IT IS RARE FOR ME TO SEE A MOVIE WHEN IT’S STILL IN THEATERS BUT THANKS TO 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS I WAS ABLE TO CATCH UP ON A FEW THAT I MISSED!
Recently the fine folks at 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios- their home page is here) had sent me codes to several of the movies I missed so that I could share my thoughts on them with you. Part One of this article I discussed The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Red Sparrow. Part Two discusses Maze Runner: Death Cure, Alien Covenant and Love, Simon. Part three covers Super Troopers 2 and Murder on the Orient Express. Part Four discusses Sorry To Bother You and Darkest Minds. Part Five discussed The Predator and Bad Times at the El Royale. Part Six covered Bohemian Rhapsody, The Hate U Give and Once Upon a Deadpool. Part Seven talked about The Sisters Brothers, London Fields, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Widows and the Favourite! Part Eight covered Destroyer, The Prodigy, Alien 40th Anniversary Edition, Vice, The Kid Who Would Be King and If Beale Street Could Talk, and Part Nine we discussed Missing Link and Alita Battle Angel. Part Ten we discussed Tolkien, Booksmart, X-Men Dark Phoenix and Stuber. Part 11 discussed The Art of Racing in the Rain, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, Ad Astra, and Ready or Not. Part 12 talked about Ford v Ferrari, Spies in Disguise and A Hidden Life. Part 13 was the last part I did with PNTV and discussed Downhill and The Call of the Wild. Part 14 (forever referred to as Part 1 on this site and our first with the Nerd Cult) was all about Underwater and we are back with the New Part 2 with The New Mutants!
The New Mutants
The New Mutants is intended as a horror film within the X-Men universe and begins with Danielle Moonstar as she runs from something chases her into the forest and almost immediately kills her father in front of her. She is knocked out almost immediately after and awakes in some form of hospital for mutants that looks more like a psychiatric facility or the medical ward of a prison. It film successfully gives a solid creepy vibe and handles some of the dark tones from Illyana’s past quite well but fails to hit the point of actually being a scary film. As a darker drama it works quite well and handles the universe around it quite well, making several nods to it without relying on having seen any of the other films. When the true villains are revealed however it relies more on an intimate knowledge of the comics to know how bad things have gotten and left the rest of my family confused by the implications. I felt the film was quite solid and really enjoyed it but the rest of the family (not knowing the same comic history as myself) thought it was worthy of only 2.5 out of 5 stars, I gave it a solid 3.5.
