Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2×04 – ‘Face My Enemy’ – TV Rewind

Originally published on Set The Tape

Ming-Na Wen’s Agent Melinda May was one of the standouts from the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., an experienced agent with a history, a trained fighter on the same level as Black Widow or Hawkeye, and someone with hidden depths and emotions; she was the most exciting character in a cast of young inexperienced agents, apart from Coulson (Clark Gregg).

Whilst the second season has done a good job of showing how some of these other characters have begun to grow, such as Skye (Chloe Bennet) becoming a competent field agent, or Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) living with his trauma, May seems to have been relegated to the background. ‘Face My Enemy’ changes this, however, as we not only get May being a central focus of the episode, but we even get two of her!

When a mysterious church fire destroys everything but a painting that contains the same strange writing that has been plaguing Coulson he and May infiltrate a fancy gala in order to steal it. This feels very much like the early season one episodes, taking on a bright, almost fun, Mission: Impossible style feel. There’s great chemistry between May and Coulson in these scenes, and it really helps to sell the idea that these two have known each other for years, and that they’ve been on dozens of missions like this together. These scenes also let Ming-Na show us that she can do more than just act as the colder, stoic member of the team, as she takes on a persona that smiles and laughs, much to the surprise of some of the rest of the team.

This being Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., however, means that the mission does not go as planned, as the painting appears to be stolen by General Talbot (Adrian Pasdar). Whilst it’s initially worrying when this happens because it would mean another apparent good guy turning out to be working for Hydra, the reveal that it’s actually a disguised Sunil Bakshi (Simon Kassianides) makes for a great moment. Plus the face swapping masks makes this feel much more like Mission: Impossible.

Making a return from the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier the face changing tech is a great addition to the series. It allows for interesting narrative challenges for the characters, as shown in this episode, but it also makes a tiny bridge to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. The fact that it just appears here, rather than having someone say ‘ah yes, this is the same technology that Black Widow once used’, much like they kept doing in season one, actually feels very organic too.

Hydra make good use of this device here by having the brainwashed Agent 33 (Maya Stojan) take on May’s identity to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D.. Unfortunately for her Coulson knows May well enough to be able to see through this ploy and figure out that she’s a fake. The fact that the episode went out of it’s way to have Coulson and May spend so much time together in the early part of the story and establish how comfortable they are around each other makes this a much stronger moment, Coulson didn’t catch her out because she slipped up on an obvious detail, it was something that only he would notice because of their friendship.

The Hydra story comes to a head as the two May’s come face to face in a fight that is hands down the best one the series has given viewers up to this point. It’s clear that this is a big part of why Mortal Kombat: Legacy director Kevin Tancheroen was given this episode to direct, as the two versions of May fight each other suing their fists, knives, lamp poles, and even electrical cables. They tear apart the room their in as they keep beating the crap out of each other. Whilst there are moments in the fight during the wide shots where you can tell that it’s Ming-Na fighting a body double it works very well for the most part and looks great.

May’s finishing move where she does a mid-air spinning face slam into a table is a moment that is guaranteed to make you cheer out loud just for how absolutely awesome it is.


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Frost/Nixon – Throwback 10

Originally published on Set The Tape

It’s interesting to go back and watch Frost/Nixon with a new perspective. When the film was made in 2008 the current US President was George W. Bush, a man who was at the time a contentious and divisive figure, but one that was seen as ‘not as bad’ as the titular Richard Nixon. Now, ten years later, in a time when the world has lived through two terms of Barack Obama and is a number of years into the presidency of Donald Trump it does alter how you think about Nixon.

Richard Nixon has been seen as a villainous president by many for decades, and the story of his downfall and corruption has been one that has fascinated, yet now, in a time where the US President splits up families and praises Nazi’s can we still look at Nixon and see him as a villain?

Frost/Nixon seemed to want to answer this question a decade ago, shining a light onto the world famous moments in which Nixon admitted live on air that he had engaged in illegal activities, yet chose to portray him as a very real and flawed man, something that many films that feature the historic figure have failed to do.

