The New Mutants is a 2020 American horror film in the superhero genre, based on the Marvel Comics team of the same name and distributed by 20th Century Studios. It is the thirteenth and final installment in the X-Men film series. The film was directed by Josh Boone from a screenplay he wrote with Knate Lee, and stars Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Alice Braga, Blu Hunt, and Henry Zaga. In the film, a group of young mutants held in a secret facility fight to save themselves.
Boone and Lee first began work on the film after Boone completed The Fault in Our Stars (2014). The pair pitched a potential film trilogy to X-Men producer Simon Kinberg, and in May 2015 were officially signed on to the project. Taylor-Joy and Williams were rumored to be cast in March 2016, and were confirmed over a year later when the rest of the cast filled out. Filming took place in Boston, Massachusetts, from July to September 2017, primarily at Medfield State Hospital, with an April 2018 release in mind. The film was then delayed while reshoots were planned and Disney began the process of acquiring production company 20th Century Fox. After the acquisition was completed, Boone returned to work on the film, and it was completed without reshoots in March 2020.
The New Mutants was finally theatrically released in the United States on August 28, 2020, after facing many delays from its original April 2018 date. Critics called the film "middling," "so-so," and "perfectly fine." Originally planned as the first in a trilogy of films, Disney's purchase of Fox reverted the film rights to Marvel Studios, making the possibility of future films unlikely.
Plot:
Danielle "Dani" Moonstar, a young Cheyenne Native American, escapes the destruction of her reservation during a tornado. Dani's father William hides her before an unseen entity kills him, leaving her the only survivor. After being knocked unconscious, Dani awakens in a hospital run by Dr. Cecilia Reyes. Reyes comforts Dani, telling her she is a mutant, and advises her to remain in the hospital until she learns what her abilities are and controls them.
Dani is introduced to four other young teenagers; Samuel "Sam" Guthrie, Illyana Rasputin, Roberto "Bobby" da Costa and Rahne Sinclair. Reyes has brought each of them to the hospital after they have all suffered tragedy; Sam brought down a whole mine on his father and coworkers, Roberto burned his girlfriend to death, Rahne escaped her religiously strict village after being branded as a witch, and Illyana was haunted by her past in child slavery, which manifests itself as otherworldly beings called the "Smile Men". All of them are manifesting mutant abilities; Roberto can manipulate solar energy, Sam can fly at jet speed, Illyana has inter-dimensional sorcery powers, and Rahne's lycanthropy allows her to turn into a wolf. Reyes herself is a powerful mutant who keeps her patients from leaving the facility by surrounding it with unbreakable force fields.
Collectively, the five of them believe that they are being trained to join the X-Men, hence the strict supervision, as well as Reyes reminding them that they are considered dangerous and should not leave until they have mastered their abilities. Dani immediately befriends Rahne, eventually forming a romantic relationship, while Illyana continues to antagonize Dani. When Dani fights back, she discovers that Illyana's only friend is a hand puppet of a purple dragon who she calls Lockheed. Soon, the group all begin to have horrifying visions of their past tragedies, one of which results in Rahne getting branded in the neck. Illyana deduces that the visions are the result of Dani's powers manifesting; she has the ability to create illusions based on a person's psyche. Reyes consults her employers, the Essex Corporation, who instruct her to collect Dani's DNA and have her euthanized.
As Reyes takes Dani away, Rahne suspects that something is wrong. Illyana and Sam are attacked by the Smile Men while Roberto tries to break through the barrier, which has shrunken down. Dani uses her powers to learn of Reyes's true intentions before Rahne arrives in half-wolf form and mauls Reyes, forcing her to flee. The five regroup and realize that, in order to escape, they have to kill Reyes to deprive the force fields of their power source. They find her and Reyes traps them, revealing that she was training them to be killers for Essex. Before she can crush Dani to death, the entity, Demon Bear, who had been following Dani and was the true reason her reservation was destroyed, arrives and mauls Reyes throwing her body down to the floor.
Illyana summons her powers to jump between "limbo" and recruits a real life version of Lockheed to take on Demon Bear. Eventually, Sam and Roberto join the fight, overcoming their insecurities in the process. Rahne tries to reach through to an unconscious Dani until she is forced to fight the Demon Bear alone. Dani is visited by her father's spirit, who encourages her to face her fear. Dani awakens and confronts Demon Bear, calming it into submission and allowing it to rest. As day breaks, the group, now calling themselves the New Mutants, learn that the force field is down and head out together to face the unknown.
