THE NEW MUTANTS

US, 2020, 94 minutes, Colour.

Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor- Joy, Charlie Heaton, Alice Braga, Blu Hunt, Henry Zaga, Adam Beach.

Directed by Josh Boone.

Not recommended for any audience who is not familiar with the Marvel Universe, especially not familiar with their mutant characters, especially in the X-Men franchise. Bloggers, familiar with the New Mutants and the other stories have not been favourable to this version.

The film focuses on five characters who have strange Mutant experiences, especially Dani Moonstar (Blu Hunt) and an experience with her father and his trying to rescue her. She goes to an institution, managed with more steel than empathy by Alice Braga. There she finds the other four mutants who are being tested, trained, under surveillance by higher authorities. Their particular mutant qualities begin to emerge. The mutants are played by Game of Thrones, Maisie Williams, a similar kind of performance, Anya Taylor-Joy, who had emerged as a strong star in the late 2010s, The Queen’s Gambit, Emma and many others, the young men played by Charlie Heaton and Henry Zaga.

There are quite some interactions between the five mutants, tentatively opening up a relationship between the two girls.

While the dramatisations of their traumas and their powers (and the appearance of the sinister cleric, dressed as a bishop, menacing, even abusive), they are separate highlights – with the screenplay bringing them all together for a climax against the supervising doctor. Perhaps the filmmakers were hoping for a sequel, but this may not eventuate.