Review
DULCIE PEARCE AT THE MOVIES
The New Mutants is an entertaining superhero movie but could do with extra spice to really leave you fulfilled
The New Mutants (15) 94 minutes
★★★☆☆
IMAGINE adding The Breakfast Club, X-Men and IT to a boiling pot of water and giving it a good stir.
The broth that would be ladled out into a bowl for you is The New Mutants.
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It tastes decent enough, especially on post-lockdown diet days, but you wouldn’t rush to have it again.
This Marvel offering sees five teenage mutants imprisoned in a facility by Dr Reyes (Alice Braga) where they are pushed and prodded and occasionally thrown into solitary.
Newest detainee Danielle (Blu Hunt) wakes to find herself now living in an abandoned institution with a gang that any young ’un would want to hang with: Maisie Williams (Game Of Thrones), Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things) and Henry Zaga (Teen Wolf).
Danielle’s family are dead after an explosive disaster in the opening scene that she — as a mutant — managed to escape.
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And it takes quite a while to find out why and how she did.
All the misfits in the crew are watchable, and while Williams does her best with a Scottish accent and Jimmy Krankie wig, Anya Taylor-Joy (who last year played the lead in Emma) gives an outstanding performance as a Russian mean girl with a hand puppet, who seems to have a variety of superpowers and reasons to be damaged.
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There are a few scary moments with the “teens” being tortured by their past traumas coming to life, and a same-sex romance plays out.
You may not always be sure who is fighting who, or why, but The New Mutants is still a compact, entertaining superhero movie with a strong cast and the occasional nod to the wider X-Men universe that is enough to keep fans happy.
But it could do with a little extra spice and a wedge of bread to leave you feeling a bit more fulfilled.
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