Warning: Contrary to what some future Darwin Award nominees would have you believe, the pandemic is a very real thing. The theater experience creates a high risk environment that I can now confirm first hand that theater chains are not entirely taking seriously to contain.
The theater experience is ill advised but if you must go for reason I will not judge you for, for the love of god, please where a mask and don't risk concessions.
The "X-Men Film Universe" has gone on an odd journey of highs and lows, kicking off innovations that would set the stage for the revolution that would see superhero movies to become a dominating force in Hollywood before reaching an embarrassing decline, producing some of the worst entries of the genre's modern day before rebounding at the turn of the decade with a films not only providing an emotionally resonant conclusion to mythology arcs set up at the start of the series but finally accepting its identity as the high concept, creator driven, experimental competition to the producer driven formulaic "Marvel Cinematic Universe" and the then confused incohesive "DC Extended Universe."
Their track record is far from perfect and the decision to regularly honor the spirit of their source material without being afraid to rewrite its iconography from scratch in the name of a more conventional but complexly layered product has made them fairly contentious in an era of source reverent adaptation.
Despite their hiccups along the way however, I've always seen the cinematic "X-Men" as a net positive, if only due to their willingness to truly put new concepts through their pa00ces to create something uniquely engaging in substantial chunks at absolute worst.
To that end, I can't think of a movie that more perfectly encapsulates such captivating artistic vision playing out across uneven execution than "The New Mutants," the final film of this cinematic vision of "X-Men" that feels all at once the most revolutionary film produced as much as it does one that feels incomplete.
Following Dani Moonstar as she begins to come into her mutant powers, "The New Mutants" follows 5 teenage mutants in a psychological counseling facility designed to help new mutants adjust to their new powers and come to terms with any trauma they may have brought on, with the insinuation that they are being prepped for some sort of initiative that could provide them with membership into the famous X-Men.
All is not as it seems however, as the prison-esque security of the facility raises some red flags that the young mutants must sort out while navigating their own social understandings of one another as hormonal adolescents and learn to properly harness their gifts, coming to terms with their own traumas in the process.
"The New Mutants" returns to the more high concept approach to the franchise epitomized by its earlier days and although it benefits from the more hands-off filmmaker driven approach of the final years of Twentieth Century Fox studios, whatever post production process was interrupted by the Disney buyout is palpable in its final effect on the finished product.
The moment the film gets underway within the facility, it's clear that the reports of reshoots meant to amp up the atmosphere of the film were not only clearly intended but substantially warranted.
The cold and mechanical first act sets the premise of the film up almost soullessly, listlessly shuffling from scene to scene with little effort to plant a true impression, perhaps with opportunity to be touched up by a future edit but sadly to the detriment of the final product.
Aiming for a psychological bottle horror atmosphere, this stumble out of the gate regarding any sense of visual flair or contextualization of performances sets precedent that the film has to actively fight for its entire run time. The acting talent is solid but it takes a while for any of the performances to shine because it feels as though the cast is spending the actual movie carving out their characters roles in the story rather than the results of a well rehearsed and polished production pulling from the best of several takes, which subsequently takes some of the bite out of the story's impact.
Drably presenting this mental institution without any sense of visual or editing pizzazz draws attention to the obvious structure it's attempting, which makes the attempts at earth shattering revelations near the 3rd act almost laughably ineffective.
Alice Braga's role as the antagonistic Dr. Reyes is the ultimate victim and worst offender in this regard, as Braga's attempts to inject some level of complexity into her character's morally dubious deeds fall about as flat as her own lines, consistent with the underwhelming first impression of the movie.
"The New Mutants" is far from the worst film of its franchise but the sheer lack of polish born from the misfortune of its post-production process makes it easily the least polished mainstream superhero movie since "Fantastic Four (2015)." Despite a weak opening 25 minutes or so however, the product does at least recover to provide something that succeeds in being moderately diverting.
The struggles of the movie's first act to synchronize with the rest of the film really is a tragedy because when the film works, it truly does shine.
The chemistry for the actors slowly begins to come together at the halfway point of the movie, tied together by Blu Hunt and Maisie Williams chemistry as Moonstar and Rahne, in a simple yet surprisingly sweet little love story, paving the way for more of a teen drama in which the nature of the archetypes are explored and the ratcheting up of the horror tropes becomes a visually driven character study of traumatized kids learning to lean on each other to overcome their mental damage to move forward by coming to terms with the pain of their past, rather than running away from it.
From the balance that Henry Zaga's Roberto finds in his burgeoning friendship that helps him ground himself from his impulses that ignite his extremely pyrokinetic capabilities, to sole collapsed mine survivor Sam, played by Charlie Heaton, using his powers of kinetic propulsion in manners reminiscent if not outright representative of self harm when left to his own devices, to show stealers Williams and Anya Taylor-Joy, when "The New Mutants" finally finds its voice, it cuts loose gloriously and I can only hope that the talent involved continues forward to greater things.
It's a simple concept but it snaps together so wonderfully by the second half that it really is tragic to think about how easily a round of reshoots could have saved this movie and how much more appreciated the film would have been had it been allowed to come out on time.
