The New Mutants Parent Guide

When her community is destroyed by a bizarre disaster, Dani Moonstar (Blu Hunt) finds herself completely alone and handcuffed to a bed in a strange hospital. Thankfully, Dr. Reyes (Alice Braga) is quick to assure Dani that things will get better, despite the fact that everyone she’s ever known is dead. Dani, it turns out, is a mutant – a person with strange abilities, and she’s in this facility so she can learn to control those powers. Even as she beings to get close with another patient, Rahne (Maisie Williams), Dani begins to suspect that something isn’t quite right about this treatment – or Dr. Reyes.

Superhero movies tend to be at their best when they play mix and match with another genre. For instance, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of the best films in that franchise and is a solid political thriller. For The New Mutants, Marvel decided to borrow from horror films – with limited success. Although this is certainly scarier than most other Marvel movies, it isn’t nearly scary enough for horror fans. If you’re over the age of 12, nothing about this movie is going to send you screaming out of the room.

That said, you may not want to drag your 12-year-old into this. While there’s less profanity than you might expect from a horror movie, there’s more than you’d find in your average superhero flick. The violence and associate disturbing imagery are also too graphic for young viewers. Older teenagers shouldn’t have a problem with any of the content, but they will find the movie pretty dull.

This movie’s unsuitability for younger teens is unfortunate, because if you’re under the age of 12, you’re less likely to notice (or care) that the entire movie is just one boring cliché after another. This is The Breakfast Club meets Glass, an entirely uninteresting combination of teen bonding and bad superhero tropes. You’re also going to have a hard time taking a character with the unlikely name of “Illyana Rasputin” seriously – that is, if her unpleasant personality and stupid powers weren’t enough to make you discount her. This is another one of those thoroughly bland and mediocre movies that gives you the feeling that you saw it on an airplane, even if you didn’t. It is, mercifully, forgettable, which is probably the kindest thing I can say for it. If the movie’s going to be bad, the least it can do is slip easily from my mind the second the credits start to roll.