Starring Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton

Directed by Josh Boone

Disney, out now

Five young mutants, just discovering their abilities while held in a secret facility against their will, fight to escape their past sins and save themselves.

Arriving nearly 2.5 years after it was first planned, Josh Boone’s X-Men spin-off arrives in cinemas with everything to lose. Originally planned as the first part of a trilogy, the movie (made by Fox) got caught up in the Disney acquisition of the studio, was pushed back again and again, was on the cusp of release and… COVID-19 happened.

The sad fact is that The New Mutants is not an awful movie – it’s an OK one – but is hobbled by arriving with the knowledge that there will be no more, this being the final Fox X-Men movie. It’s like watching a pilot for a show that you already know isn’t going to a full season. What value is there in investing your time in something that’s incomplete?

At 98 minutes, it flies by, and certainly doesn’t feel like a victim of studio interference. Playing like a cross between The Breakfast Club and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, five teenagers are trapped inside a mansion where their mutant powers are bring observed by Alice Braga’s (I am Legend) mysterious Dr Reyes.

The quintet of subjects are led by Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) as Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) as Illyana Rasputin (Magik) and Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things) as Sam Guthrie (Cannonball). They’re absolutely fine, even if it takes a while to warm to Taylor-Joy’s bitchy turn, complete with pterodactyl hand puppet.

Biggest revelation is Blu Hunt as Native American Danielle Moonstar (Mirage), through whose eyes we learn about the facility and a major set of events are triggered. The big finale is well done, featuring an unlikely big bad, and as franchises go, this might have had wings, but that’s not to be.

Verdict: On the plus side, director Josh Boone promises good things for his upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, but The New Mutants already feels like an unwanted, forgotten footnote that never really had a chance. 6/10

Nick Joy