"The New Mutants" isn't the most eloquent or extravagant of modern superhero films but the undeniably numerous things that it does wrong feel more like stop gaps to showcasing the things that make it unique; stop gaps that can admittedly have been substantially better polished but as a fan of watching the superhero genre consistently look for new ways to twist genre tropes into more unique stories, I'll forever be sad that this movie will be more infamously remembered for the string of cosmically bad luck preventing it from being properly completed and released on time.
7 Fading X Genes out of 10
Recruited by a secret agency seeking the prevention of a human caused apocalypse, an unnamed secret agent unravels the conspiracy behind a chronologically inverted metal that allows for limited time travel to prevent nuclear holocaust and determine how much of his life he wishes to spend in this advance stage of a law enforcement career.
That's roughly the gist of it.
Christopher Nolan is undoubtedly one of the absolute gems of modern Hollywood; a high concept, lavishly producing, auteur of cerebral blockbusters not based on pre-existing IP's and utilizing the maximum impact of spectacle provided by the theater experience to punctuate the themes on display through the narratives that he crafts.
Even at its worst, the production brought to life through such ambition always makes for a unique and mildly diverting feature at the absolute worst.
Sadly, when not every element meshes together well as they aren't firing on all cylinders to begin with, you're left with an elaborate and complex but ultimately needlessly convoluted and shallow mess. It's sadly on that end of the spectrum that "Tenet" lands; less "The Dark Knight" and "Inception," more "Insomnia" and "Interstellar."
Giving all credit where credit is due. Nolan's craftsman ship as a director is absolutely on full display. When the films inversion effect is being used to maximum impact, there really are no other action scenes like what the movie puts together onscreen and his cast all brings their A game.
For the first time in a long while, Robert Pattinson gets to cut loose and just exude pure charisma and its absolutely magnetic while Elizabeth Debicki will begin to only go further mainstream if there's any justice in this industry whatsoever.
The real treat though, is watching John David Washington hold his own in an action blockbuster that his presence helps to elevate. Breaking out with "Blackkklansman" may have already proved that he was no slouch but in "Tenet," he truly begins to find his voice as an actor, far beyond simply being Denzel Washington's son.
He can be ignnorant without being stupid, make errors without being careless, charismatic without being smarmy, and even knows how to sell action well. The man is a major star in just waiting to happen and I couldn't be happier watching a promising new career such as his come together.
For all of the prime quality in "Tenet's" individual pieces however, the film sadly struggles to truly come together as intended.
I applaud the desire to create a true fresh experience for the cinema in today's age but for all of the secrecy that Nolan has bent over backwards to shroud "Tenet" in, his bag of tricks unfortunately fails to elevate it beyond the basic spy story that it is at its core.
"Tenet's" self-serious and pensive atmosphere regarding the larger than life implications of the inversion effect can occasionally lend itself to fund world and character building but the dedication to adhering to it with no drop in tension throughout the established tone of the music or cinematography not only serves to mute any developing sense of personality worth basking in but ultimately tries to mask the ultimate lack of depth in the plot of the movie that the film's production reveers so fervently.
I specify that this problem is a lack of depth for a reason.
"Tenet" is absolutely top notch in its spy flick construction, with twists, turns, betrayals and double crosses around every corner. While a lot is certainly happening in the movie however, the oppressive tone and poor sound mixing suck a lot of the fun out of brilliantly conceived character interactions that can be often difficult to hear over the sound of location effects and Ludwig Göransson's musical score, which can be admittedly engaging when its not distractingly louder than the dialogue.
The unfortunate result is a movie struggling to carry itself with a tone and concept that are at odds with its production choices, one of those being to kick off a movie dedicated to providing as few answers as possible in medias res, and shrouding details in mysteries and speculation to imply that there's more going on than there really is, with everything centered around a core conceit that acknowledges that it's almost nonsensical but attempts to drown its viewers in an avalanche of details as though it makes perfect sense.
I won't deny for a second that "Tenet" isn't a dumb fun watch. It's biggest problem however is that it seems to insecurely believe that's a bad thing and is trying to pull off a routine of smoke and mirrors to portray an illusion that more is going on that just isn't.
It's okay to take certain physics breaking sci-fi mechanics for granted and spy movies are reliant on personal relationships being maintained, broken and flipped which is why their personal meanings are implied rather than implicitly explored via onscreen introspection beyond only the occasional scene. These are fundamentals of science fiction and spy thrillers and I've never seen a movie more afraid to be even the slightest bit pulpy despite being optimized for such an approach at every angle.
When all the clues are finally laid bare and the plot reveals every aspect of itself from top to bottom, you realize what few genuine revelations there are rely on speculation that the film leaves intentionally vague regarding any sort of true answer and everything else is no more structurally impressive than a good "Bourne" or "James Bond" movie.
What ensues is a mercilessly long 2.5 hour thriller with abstract stakes, opaque character arcs, and a science fiction spy thriller that is more obsessed with exploring the execution of its mechanics than the implication of their experience as filtered by the human condition, as well as more concerned with choreographing its admittedly pretty action scenes like a series of predetermined chess maneuvers relative to their relationship to the plot rather than a chaotic and precarious juggling act of skilled participants and x factors i.e. the bread and butter of sci-fi and spy thrillers.
"Tenet" is an irrefutably admirable project but at its best, it's dragged down by an ambition to say more than it actually has articulated and at its worst, it's marred by an almost juvenile attempt to deny that genre storytelling doesn't have to be self-serious to say something intelligent.
6 Mystery boxes out of 10
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