REVIEW THE NEW MUTANTS
The Blerdy Report
What up, What up, Whatszzzup Blerdy Report Family we are back with a review for The New Mutants
I honestly enjoyed this movie; I was surprised to consider the latest hit and misses from my beloved x-men franchise. Please if you can see this movie. Be safe and continue to social distance and wear your masks.
Warning this film departs heavily from the comic book storyline.
And now, let’s get this review started.
The New Mutant FILM
Runtime: 98 minutes
Directed by: Josh Boone
Written by: Josh Boone and Kate Lee
So, family do me a huge favor, I want you to displace your preconceived idea of a haven for young mutants. This movie won’t give you Charles Xavier but a darker facility that houses mutants that poses potential threats to the surrounding world by any means, and yea, I am talking drug-induced madness, solitary confinement, and dome force fields. The New Mutants swings into action with the induction of Danielle Moonstar, a young mutant (powers unknown) recently activated as she emerges as the lone survivor of an immense tragedy that consumed her entire reservation. She is found and or abducted to a private facility housing other mutant. The Warm attending doctor promising sweet nothings of safety and security; however, darkness and lies are molded into within these walls as nightmare leap from the minds and into the physical world wreaking havoc thought to be contained in dreams. Will they get out alive? Or be consumed by fear?
History:
The New Mutants Vol. 1 was released in September 1982. X-Men, the franchise progenitor, was wildly successful and allow space for a new creation. Comically speaking, many x-men died the most famously jean grey suicide via Phoenix Force. Damaged by guilt, Charles shut down the school then reopen after the intervention of friend and lover, Moria Mctagger. The New Mutants original team line up was: Cannonball, Karma, Mirage, Sunspot, and Wolfsbane
The idea behind this team’s creation was to capture a critical lens into the life of teenagers. These growing pains are magnified when they activate their mutant abilities.
Follow up additions are as follows:
Cypher,
Magik,
Magma,
Warlock
Birdbrain
Blink
Boom-Boom
Chamber
Rusty Collins
Domino
Feral
Domino
Feral
Gosamyr
Magma
Mondo
Rictor
Shatterstar
Skids
Warlock
Warpath
X-Man
This series has reached incredible success and has now entered film; the film features Mirage, Wolfs bane, Cannonball, Sunspot, and Magik.
Powers & Abilities
Actress (Blu Hunt) Mirage- AKA (Psyche) Danielle Moonstar created by Chris Claremont Artist Bob Mcleod is a teenage Native American (Tribe: Cheyenne). Danielle Mutant Abilities Telepathy, Illusion Creation. Danielle’s powers grew into psionic and quantum energy manipulation.
Actress (Anya Taylor) Magik- AKA Illyana Rasputina (Russian Mutant) she is the sister to X-Men Colossus, and that in no means is a shot at her abilities as she stands as one of the most powerful mutants alive. Illyanna like Storm and Scarlet Witch are hybrids of mutation and magics. Illyana Mutant Ability is teleportation; she uses this ability to teleport to the dimension limbo. She becomes the sorceress supreme of limbo trained by an alternative dimension, Storm (light magic) and Belasco (Dark Magic). Illyana also wields the soul sword (creation of her own making), and Eldritch armor (armor, which appears the more magic she uses.)
Actress (Maisle Williams) Wolfsbane- AKA Rahne Sinclair (Scottish Mutant) possesses the ability to transform into a wolf, either partially or entirely heightened sense, strength, claws, fangs etc.
Actor (Henry Zaga) Sunspot-AKA Roberto Da Costa (Brazilian mutant) can absorb and redistribute solar energy often in reinforcement for his body granting him flight, superhuman strength and more.
Actor (Charlie Heaton) Cannonball- AKA Samuel Zachary Guthrie American Mutant. Sam’s Mutant ability is to fly at jet speeds normally encased in an impenetrable force field, so he can’t sustain any damage during flight. He can also absorb kinetic energy.
Actress (Alice Braga) Cecilia Reyes- American (Afro- Latin American mutant) with the ability to the generate force field, her role has changed for the film as she acts as the facilitator and warden of the facility containing the mutants. Cecilia is also a trained medical doctor and surgeon.
Review
In my humble opinion, the New Mutants was great, one of the best mutant live-action movies in recent years (Logan Excluded) . The writers and directors understood that mutation despite how it’s been painted as fantastical and extraordinary in certain circumstances are genuinely one of horror. This is pointed out well in the film; mutant abilities are generally activated during puberty, generally in times of heightened emotions, typically anger or stress. The results usually ending is carnage. Now we’ve seen Charles swoop in, save the day provide counseling and even justification for the action taken. Maybe even a mind wipe or mental barriers to seal the deal. But we have never really seen except for Rouge and Wolverine the effects this has on the mutant’s themselves, dealing with the internal issues. The New Mutants rectify this as they dive headfirst into heavy emotions like self-injurious behaviors, survivor’s remorse, and the possibility of suicide.
Telepath Danger: The franchise once again proves that some of the most dangerous and most powerful mutants are telepaths. Yes, these mutants who have access to our minds and wield psionic energies are incredibly powerful. Often, we see the precisely focused on Telekinetic abilities. We are consumed by the showmen ship of their destruction. However, this film shows the dangers of the Telepath in a fresh light; it ran chills down my spine almost on the same level as Professor X in Logan (being labeled a weapon of mass destruction) displaying the devastation, he caused to his surrounding by accident. Mirage takes it a step further, as she is able to create telepathic/ empathic constructs out of psionic/ psychic energies, which can cause damage to the physical world, and the results were satisfying.
Essex Corporation: During X-Men Apocalypse post-credit scene clandestine operatives rushed in collecting wolverine blood, after the massacre at the weapon x facility, the scene ends with the vile of blood and sealing of a briefcase labeled Essex. I don’t know about the rest of you but when I see Essex and the harvesting of mutant genetic material, I think of the Mutant Mastermind Sinister, who truly needs to be the next Villain in the X-Men reboot.
The Bad:
Representation Matters:
No disrespect, but some of the casting choices are questionable, like Dr. Cecilia Reyes played by Alice Braga, and Sunspot AKA (Roberto Da Costa) played by Henry Zaga. These individuals should fairly darker in skin tone than their own screen counterparts. I won’t place blame at the feet of the actors, but I will at the director who greenlit these actors. These actions are tactless; they actively ignore the source material, ignoring the dire need to represent POC on screen. This is an ongoing issue and is damaging to many fans because characters who happen to be POC are rare and few.
RACISM:
We have all known our fear share of characters that display levels of disdain and disrespect for our main characters; however, the exchanges between Danielle Moonstar and Illyana Rasputina was a bit much. It was also too one-sided. Please don’t get me wrong racism and prejudice exist heavily in our society. Still, this display was taxing and unrealistic, especially since they all share the commonalities of the mutant x gene and, in some way or another, have been segregated from general society. Her hatred would’ve been better focused on humans, her disdain for new faces refocused on the potential danger they could cause her or better to allude to the damage she has suffered from her capture by humans and then possible torment in limbo. Those racial jabs are truly a waste of film.
Time: a clarification of time would be great! During the movie, the team “New Mutants” mentioned possibly joining the X-Men. This would mean they are either alive and well, or these teens have been living under a rock. However, when Danielle Moonstar probed Cecilia’s minds accidentally, she saw the training facility to weaponize mutants and abilities, which looks like shot for shot information presented in Logan. (Logan found this information via Essex Corp Employee and Turncoat footage that seemed relatively recent verses a complication of years.)
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