A large part of the success of the films portrayal comes from director Ron Howard’s decision to include the two leads from the stage production to be part of the film, having Michael Sheen play David Frost and Frank Langella reprise Nixon. You can tell that both actors are incredibly comfortable in the parts, having played them so long before even coming onto set, but it’s Langella as Nixon who shines the most.

Having studied the former president Langella captures the speech patterns without it becoming an over the top impression, and copies the physical mannerisms to the point where he is able to embody the man without the need of ridiculous prosthetic that exaggerate his features, as many films do. He doesn’t come to the production playing Richard Nixon, he plays a man, a real everyday person who happens to be in this situation, going through these events. This helps him to avoid the pitfalls of many other film Nixon’s, and even brings a lot of depth and sympathy to the role.

Come the end of the film you will find that preconceived notions about Nixon may have changed. He may no longer be the terrible figure that he’s been made out to be in the past, but simply a man who made poor choices and is trying desperately to hold onto the respectability that his former position should afford him. Sheen is excellent in his role as David Frost, though doesn’t stand out as much as Langella simply due to Frost being a much smaller personality. That’s no slight against David Frost, the man was an amazing interviewer, but simply a reflection on how Nixon towered over him during these events.

The film reflects that fact well, selling the audience on the idea that despite being a rising star David Frost was somewhat out of his depth at the beginning of the interviews with Nixon, having come across an opponent instead of a normal interviewee. Sheen plays this well, showing the highs and lows that Frost went through over the course of the process. He sells the audience on David Frost and his journey so well that when Nixon finally says the iconic line ‘when the president does it, that means it’s not illegal’ you’ll be cheering on Sheen for finally getting the win.

Whilst the two leads dominate the screen the film’s supporting cast is just as perfectly acted, with some truly brilliant character actors helping to keep the plot moving forward, including Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Rebecca Hall, Matthew Macfayden, Toby Jones, and Sam Rockwell. It’s never an easy job to portray a real life figure, especially when the events are still firmly in many people’s memories and the subjects still alive, but every single cast member is perfectly on point throughout.

Ron Howard described Frost/Nixon as the ‘thinking man’s Rocky’, and it’s not far from the truth. Not a single punch is thrown between the two, but the constant back and forth during the interviews makes for some incredibly tense moments, and you’ll be willing one side to win. Frost/Nixon is a clash of titans, two men who feel that they are right locking horns and fighting to show the public their side.

If it were simply fiction it would be a fascinating and well made film, but because it’s real world history it becomes a much more important and intriguing piece.


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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2×03 – ‘Making Friends and Influencing People’ – TV Rewind

Originally published on Set The Tape

After spending the first two episodes of the new season as a hallucination ‘Making Friends and Influencing People’ sees the return of Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge). The opening scene of the episode focuses of Simmons, following her through her morning routine as she gets ready for her day at work. It’s a very different scene than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. usually delivers; it’s bright and colourful, it has cheery music, and it shows one of the heroes in a very normal, domestic setting.

This light scene takes a sudden turn when it’s revealed that Simmons is actually working for Hydra. This makes the different tone make a lot more sense, as it’s very clearly done to make the audience believe that Simmons has left espionage behind her and is enjoying an ordinary life only to surprise viewers with the reveal. It might be a fairly heavy handed technique, but it does make for a genuinely surprising moment.

Thankfully, the episode doesn’t try to trick the viewers into thinking that the incredibly loyal Jemma Simmons had joined a Nazi led organisation that had murdered her friends and colleagues as it’s quickly revealed that she is actually working undercover for Coulson (Clark Gregg). Sent into Hydra as a low level scientist/agent Simmons has been tasked with gathering useful intel, something that she’s been struggling to accomplish.

Fortunately for Simmons, her mission improves when she finds herself being brought into a manhunt for Donnie Gill (Dylan Minnette),  the temperature controlling former S.H.I.E.L.D. cadet from the season one episode ‘Seeds’. This brings her into contact with one of the heads of Hydra, Daniel Whitehall (Reed Diamond), and his underling Sunil Bakshi (Simon Kassianides). Whitehall and Bakshi are definitely built into the same mould as Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) and Armin Zola (Toby Jones), men who want to rule the world and revel in their evilness. It makes a big difference from previous Hydra villains we’ve seen before yet feels perfect for the show.