Cast:
Maisie Williams as Rahne Sinclair:
A Scottish mutant who can turn into a wolf and is struggling to reconcile this with her religious beliefs. Williams was convinced to join the film after discussing the character's religious background with director Josh Boone, who identified with the comic book character due to his own strict religious upbringing.
Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin:
A Russian mutant with sorcery powers, she can manifest the Soulsword and use teleportation discs to travel. Illyana is the sister of Colossus, a member of the X-Men seen in previous films in the series. She has a purple dragon companion, Lockheed, in the film. Colbi Gannett portrays Illyana as a child.
Charlie Heaton as Samuel "Sam" Guthrie: An American mutant who can propel himself into the air, and is invulnerable while doing so.
Alice Braga as Dr. Cecilia Reyes: A mentor to the group and a medical doctor who can generate protective fields around herself.
Blu Hunt as Danielle "Dani" Moonstar:
A Native American mutant who can create illusions based on the fears and desires of other people. The film includes a love story between Rahne and Dani, which Williams felt was a natural extension of the comic book characters having a telepathic connection. Boone described this as "the spine and focus" of the film's "character-driven stuff".
Henry Zaga as Roberto "Bobby" da Costa: A Brazilian mutant who can manipulate solar energy.
Adam Beach as William Lonestar: Dani's father of Cheyenne descent.
Additionally, the character Demon Bear is featured in the film. Thomas Kee appears as Sam Guthrie's father Thomas, while Happy Anderson portrays Reverend Craig from Rahne's village, both are the result of illusions created by Dani. The Smile Men are physically portrayed by Dustin Ceithamer while Marilyn Manson provided their voices. Archive footage of Dafne Keen as Laura and Rissa Rose Kilar, Salef Celiz, Aidan Kennedy, Nayah Murphy, Chase Cubia, Emma Teo, Vincenzo Lucatorto, Noell Jellison, Haley Glass, Ella Rowbotham, Hudson Wright, Sebeon Jackson, Allegra Novikov and Sophia Rosales as other mutants held prisoner by Alkali-Transigen from Logan is shown when Dani uses her abilities to read the mind of Dr. Reyes.
The Verdict:
(Laughs) I honestly don't have much to say about this film, despite all of the delays and alleged re-shoots after Disney bought out 20th Century Fox and got all of the X-Men properties under the House of Mouse and the Marvel umbrella in general. EW.com did a great write-up on all of the ups and downs this film suffered as a result of the constant delays and rewrites.
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| I know I'm biased toward Magik and Anya Taylor-Joy's portrayal of the character. I knew I was going to love her in this role from the second I saw the first few trailers for this. |
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| I gave them a pass for finding a reason to get Lockheed in this film. I'm sure fans of Chris Claremont's X-Men run geeked out at this inclusion as much as I did. |
I can't speak for everyone else, but I got EXACTLY what I wanted when I went into this film. I was eagerly anticipating Magik's live-action debut and she didn't disappoint in the least. Hell, we even got Lockheed as a bonus to that. Magik's powers weren't explained that well here (if at all...) but holy shit did they look awesome. In that regard, it makes me sad that we won't be seeing this story continue to peter out for three films like the trilogy that was originally set out prior to the Disney/20th Century Fox buyout. I could see where they wanted to go with this in later sequels.
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| There's horror elements in this film, but they are tame in comparison of the potential that they could have gone with this subject nature if this film maintained it's original R rating. |
Speaking of the story, I can't complain too much about it as anyone who as somewhat familiar with these characters and their powers would be able to tell casual and new fans that the "horror" aspects of the New Mutants' powers could be explained due to Dani's mutant ability to create illusions based on the fears and desires of other people. In relation to the horror aspects of this film, I have to admit that I was really underwhelmed in that regard when this film was originally pitched as a R-rated affair when the trailers for this film were initially released. Now it seems like almost all of the horror sequences were straight out of the teaser trailers with little to nothing new in the final release. I would have preferred to see exactly how far that they were willing to go in terms of diving into the depths of that genre, but no dice here. It seemed like a completely missed opportunity too when the superhero genre has seemingly done all that it can do at this stage of the game.
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| Dr. Cecilia Reyes and Alice Braga's portrayal. |
While we're on the subject of missed opportunities, I can't forget about how this film uses Dr. Cecilia Reyes. I have no issue with Alice Braga's performance, but this was a complete waste of one of my favorite part-time X-Men members. When I heard the character was going to appear in this film, I thought she was going to act as a pseudo-mentor of sorts and help the teens escape the facility as she was only treating them as any good doctor would and should. Whoever wrote this script has completely no understanding of that character in any way, shape, nor form. The narrative miscast her as a devious mutant doctor, loyal to the Essex Corporation to the bitter end.
