meets other mutants and they learn to control their powers to battle their greatest fears come alive.

What was wrong with the movie, you might wonder? It didn’t make much sense.

SPOILERS AHEAD

In the comics, Dani’s super power is that she can create illusions of a person’s greatest fear. In the film, the illusions are real and can hurt and kill people. This is such a departure from the comic, it makes Dani feel like a different character and overpowered. In the comic, Dani’s greatest fear, the giant Demon Bear that killed her parents, comes to life through the power of an X-Men villain, the Adversary, but in the film the bear comes to life through Dani’s powers alone. The film never bothers to explain how she can create life out of nothing. All of a sudden, I have so many questions about Dani’s power it boggles the mind.

But that’s not the only reason Dani feels like a different character: this film made her and fellow new mutant, Rahne Sinclair, into lesbians. Not that I’m against gay characters, but this doesn’t make sense because both women are very straight in the comic. Making the devout Christian Rahne (a.k.a. Wolfsbane) into a lesbian also feels incredibly out of character, which is a shame because Maisie Williams did an excellent job playing her. The comic explains that Dani and Rahne share a mental/spiritual link because Dani is Cheyenne and has a connection with nature. Because Rahne can transform into a wolf, Dani’s nature connection gives the two women a unique bond. It seems the filmmakers misinterpreted the nature of their friendship, which is too bad because not every same-sex friendship in film these days needs to be romantic. If the filmmakers wanted to include a lesbian character they should have just used the character, Shan (a.k.a. Karma) who in the comic is a lesbian and one of the original New Mutants. She has the power to possess her enemies’ mind and bodies and use them to her will. I feel like the film could have made good use of her character, so this felt like a missed opportunity.

In addition, the film never explained who or what the creatures wearing the smile-face masks were. At first, I thought maybe they were supposed to be the human-led, anti-mutant group called The Right, who in the comic wear armor with smiley faces. But then the film made things more confusing when the villains removed their masks, revealing monsters with sharp teeth and no eyes. Who are these creatures supposed to be and how did they come to exist? Why were they attacking Illyana when she was a child?

But that’s not all the film got wrong. Kentucky-raised Sam Guthrie (Cannonball to readers of the comic) got sidelined for most the film. They did a decent enough job introducing his character after he reveals he accidentally killed his father when his power of concussive blasts, that he can use to fly, first manifested. He’s barely present for the final fight against the Demon Bear, also a shame because he has such a visually-impressive power. Sam is one of my favorite X-Men characters in the comic for his heart, leadership, and loyalty to his friends and Professor Xavier’s dream of harmony between humans and mutants, but he was severely underused and underdeveloped here.

My last gripe I’ll mention is the fact that the owner of the mysterious hospital, called the Essex Institution, never appears, even though X-Men fans know this is the real name of classic X-villain, Mr. Sinister. I remember reading in the news that actor Jon Hamm was cast to play the villain in a post-credits scene, but alas, there was no post-credits scene at all. The fact that both previous Fox films X-Men: Apocalypse and Deadpool 2 alluded to the Essex Institution. The fact that this is the last Fox-owned X-Men film after Disney acquired the rights is evident and it makes the film suffer.

It’s with regret that I complain about this movie. I genuinely enjoyed the atmosphere of the earlier scenes in the film when Dani is settling in at the hospital and meeting the other New Mutants. I enjoyed the performances of Blu Hunt as Dani, Maisie Williams as Rahne, Charlie Heaton as Sam and Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana. I enjoyed the horror elements sprinkled throughout the film. But none of these things are enough to make up for a confusing script.

In closing, I’m glad this is the last X-Men film that Fox put out because I know that Disney will do a much more comic-accurate portrayal of my beloved X-Men. It’s just a shame that The New Mutants had so much anticipation, only to be so underwhelming.

My grade: C+