Welcome to Not Comics, a sub-series of Make Ours Marvel where Michael Kaiser, Jon M. Wilson, and Sara Century take a break from talking about Marvel’s spandex adventures and instead focus on Marvel’s endeavors outside of comics. In this special…The New Mutants!
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To be honest, I’m not into horror films, but I still was excited to see this movie from its trailers. Some of the casting was spot on (Illyana), and I liked the power effects (blastin’, soul sword, wolfing). But the things that bugged me overrode it.
The story didn’t feel very New Mutants-y. The kids were different than the X-Men by spending time in Westchester, dance class with Hunter, and sleepovers. Turning it into a claustrophobic prison with the kids only barely connecting except for Dani and Rahne (great stuff, that!) didn’t work for me.
Whitewashing Berto and Cecilia. Ugh!
Illyana’s personality was awful.
Berto’s power effect looked like how I’d imagine Magma on the big screen. It legit confused me in the trailers into thinking Amara was one of the cast. There must have been a way to make it more Sunspot-like: lots more black, maybe bare streaks of orange heat, and white eyes. The effect in the movie is more like “the sun” than Sunspot.
Sam didn’t say “Ah’m nigh-invulnerable when ah’m blastin’.” Nope!
And yes, the story suffered because I know the team, so the coy “mystery” of Dani’s power was annoying.
Anyway, that’s enough whining by me. I’m not sorry I saw it, just disappointed. Thanks for the great discussion, gang!