We learn in this episode that S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra are both after the same thing, powered ‘gifted’ individuals. The hunt for Donnie is entertaining, taking the action across the globe to a large tanker trapped inside ice. Whilst the location might not be the most exotic or visually interesting, but the tension and emotion in these scenes make them much better, particularly when Skye (Chloe Bennett) has to pull the trigger and kill her first person.

The best scene, however, has to go to Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) coming face to face with Ward (Brett Dalton) for the first time since he dropped him out of a plane. Any complaints made during the first season that Fitz wasn’t an interesting enough character on his own are well and truly shelved now, with the traumatised and wounded Fitz delivering a truly chilling and emotional scene. It’s moments like this that reinforce that De Caestecker is the best actor in the cast, as he takes Fitz through a range of emotions from shock, to fear, to anger, as he processes the fact that the man that tried to kill him has been secretly locked in the base, before he comes to the decision to try to murder him. Thankfully Fitz fails to go through with his revenge, choosing to let him live.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. may be filled with action and comic book shennanigans, and this episode is no exception, but it’s the character moments that make the series special. We get to see in this episode how far characters like Fitz, Simmons, and Skye have come since those early episodes where Zitz and Simmons were interchangeable and felt like one character spread over two, and Skye was an annoying hacker with no training. The series is showing that there are consequences to previous actions, that these characters are not just archetypes who will always remain the same, but will evolve.


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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2×02 – ‘Heavy is the Head’ – TV Rewind

Originally published on Set The Tape

The second episode of season two of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. very much feels like a second part to the season opener, even beginning seconds after the last episode ended. It’s surprising to see that this wasn’t originally a two parter, or even aired back to back, as it very much feels like one extra long introduction to the new status quo.

Despite the pre-season marketing making a big deal out of Lucy Lawless joining the cast as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Isabelle Hartley it’s a shock to discover that the car crash at the end of the last episode killed her. Yes, she may have been under some kind of attack or infection from the alien obelisk, but she could easily lose an arm and stay a part of the show; as such, her sudden death is a genuine surprise.

The one silver lining from her exit from her brief time as a part of the team is that it puts Lance Hunter (Nick Blood) on a path where he’s determined to get revenge for her, which means that we get to see a lot more of Crusher Creel (Brian Patrick Wade). Whilst we still hardly know Hunter I found that we learnt a lot about his character from him in this episode. He’s manipulative, he’ll lie and double cross to get what he wants, but he’s fiercely loyal and has a sense of justice, characteristics that could make him a strong new addition to the team.

In a lot of ways he already feels a lot better than other secondary male leads the series has had. Bret Dalton was fairly bland as Grant Ward across the whole first season, even when he was revealed to be a Hydra agent, and whilst I love B.J. Britt as Antoine Triplett it took a lot longer to get to know him, and even then we’ve not got to see much of his character. Speaking of Ward, this is the first episode of the show to not feature him, and it’s absolutely fine. Perhaps this is a sign that Ward and his story will begin to work its way into the background to make room for better characters.

One of these better characters is Mack (Henry Simmons), who spends much of the episode getting to know Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) better, and helping him with his neurological trauma. It’s a little bit of a disappointment to learn that most of the other characters have kind of just left Fitz alone to deal with his problems himself. I understand that there’s a lot going on for the other characters to have to deal with, you don’t really get days off from being an international super-spy, but this is one of their best friends, left alone to struggle through an incredibly traumatic experience.

Thankfully Mack is too good a person to leave the suffering Fitz on his own, and we get to see that start of what appears to be a very real and caring friendship form between the two men. Mack pushes Fitz when he needs it, supports him when it’s right, and because of this has quickly become one of the best characters on the show only his second episode in. The episode also introduces a big new player to the series this episode, Skye’s mysterious father, played by Twin Peaks Kyle MacLachlan. The episode gives nothing about him away, even his name, but the fact that he has Raina (Ruth Negga) working for him, who is clearly afraid of him, sets him up to be an interesting potential antagonist.

