After the invasion of her reservation by a mysterious tornado and the death of his father, Daniel Moonstar wakes up bound in a hospital bed. Dr. Reyes informs the girl that she is the only survivor, and now, together with four teenagers, she is in a specialized institution, where they are studied and taught to control their superpowers. Soon Dani finds out that it is impossible to leave the territory fenced off by the force field, and the guys begin to pursue seemingly very real nightmares.

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Every decade there are moments when you can take stock of the past. Including in the world of cinema. Including franchises.

The X-Men film series ends with The New Mutants, 20 years after Brian Singer’s original film was released. Following this franchise, something new will begin, then another, and so it can go on for quite some time.

But what mark did these “X-Men leave behind, what point do “New Mutants put?

The New Mutants, the final touch of the X-Men, is a superhero story from Marvel Comics of the same name, from 20th Century Fox. Director Josh Boone, who is also one of the creators of the upcoming TV series based on the novel by Stephen King “Confrontation”, cherished the dream of turning “Mutants” into a trilogy that will favorably differ from the X-Men in its characteristics. The main characters originally wanted to make unusual teenagers, the concept of the trilogy was described as “Stephen King meets John Hughes.” The director was also heavily influenced by classic horror films such as The Shining and The Exorcist. In many ways, the cult film “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Warriors of the Dream” made its contribution, which is very similar in plot. But the picture as a result failed miserably at the box office due to alterations and the frequent change of the release date.

“New Mutants” went through the agony of production hell, to finally be released at the end of the summer, with a digital release coming soon. Oftentimes, making promising science fiction films is costly, and often long-term projects are difficult to understand. It’s no joke, initially “Mutants” was supposed to be released in April 2018, the release date was postponed many times – the creators wanted to thicken the colors and catch up with horror, and as a result, on August 28, 2020, the first viewers watched the tape at the box office.

The plot tells about five gifted teenagers, three pretty girls and two guys, they are held against their will at a secret facility for their own purposes. Daniel Moonstar (Blue Hunt), a girl from the Indian Reservation “starts” the story of the tape, from her point of view, the main events unfold. At the beginning of the film, Daniel experiences an attack by a mysterious hostile force on her reservation and during a “tornado” loses her father there, she regains consciousness in the laboratory. Dr. Reyes (Alice Braga) reports that Daniel is an unusual gifted girl, super-capable, and together with four other guys will be on the territory of the facility to learn how to control herself. Not wanting to humble themselves, Daniel and her new friends decide to confront Dr. Reyes, and their nightmares, which seem as realistic as possible.

The young girl Daniel is played by the pretty actress Blue Hunt, who could be seen in the vampire series “The Ancients”. Dr. Reyes is played by Alice Braga, familiar to the Russian audience in many ways from the film by Francis Lawrence “I Am Legend”. Also in the tape plays Maisie Williams, she is Arya Stark from “Game of Thrones” and here she is also a wolf girl. Anya Taylor-Joy, whose name, like her attractive image of a “girl with big eyes,” is increasingly heard by the modern viewer, plays Ulyana Rasputina, aka Magic. Anya had previously played roles in mystical films, such as “The Witch”, “Split”, “Glass”, and she perfectly coped with a new task for herself, showing a complex image, at first glance selfish, but in the soul of a broken girl. Charlie Heaton, the weird guy from Stranger Things, perfectly played the weird charismatic guy again, the hero Cannonball. Henry Zaga played Sunspot, the actor will appear in the TV series “Confrontation”.

The X-Men series matured with each film. She showed the complex dramatic conflict of fathers and children and acceptance of others in X-Men 2, then raised the topics of maturity, growing up, struggling with her own “ego” and her past in Days of Future Past, told a moderately detached but personal story The Wolverines in Logan. But the point in the franchise is not the brutal “Logan”, and not even the chamber “Dark Phoenix”. And much more chamber “New Mutants”.

“New mutants” come out at a strange time, when our world is literally changing before our eyes. And, as befits films coming out at the turn of the times, at the end of the decade, “Mutants” becomes a kind of summing up. The era of the 90s with creepy, but so dear to the heart of movie fans, horror films about Freddy Krueger, a time of triumph of practical effects, where there was its own magic and charm, has long passed. Director Josh Boone may not have planned this in 2017, but The New Mutants is now a statement about the change that is hitting the public like a tornado.

There will be no newfangled Hollywood trends in this film, such as the presence of at least one black actor, or race conflict, inclusiveness and the emphasized importance of tolerance. “Mutants” is like the last “goodbye”, this film is greetings from the 90s, he knows what times will come next, and reminds the viewer of the best representatives of the genre, recalling the atmosphere and plot of the struggle with their fears, and “It” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3”.

In “Mutants” there are enough minuses, be it in some places not the most successful editing, the absence of large extras, the lack of eventfulness and globality, but this is a chamber horror story, here the emphasis is on pleasant and charismatic teenagers who never enrage. The trio of girls plays so like a lamp that you want to spend a whole weekend with them, or even more than one. The atmosphere is reminiscent of the Kruger, the Breakfast Club, showing an equally close-knit team of heroes, and convincingly showing how they come to their cohesion. And moderate doses of horror are served at the right time, and not only in the heroic finale.

“New Mutants, given the long history of re-filming and rework, looks surprisingly harmoniously at the end of 2020, especially against the backdrop of the modern Hollywood agenda. The script and special effects within the budget do not seem to be a salty dish, the local youth are selected adequate and harmonious in their scenes. Josh Boone is certainly not a Logan-level masterpiece, but a chamber horror about young mutants who conquer their own fears. And at the same time this is an unexpected statement about the change of eras. Whatever one may say, but it may turn out that this is one of the last films of the old school films of the 90s, not so visually perfect, but made with soul.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Audio
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital
French: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
French: Dolby Digital
Spanish: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital
German: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
German: Dolby Digital

Subtitles
English SDH, French, German, Spanish.