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Too bad we never got to see Nathaniel Essex himself in this film as it would have made for a better climatic finish than what we got with the team squaring off against the Demon Bear. We got that one mention of the Essex Corporation, which was mentioned in X-Men: Apocalypse as well without any further reference in neither Logan nor X-Men: Dark Phoenix either. This is pure speculation but I'm guessing that if Fox were allowed to make this three film trilogy that they originally intended with this spin-off, they would have built towards a final confrontation against Mr. Sinister in the third film where they had some members of the X-Men guest-starring as well since he had a hand to play in their fates too.
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| This film concludes with this team of unlikely heroes facing off against a Demon Bear... Don't laugh, I'm dead serious. |
That entire final climatic battle was merely to showcase everyone's powers more or less and use up whatever was left of the special effects budget. I can completely understand while casual fans and newcomers would be underwhelmed by this narrative as it wasn't a strong film in the least to end on, especially for something within the X-Men mythos. Unfortunately, that's the price that was paid when this film was originally set out to be the first in a trilogy of films involving these characters, only to be diminished to a singular cinematic outing.
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| The New Mutants with the actors and actresses portraying them in this film. |
It makes me sad that we won't get to see more of these characters in this universe nor see where their adventures would have taken them next. This film played it safe for the most part and that proved to be a costly mistake as it results in an easily forgettable film within this overcrowded superhero genre. This would have been acceptable roughly two decades ago, but not today, when audiences have been conditioned to expect so much more out of these films and the genre itself. Like I said though, it bums me out even more as I loved the castings for these characters: Game of Thrones' Maise Williams as Rahne Sinclair, Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin, Stranger Things' Charlie Heaton as Samuel "Sam" Guthrie, Blu Hunt as Danielle "Dani" Moonstar, and Henry Zaga as Roberto "Bobby" da Costa. I thought this was a great ensemble of actors to play these characters. I hope Marvel Studios provide them the opportunity to reprise these roles in some capacity. They were all great fits for these characters and I would love to see them return in some capacity. Alice Braga's Dr. Cecilia Reyes was fine for what she was worth in her portrayal of that character when she was given opportunities in the narrative to present herself as a kindly doctor that she's known for in the comics continuity. I thought she could have been the teens' confidant by the time the events of the film came to a close instead of her being mauled to death by the Demon Bear - if her wounds and gashes from Rahne weren't going to do her in already...
(Shrugs) I don't know... I just had a different ending in mind from how I saw where this was going to end. The ideal ending would have had the teens work together to overcome Dani's illusions for the first half of the film and confront the Demon Bear that was spiraling out of her control until she was able to tame it like things played out here, but the twist I would have thrown in was that she unleashes that force against a platoon of Essex Corporation soldiers/mutants under Mr. Sinister's control. Sinister would deem the hospital ran by Reyes to be a liability and wants it neutralized since he cannot control the mutants there after Reyes rebels against him with their combined efforts to escape. The film would then end with Reyes as a pseudo-Professor Xavier-style leader for this group of teens as they are on the run to confront Mr. Sinister himself as they look for clues where the main headquarters for Essex Corporation's base of operations and free more mutants like themselves from being used like weapons against humanity.
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| With my idea, maybe we could have gotten this line-up of members for the team by the third film. (Shrugs) Who knows? |
You could end with Magik saying something along the lines of, "It's what the X-Men would do." Cue end credits.
Watch It or Don't Bother?
I know it's easy to write this film off as a complete waste of time, especially following the heights that this genre hit with Marvel Studios' Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. What people fail to realize is that these films are going to have to go back to a simpler time for a bit before they start hitting home runs again. It's obvious that this film will go down as whisper in a crowded room that is this superhero genre, but I still feel like this left me with a better impression than I had when I walked away from X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Did expect this film to blow me away, given that it will stand in history as the last X-Men film under the 20th Century Fox banner? No. It didn't blow me away with it's very few horror-themed elements either. This will be one of those films whereas you either love it or hate it - simply put. Like I said when I went into this, my expectations weren't high at all, so it helped in that regard.
I do feel like this film would have fared better as a television series, much in the same vein as Marvel's Runaways did for three seasons or Marvel's Cloak & Dagger for two seasons. Imagine if this crossed over with The Gifted? Oh the possibilities...
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