With the cinemas in Canberra reopening, my husband and I decided to be adventurous and see The New Mutants at our local Hoyts.
The cinema experience was essentially the same as before the pandemic except for: the seating arrangements, with the tickets sold so people are seated apart across the cinema; the extra cleaning; and, the lack of cinemagoers.
We found ourselves in an unintended private screening as we were the only people in the cinema. And I may add it was the cleanest cinema I’ve been into in many years. I was surprised at how loud the sound felt, which shows how long it has been since I’ve been in an environment louder than a room with a television.
Onto the movie…
Set in the same Marvel comics movie universe as the X-Men, The New Mutants is a coming of age story about five teenagers who have extraordinary abilities as a result of genetic mutations.
The story follows Danielle Moonstar, a first nations girl who wakes up in a mysterious facility. Dani is told that everyone else on her reservation was killed by a tornado and the facility is her new home. What follows is a story of Dani and the four other teens in the facility learning about each other, the realities of their abilities, and the dangers in their current life.
The New Mutants is billed as horror action which is true but I feel it misrepresents the movie somewhat. While there are scary moments, they’re reminiscent of a very impressive scary episode of Doctor Who, The X-Files or Buffy the Vampire Slayer rather than a full-on horror movie.
The story hangs together well, the script is good, the acting is strong and the special effects are well done.
Recommended for teens and adults – far too scary and adult for pre-teens.
His rating: 3.5 out of 5, what I expected and enjoyable.
Her rating: 4 out of 5, would happily watch it again.
