Five young mutants are being tested at a hospital run by Dr. Reyes. The mutants are held there against their own free will. But that’s not the only problem they are having. Strange things haunt them in that place.
Blaine: The “X-Men” franchise felt like it was coming to an end when 20th Century Fox released the ninth installment to the franchise, “Logan”. The mutant race was nearly extinct in that film and the character, Wolverine, who has been in every single “X-Men" film since the beginning, his time came to an end. But that film also showed the mutant race isn’t dead. 20th Century Fox thought they should make a new film related to “X-Men”.
Josh Boone had just made the movie “The Fault is Our Stars” for 20th Century Fox and they informed him that they were thinking about making more movies like “X-Men”. Josh has been a fan of comics all his life and his favorites to read were “The New Mutants” comics. He liked how they worked differently compared to the X-Men. Josh had presented “New Mutants”, not just as one film, but a trilogy, and they approved of one film at the time.
The New Mutants would deal with things in the comics that were in the horror department. Josh wasn’t sure if he would mix his comic book movie with another genre until after he started working on the script. He did know that he wanted to write the story of the mutants going up against a demon bear like in the comic books. Knate Lee has been Josh’s friend for decades and they both read comic books together growing up. Josh felt sense he was writing a comic book movie it would be best if his comic book buddy work with him on the script. “The New Mutants” would also represent movies from the 80s that Josh loved like “Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors” and “Breakfast Club”. “The New Mutants” was Josh’s most passionate project.
“The New Mutants” was one of those movies I had high hopes for since the beginning. It’s release date was delayed five or six times going from 2018 to 2020. The rumor was they were doing re-shoots and that they wanted to change it from a PG-13 rating to an R rating. The reason they were going to give “The New Mutants" an R rating was because another horror film, “IT: Chapter 1”, was successful at the box office and it was rated R. They wanted this film to be done in the best way to attract an audience. But in 2020, Josh Boone and the cast said none of that was true. There were no re-shoots, but the studio was thinking about the box office.
“Deadpool 2” came out the same year “The New Mutants” was originally supposed to be released and the studio thought fans would have their attention on “Deadpool 2” more. The year after, they decided to put “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” ahead of “New Mutants”. Fox thought “New Mutants” wasn’t as important as “Deadpool” and “X-Men” because they came first. They thought fans would want to see how these franchises continued before introducing something new. So they got “New Mutants” out of those other films’ way. Disney had finally taken over 20th Century Fox and they delayed a lot of upcoming movies that were distributed by Fox, including “The New Mutants”. Then COVID-19 happened and “The New Mutants” had to be delayed once again. The studio could have released the movie on Video on Demand, but the contract for “New Mutants” said that it would have a theater release. People, including me, were asking if they were ever going to see “The New Mutants” because they were really interested in it. Theaters were going to open back up, and the studio thought it was time to give those desperate fans “The New Mutants”.
The story starts off with Danielle Moonstar. Something dangerous is happening in her neighborhood and her father takes her into the woods hoping she’ll be safe. Danielle's father doesn’t make it and she gets knocked out. She wakes up in a hospital run by Dr. Cecilia Reyes. Danielle learns something new about herself and that is she is a mutant, but she doesn’t know what kind of power she has.
There are four other mutants at that hospital that Dr. Reyes studies. The story feels like it’s more about Danielle because it’s focussing on her path in exploring what it’s like to be a mutant. Each one of the mutant characters has a backstory and we get to know them through Danielle. These mutants belong together because they have so much in common. Having powers for one. The mutants want to control their powers because the first time they got them it caused trouble, which created fear. And that’s another thing about them is each one has their own worst fear. Their fear has been haunting them for a while and they’re in the hospital because their power caused death. Of course with IIlyana, I think she can handle taking a life because she says she killed 18 men one at a time. Illyana fears something else. There are these monsters that are tall and skinny, that don’t have a face, except for a mouth. They also wear these smiling masks. The others, Rahne, Sam, and Roberto, there fear is more like regret. Sam and Roberto killed people they cared for. Danielle lost her father to a monster. And Rahne killed a priest.