‘Heavy is the Head’ also continues the further evolving mystery of the strange symbols that Coulson (Clark Gregg) has been carving by revealing a connection to the alien obelisk. We know from the flashback in the previous episode that the obelisk was taken from the same Hydra facility that housed the blue alien used to save Coulson, so a connection between the two isn’t a huge leap in logic. How this will play out is anyone’s guess at this point, but hopefully it won’t be teased out as long as the Tahiti mystery in season one.

With some great action moments and a lot of character and plot development the second episode of the season has continued at a great pace and has established a great foundation for season two to continue to build upon.


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Spider-Man: Forever Young – Book Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

Based upon the classic comic storyline ‘The Stone Tablet Saga’, Spider-Man: Forever Young goes back in time to follow Peter Parker during his time at university, struggling to juggle his roles as a student, boyfriend, nephew and friendly neighbourhood hero.

Stefan Petrucha doesn’t have an easy job in adapting this story, with the whole saga originally taking place over several issues set years apart. However, this doesn’t seem to get in Petrucha’s way. Instead, he utilises this time jump midway through the story in interesting and rewarding ways.

The first half of the book sees the well known villain Kingpin going up against the ageing mob boss Silvermane, both of whom are trying to steal a mysterious stone tablet said to hold a mystical secret within its writings. Unfortunately, the tablet is being housed on NYU property, which brings the two of them into conflict with Peter Parker.

Despite setting the Kingpin up as a big villain, Spider-Man is able to defeat the mobster with relative ease, making room for Silvermane to be the true villain of the piece. Where the Kingpin is the kind of character to go for a more direct approach, Silvermane is a more calculating and cunning character, more than willing to resort to intimidation and kidnapping to achieve his goals. This may not be as interesting in the comic book medium, where readers expect flashy fight scenes, but in a novel format this slower, more psychological approach works well, allowing the reader the time to get into the mind of Parker and see how things affect him on a personal level.

This is never more apparent after the book makes its time jump, shifting the story to a point after the death of police captain Stacy, Gwen Stacy, and Norman Osborn. This is a period in Peter’s life that’s full of negativity and grief. People that he cared deeply for have died, partially because of his identity as Spider-Man. It even spills out to affect the relationships he has with those still alive, such as his friendship with Harry Osborn, which is almost completely gone.

Whilst this would be bad enough a time to have to deal with the resurfacing of Silvermane, things get even worse when Peter’s aunt is hospitalised, needing a transplant in order to survive. Not only does this create a looming threat for Peter, the possibility that he may lose his only living family, but it also strains his existing relationships further when people mistake his inability to help his aunt due to his mutated DNA for cowardice, thinking that he would rather let her die than go through an operation.

These parts of the book are definitely the highlight, pushing the characters into darker places where their internal emotional struggles are able to be explored in more depth than they were in the original comics.

Despite being in novel form the story doesn’t skimp out on the action, having Spidey in multiple fights across the events of the book. These action moments are well paced and have enough description in them that it’s easy to visualise what’s happening, conveying the spectacle from the comics in a good way.

With deep emotional story-lines, great character interaction, exploration of people’s motivations and inner thoughts, coupled with fun action and appearances from some iconic comic book characters, Spider-Man: Forever Young takes a classic Spider-Man story and gives it new life. The book brings the story into the modern age, coupling new tech and societal advances with an old story to make it feel new and fresh and interesting.

A must read for any Spider-Man fan who wants to explore the character further, to delve into the inner workings of the hero, or to see the wall-crawler in a whole new medium.


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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2×01 – ‘Shadows’ – TV Rewind

Originally published on Set The Tape

Following a shaky start the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. really came into it’s own in the last few episodes, with changes to the universe that means things could never be the same again for the show, and the characters. The premiere episode of the second season had a lot to live up to, needing to maintain the momentum and quality of the end of the first season.

Thankfully the second season manages to start with a bang, clearly setting itself apart from the S.H.I.E.L.D. that had come before. This isn’t a big government organisation with glossy secret bases and high tech equipment, this a group of agents out in the field with no back-up, and working out of an old facility, they even lack any transport more advanced than a car. It immediately feels like a bold new direction for the series, one with a darker tone, more grounded in the real world than the Marvel movies.

