The New Mutants (2020) Movie Review

The New Mutants (2020) - Movie Review - Quick Movie Reviews by Haris

After a near-death experience during a strange tornado, Danielle Moonstar (Blu Hunt) wakes up in an abandoned research facility run by Dr. Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga). She introduces Dani to four other teenage mutants: Illyana Rasputin (Anya Taylor-Joy), Rahne Sinclair (Maisie Williams), Sam Guthrie (Charlie Heaton) and Roberto da Costa (Henry Zaga). She wants to keep them safe and sound until they learn how to be in full control of their powers. However, even though they believe that they’re being treated and cared for, they all start to experience horrifying hallucinations.

I absolutely love the horror aspect of this movie and the fact that it mostly takes place in one location. It’s all in this creepy abandoned research facility or psychiatric hospital. The performances and the characters in this movie are good, namely Maisie Williams’, Charlie Heaton’s, Henry Zaga’s and Anya Taylor-Joy’s characters Rahne, Sam, Roberto and Illyana. I liked their backstories. I also liked that this movie didn’t have the cliché problems I have with horror movies today. No jump scares, no sudden sound boom that you can predict from a mile away. This movie is more focused on showing you creepy visuals. What I didn’t like is that they were all made with CGI. I wish they would have done more practical stuff with makeup or something. It would have been more effective. The ending of the movie kind of disappointed me as well… A CGI final battle with a giant bear in a church… I wish it could have ended differently. I didn’t find Blu Hunt’s and Alice Braga’s characters interesting as well. There was nothing wrong with their performances, just, their characters were uninteresting compared to others.

Overall, this is a good addition into the X-Men franchise. Somewhere underneath all those development problems, the reshoots and the rewrites, there is a good movie. But, as it stands, this movie is just ok. There was even a trilogy planned and I don’t know if that’s still on or not. If it is, I am interested to see more. I’m going to give this movie 6/10*.

Director: Josh Boone
Written by: Josh Boone, Knate Lee
Starring: Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Alice Braga, Blu Hunt, Henry Zaga
Runtime: 94 minutes