A spoiler-heavy movie review.

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Hot on the heels of their characteristically-safe “Mulan 2020”, Disney has seen fit to release Josh Boone’s “The New Mutants”: a decidedly-unsafe choice for pandemic viewing. Sure, audiences may have been clamoring for something “different” in 2018 (its originally-intended release date) in a market that was saturated by “Star Wars” and Marvel & DC movie adaptations. But it’s two-years-on and people are finally starting to question their own culture, and a superhero movie where the “heroes” are disturbed teenagers unable to control their fledgling powers due to their combined childhood traumas is not necessarily upbeat family entertainment; especially if all anyone is looking for right now is non-binary escapism. Yes, The New Mutants is “different”, when compared to Twentieth Century Fox’s pre-Disney slew of X-Men movies. So “different” in fact that it probably scared producers, who feared making a return on an investment that toes-the-line between a “Netflix”-style teenie-bopper serial and an Ari Aster thriller. So it was shelved, pending reshoots to “lighten” its tone. Flash-forward two years and even star Maisie Williams’ “Game of Thrones” series had ended in the time-gap: everyone got older and moved-on. On top of that, Disney bought out Fox, and what we have now is the much-touted “original version”, presumably released as a stop-gap in an otherwise-vacant theatrical schedule. Because, content-aside, who really cares anymore?

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