Strange things are happening in the hospital. Your worst fear comes to life. Most horror movies, like “Poltergeist” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street”, show the unusual. Strange things happen and people can’t understand what’s going on. Like if you get scratched by Freddy Krueger in your nightmare you get scratched in real life. In the world of mutants nothing would be that surprising for the characters because you have human beings with powers. The X-Men have been through a lot, like going back in time, fighting aliens, battling machines created to destroy their kind. The mutants in the hospital, they know what they are seeing. It’s either a painful memory or something you have feared since childhood. So it’s nothing new for the characters.
Danielle is already being treated like a nobody by Illyana, but Rahne spares her feelings. Rahne has an idea of what Danielle is going through. I mean she lost her father and now she’s being treated like she is nothing. But Danielle is someone to Rahne. Rahne knows Danielle is going through a rough time. She feels like she has nothing now that her father is gone. Rahne doesn’t want Danielle to feel alone in the world. Rahne thinks Danielle is special, and she has thought that since the first time she laid eyes on her.
Rahne comes from a religious area, but her powers made people believe she was a witch. Rahne’s power is transforming into a wolf. She should have been thought of as a werewolf instead. She accidentally killed a priest and that’s what she fears the most. But fear doesn’t get in the way when she wants to say hi to someone she likes.
Danielle can’t figure out what her power is, but it’s not hard for her to know that she has romantic feelings for Rahne. Those two complete each other. They treat each other with extreme kindness and it lightens things up for them, not just in the hospital, but in life after what they’ve been through. They share a special relationship.
Facing your fears is one thing, standing up to bullies is another and Danielle doesn’t like the way Illyana treats her. Illyana keeps pushing Danielle, until Danielle uses her power as self defense. They both put their differences aside after that and try to get along.
Illyana has sorcery powers. Another way of describing it is she has the power of imagination. One of Illyana’s powers is teleportation, although that doesn’t help her escape the hospital because the energy around the place is powerful enough to stop that. She can still teleport inside the area and to this fantasy area whenever she needs to be completely alone, without cameras watching her. She also has an energy sword power. Her arm turns into armer and then a sword is created. Illyana has always feared the smiling men, but she always had her hand puppet dragon, Lockheed, by her side so she wouldn’t be alone. That hand puppet can transform into a real dragon thanks to Illyana’s powers. It’s almost like “Pinocchio”, only instead of a boy it’s a dragon. Nothing’s fake if you hang around Illyana.
When a mutant gets it’s power for the first time something goes wrong. You feel weird and then that power comes bursting out. Roberto was with his girlfriend when that happened and she burned to death. With Sam, it happened in a mine and his father was killed. Both Roberto and Sam have an energy power, only Roberto’s is fire and Sam flies through the air like air coming out of a balloon.
Dr. Reyes is the only one working at the hospital. There is no one else working at that hospital, no other doctors, no one to give the patients their medication, it's just her. But Dr. Reyes can handle everything on her own as long as she has the technology to do it. Forcefields that can go anywhere, voice activated doors, cameras everywhere, all that.
“Logan” showed Wolverine and Charles Xavier learning that there is a new lab where people experiment on mutant children, and that achievement footage was used for “The New Mutants”. Danielle is being tested by Dr. Reyes, and she is seeing a memory of Dr. Reyes'. Dr. Reyes used to work at that lab. So that tells ya “New Mutants” takes place around the same time as “Logan”.
The “X-Men” franchise, that had lasted for nineteen years, is over, but the name “X-Men” will live on in other movies like “Deadpool” and “New Mutants”. It’s mentioned a few times in “New Mutants”. The X-Men are dead but they made history. You can also form you’re own X-Men club. The New Mutants could be the next X-Men.
I love listening to the background music in some of the “X-Men” movies and “The New Mutants” I would say has a beautiful music score. “New Mutants” is a horror film, but only at 65% of that genre. The music score for “New Mutants” has a fantasy quality to it. There is times it sounds peaceful. And then the score sounds creepy, whenever it needs to be.
Dr. Reyes finally figures out what Danielle’s power is and that is to bring nightmares to life. She can create things, and make some of them indestructible. Danielle knew spooky things were happening, but she wasn’t aware she was the cause of them.
