Watch of Shame: The New Mutants
This movie has become a thing of modern lore, it seems. It was fraught with mishaps. Constant delays, COVID thwarting its release and then a myriad of bad reviews. I was really excited to finally see it for myself.
The New Mutants had become the stuff of legends by the time its actual release date came around. It was one that couldn’t even place all the blame on a pandemic. The delays pushed it back for years before we even heard the word “COVID.” There were so many rumors around it: it was an issue with the MCU/X-men contracts, the movie was actually so terrible it was fully reshot and that it was hacked to pieces in the editing bay to the point of being unrecognizable. In the end, it isn’t completely clear what all went down behind the scenes, but what came out of it was…interesting.
For the first third of the movie, I couldn’t quite understand what all the fuss was about. There was nothing remarkable about it, sure, but there was nothing terrible either. It gave me First Class vibes, just a bit less polished and a bit less engaging. Getting to see Maisie Williams and Anya Taylor-Joy on my screen is always enjoyable, and I loved Taylor-Joy portraying a completely-over-it young Russian mutant. And no, I can’t believe I typed that sentence either. But then I found myself getting befuddled the closer we got to the midpoint.
I know the whole point of this movie was to explore the idea of literally new mutants who didn’t know what to do with their powers. Unfortunately, I don’t think the writers knew what to do with them either. This is where it fell so insanely short in comparison to First Class. For a long time, we barely got true glimpses of any of their abilities, and by leaving us in the dark, it got so confusing. Taylor-Joy’s character had different powers by the scene, and none of it was explained in any way that made sense. Some of the other characters just became plot devices, whether or not it made sense.
Then we got to the final third of the movie and the shit hit the fan. They jumped the shark. Any metaphor you can come up with, it could probably apply somehow. I was mystified by the end and just sat there, stunned, unsure of what I had just watched. I’ve seen enough comic book movies to know when I just don’t have the base information I need to truly appreciate the story and the characters, and this was not that. It had elements of Legion, which also lost me relatively quickly despite being fascinating, but not as well executed. Some really excellent actors were done wrong by this film, and I’m bummed this is how they were wasted in the superhero movie world.