An Inadvertant Jeff Goldblum Shrine and the Under Appreciated "New Mutants"

  *Blog post started on January 12, 2020.

And of course the podcast drop ruins the blog dropping schedule. I cannot really add additional NinetyForChill.com posts once the latest podcast is released. Cannot have visitors scrolling to find the play button.

In case you have not heard about the first episode of "NinetyForChill dot Com: The Podcast" finally dropping. Feel free to hit play below to hear "Ally's Abbreviated Anime Adventure".

Read more: https://html.com/media/#ixzz6jIeBsAn5

The next problem that the podcast has presented me with is that I promised to address a 90-minute movie that I had rented the night I finished producing the last episode. Needless to say, the visceral review for "The New Mutants" was a necessity for the next episode. Do I retread that feature with a written review?

There are a lot more podcasting issues. Right now, I am waiting on my older sister to listen to the first episode to determine if her reputation would be besmirched if she was to be the the next guest. It is tough for me to comprehend. Not that she wants to make sure she will not humiliate herself. My initial pitch was a Jeff Goldblum theme, and she is the Jurassic Jeff Jezebel. All this pitch does for me is force myself to watch "Mad Dog Time"...or "The Fly" since Ally and I gave "Videodrome" some love last week. Which seems cooler:

 

Mad Dog Time (1996)

Jeff Goldblum, National Arm Wrestling Champ '86 - IMGUR

 

Too bad I do not mean to post this blog till tomorrow (I think). This homage to the Tyrannosaurus Pecs may have sold big sis on doing the pod. Why do I always fail to think of the bribery angle?

 

Speaking about bribery, there was an article that I came across discussing how Disneyland will become a mass-vaccination site for COVID-19. Everybody loves the Disney parks. Get a shot, hop on "The Jungle Cruise". Why was this not the Federal response to begin with? I guess Big Mouse was never a fan of Big Orange.

 

If only we had the vaccine options this summer. You could go to the movies, get a shot with your popcorn, and give Christopher Nolan the respect he deserves (I guess. After his "Batman" sequels and "Interstellar", I get a pretentious vibe from him.).

 

It would have worked out for Disney. If the concept of an "X-Men" horror movie was not going to sell you on seeing "The New Mutants", perhaps protection from the premier plague would.

 

The New Mutants (2020; 1 hour 34 minutes)

Dani Moonstar wakes up handcuffed to a bed. Her last memories were seeing her reservation devastated by some monstrous beast. The first person she meets upon waking is Dr. Reyes. Reyes seems a compassionate person, which makes immediately telling Dani that it was a tornado that devastated her people and that she was the sole survivors a little bit easier.

On top of this, she is told that they discovered she was a mutant when they rescued her. This is news to Dani and what makes things more frustrating is that she is presumed dangerous. Because of this, her new home is a hospital for new mutants who need to be taught to control their powers. Her fellow patients all carry similar emotional damage, having hurt someone once they discovered their powers. There attitudes may also be affected by the force fields that ensure they cannot leave the facility.

With this stigma, it is tough to see them end up becoming heroes, but if they follow Reyes's treatment plan, the doctor suggests that they can move on to Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Once Dani had arrived though, they may not get a chance to finish the treatment. At night, all of the kids are experiencing past nightmares based on their power manifestations, but in the flesh. This could be a means for them to find out what really is going on at this facility. Reyes is so focused on realizing Dani's powers, it is the ideal time to snoop around for secrets.

"The New Mutants" is a great PG-13 horror movie. It may have benefited from an R-Rating when it comes to some of the trauma the kids had experienced in the past and to flush out the romantic relationships, but that could also mean it just needed a longer runtime.

Unlike previous films in the "X-Men" franchise, there are not any break out characters. This might be the biggest reason that critics and fans felt let down by this feature. If you just watch it as an 80's horror film with a disposable cast, it works out well. Break out performances would have lead to screams for Disney to keep this portion of the franchise alive, but I feel the references to films like "Logan" allows it to fit into the X-Men Universe and reason enough to continue pursuing this mutant line up. This is an origin story that I think could only be improved upon.

I felt that the dream monsters element allowed it to feel a bit like the original "A Nightmare on Elm Street." It definitely is not on the same level because there is not a charismatic antagonist from the nightmares (though Alice Braga as Reyes works as a conflicted villain). Fortunately, having a diverse team of characters gives it more range in terms of victims to antagonize, something Wes Craven's series lacked.

On the flip side, the character diversity can come across as ridiculous. The non-white characters are represented well. As for the English actors trying to give this film a multi national flare: "Game of Throne's" Maisie Willliams has a Scottish accent (Adrian Paul it is not.). "The Queen's Gambit's" Anna Taylor-Joy has a Russian accent (Halle Berry eventually gave up the West African accent for Storm.). "Stranger Thing's" Charlie Heaton tries a southern accent (It comes of as any random Brit trying an American accent.). This all comes across as tacky, but it is a horror film, so it is excusable.

There is nothing exceptional about "The New Mutants", but it works as a brief full-length feature. Curse the studio interference because I would have loved to see what the original product was. It does an excellent job of playing up horror movie tropes while maintaining the fun vibe of an "X-Men" film that works (so not "X-Men III", "Apocalypse", or "X-Men Origins"). It is probably a certainty that "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" will do all of this better, but with a year to wait on that, "The New Mutants" is the darker Marvel movie I needed after an overly charming "Spider-Man."