Nightmare’s don’t stand a chance against you if you have the power to defend yourself against them. If it’s your own fear, it can be hard, but it might not be that scary if you’re facing someone else’s fear. Everyone has to conquer their fear at some point. Illyana has to find her happy place, which she teleports to, before fighting something that scares her. Fear can overcome you, but you have to believe in yourself to defeat it and Illyana gets rid her fear by slicing those smiling monsters up in pieces. She gets the job done fast so it can be over with.
Danielle tells Rahne that she predicts something is going to happen and Dr. Reyes is going to be behind it, after seeing a piece of her memory through her mind. Dr. Reyes sees Danielle as a threat, but really it’s her who is the threat. She’s holding the mutants back. At the Xavier Institute, mutants would train how to use their powers properly. Dr. Reyes tries to put an end to Danielle’s life, but Rahne comes to the rescue and gives Dr. Reyes serious scratches. Rahne informs the others what Dr. Reyes was trying to do and they discover what she was planning for all of them. Turn them into assassins. Dr. Reyes uses forcefields on the mutants.
The monster that killed Danielle’s father was a gigantic demon bear, which is Danielle’s worst fear. So that means she was the one who brought it into her neighborhood, and she is responsible for her father’s death. Fear causes Danielle’s powers to activate. It summons the bear at the hospital and Dr. Reyes gets eaten by it. It’s a threat, but it also has saved the mutants’ lives. It breaks through the building and the forcefields are deactivated.
Illyana wants to face the bear. She’s not afraid of it because it’s not her worst fear. Illyana fights the bear as if she is Prince Phillip fighting Maleficent’s dragon form in “Sleeping Beauty”, only Phillip wasn’t hardcore like Illyana. Sam joins the fight. Roberto tries to hide at first, but using your fire power can come in handy for something dangerous, and threatening because you don’t have to feel bad if it gets hurt.
Another thing that is good is it’s just the bear and the New Mutants. They’re causing destruction, but it’s in an abandoned area and there’s no civilians around, so you don’t have to worry about causing harm to them while fighting evil. In “X-Men: Dark Phoenix”, the mutants were fighting each other on the streets, which caused panic and destruction. In “New Mutants”, they don’t have to be careful.
Rahne protects a passed out Danielle, while the others fight the bear. The mutants give the bear everything they’ve got, but it won’t go down. The only one who can defeat it is Danielle. All she has to do is wake up. The spirit of Danielle’s father visits her to tell her that his death was an accident. He could never blame his daughter for what happened because he loves her. Danielle realizes that she created the bear, which means she can control it and the only way to do that is to face it, while thinking of peaceful thoughts. Use your imagination to turn fear into something else. The bear is acting more peaceful now and then fades away.
The ending to “The New Mutants” is about forgiveness. Danielle’s father forgives her for his death and her friends forgive her for bringing their fears to life. Danielle’s power caused a lot of damage to the hospital, but what mutant hasn’t caused damage. I mean look at Magneto. He has caused damage way beyond Danielle’s. It’s because of Danielle that she and the other mutants are now free. That hospital was no good anyway, and Dr. Reyes was the enemy. Her plan was to have the mutants use their powers for evil. They may have trouble controlling their powers at times, but they all have the spirit of a hero. The mutants used their powers to protect Danielle and each other. Fighting a demon bear is great practice for using your powers, so you can learn how to control them better.
The New Mutants can now leave the past behind them and walk away freely. It feels like there is more to come for them. Josh Boone knows what to expect if 20th Century Studios approves of the sequels. He’s had it all planned out right from the beginning because like I said he went to Fox presenting “New Mutants” as a trilogy instead of just one movie. He said the next film would have The New Mutants going up against an alien invasion.
Josh put together a private screening for his “New Mutants” cast, so they could see what they helped make. They were thrilled to finally see what the movie looked like. They got to see what they looked like with the CGI effects applied onto them and finally got to see what that bear looked like.
“New Mutants” definitely was worth the three year wait and my rating on it is five out five out of five stars.
