THE NEW MUTANTS (2020) Movie Reaction! | First Time Watch! | Anya Taylor-Joy | Maisie Williams

The hosts acknowledge 'The New Mutants' for its distinct psychological horror tone within the X-Men universe, focusing on teenagers dealing with their first, often traumatic, power manifestations. However, they criticize the film's execution, noting that while the idea was good, the delivery was lacking, especially in fully leaning into the horror aspects.

Michael Boost states, "This was a different tone for an X-Men movie. Very, very, very different tone. I appreciate the sort of diving into like what it's like being a teenager and dealing with like the first manifestation of your powers... I liked what they were trying to do." Brandon Sheiley adds, "The execution just really fumbled it."

A significant critique is the film's unclear antagonist, shifting between the Essex Corporation, the doctor, and ultimately the main character's power. The hosts also point out the unexplained lack of staff in the facility and vague timelines for how long the mutants had been institutionalized, which undermined the narrative's coherence.

Brandon Sheiley notes, "The antagonist was a little cloudy for me because because they first of all Essex or whatever. We never we never got past that to see anything about them. The bear ended up being the antagonist, but also, you know, the doctor was, but she went very quickly." Michael Boost adds, "There was no staff which feels really really weird. Like why is she the only one here?"

The reveal that the main character, Danny, was the source of the fear manifestations felt uninspired and illogical to the hosts, who argue that the film provided insufficient hints. They also found Danny's power to be inconsistently portrayed, activating randomly without clear emotional triggers or explanations.

Michael Boost states, "It felt like the reveal of like, oh, it's all been Danny this entire time makes me feel stupid because I'm like, why?" Brandon Sheiley agrees, "It doesn't It doesn't. Yeah, exactly. Why?" Michael Boost later adds, "Danny's powers work because they were just kind of working randomly. Yeah, they just work randomly. There was no rhyme or reason."

The hosts discuss the broader Hollywood trend of integrating original ideas into established IPs rather than gambling on new, unproven concepts. They speculate that 'The New Mutants' might have been an original psychological thriller concept retrofitted into the X-Men universe, which could explain some of its narrative inconsistencies and weak X-Men connections.

Michael Boost ponders, "I'm wondering if someone somewhere at Disney or 20th Century Fox saw this story or at least the ideation of this story as its own original thing or had this idea and pitched it and then they were like, 'That's great. Let's make it X-Men cuz we haven't made an X-Men movie in a minute. Let's tie it in.'"