The New Mutants (2020)

Directed by Josh Boone. Starring Blu Hunt, Maisie Williams, Alice Braga, Anya Taylor-Joy, Henry Zaga, Charlie Heaton. [PG-13]

A quintet of young, angsty mutants are held against their will in a secret facility run by Braga’s inscrutable doctor (and only Braga’s inscrutable doctor) while trying to discover and master their abilities in this odd but déjà vu-heavy X-Men spinoff. Supplies a queasy, gelatinous mélange of fantasy, action, horror and mystery elements, but it’s all carried out in a generic, connect-the-dots fashion that consistently underwhelms with each new development (what few there actually are). As for development character-wise, the screenwriters must have determined that a superpower and a thick-yet-unconvincing accent is enough for each, and off they go. Creativity and imagination are in short supply throughout, as only one of the mutants gets gifts that are remotely interesting (Taylor-Joy’s dimension-hopping, sword-wielding sorceress with a tiny purple dragon companion), and the few scenes of legitimate peril are resolved without fuss—one threat is even disposed of by an, ahem, ursus daemonium ex machina. A thoroughly unsatisfying genre retread that ends with an ellipsis that promises (threatens?) a sequel that would probably be an improvement, but who’d care enough to actually hope for one? Filmed in 2017, its release was repeatedly delayed before getting dumped in theaters during the pandemic wasteland.

32/100