Despite this feel of being a more real world spy show the episode is packed with comic book moments to make fans happy. The opening scene of the episode brings back Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough), and Jim Morita (Kenneth Choi) from Captain America: The First Avenger in a great flashback scene that shows them taking down a Hydra facility following the defeat of the Red Skull. The scene explores some of the beginnings of S.H.I.E.L.D. and even gives us an origin for the blue alien corpse seen in the previous season, all whilst introducing a new ‘Macguffin’ for the episode, a mysterious alien obelisk.

Back in the present Coulson (Clark Gregg) has assembled a team to track down the mysterious obelisk, which includes some interesting new faces. S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Isabelle Hartley (Lucy Lawless) and her mercenary team of Lance Hunter (Nick Blood) and Idaho (Wilmer Calderon) are an interesting trio, one that helps to inject some new energy into the group, especially Blood’s Hunter, who is the only one of the three to make it out of the episode alive.

The mission to find the obelisk unfortunately comes into trouble when they cross paths with comic villain Carl ‘Crusher’ Creel (Brian Patrick Wade), or as most readers would know him, the Absorbing Man. Capable of taking on the properties of any material he touches Creel proves to be a great villain for the team, one that presents a big enough challenge for the group yet doesn’t feel too overpowered. The moment that he picks up his iconic ball and chain is definitely one of the highlights of the episode.

The premiere also sees a new addition in the form of Alphonso ‘Mack’ Mackenzie (Henry Simmons), a mechanic who looks like he should be a field agent because of the sheer size of him. Whilst there isn’t a great deal of development for him in this episode he already seems like an interesting new character and is sure to develop over time. The returning cast also shine in this episode, with Coulson seeming incredibly comfortable in his new role as Director, taking a step back from field work and making the tough decisions from the base. Despite how good it is to see the character out on missions this feels like a much better fit for him.

We also get to briefly catch up with the traitorous Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), who is now a prisoner after betraying his former team. It’s interesting to have seen Ward go from the confident hero to dastardly villain, and now to something of a pathetic character. It will be interesting to see how this will play our over the season, whether this is some kind of act or if he’s as broken as he appears, and how this will alter his relationship with Skye (Chloe Bennet).

The best character development, however, is Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), who we last saw suffering brain damage at the bottom of the ocean. Left to wander the new base and occasionally help out in the lab he’s clearly not the man we saw in the last season. Despite the brain damage, and the physiological affects that it has had on him, the saddest part is the reveal that Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) isn’t a part of S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore, and that Fitz has been hallucinating her the whole episode.

‘Shadows’ manages to maintain the quality that we’ve come to expect from the series whilst setting up some great new characters, an interesting new plot, and a whole new status quo of the team. A huge improvement on the previous season, and a great indicator of how things will be going forward.


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Marvel Action: Avengers #1 – Comic Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

Bringing the Avengers to IDW, the Marvel Action line aims to create an all ages experience for fans of Marvel, and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Writer Matthew Manning has assembled a team of Avengers from some of their most iconic members to tell a story that aims to create a book that kids and long time readers can enjoy without talking down to the audience. And issue one seems to be just that.

Combining together a bright and almost cartoon like art style, courtesy of the talented Jon Sommariva, the book tells an interesting little mystery, keeping the reader guessing right up to the final reveal on the last page. It feels like it’s a story that is aimed at a younger audience, yet doesn’t alienate an older reader by being too simple, or too silly.

The story follows Tony Stark, who is out enjoying an evening meal with his partner Pepper Potts, when he is attacked by a member of the villainous organisation Advanced Idea Mechanics, or A.I.M.. From here the story seems to follow this member of A.I.M. as he attempts to steal the Iron-Man armour, having to fight Avengers Black Widow and Black Panther in order to do so.

It appears fairly simple as to what has happened, but in the final page we discover that our expectations are completely wrong, and that Manning has managed to completely pull the wool over our eyes. The end not only goes against the readers expectations, but manages to introduce a whole new series of questions as to what’s going on, and where the story will go in the next issue.

The issue also introduces the rest of this new Avengers team, Captain America, Captain Marvel, and Thor, as they execute a mission to take down Madame Masque and the U-Foes, a group of villains that have been hired by A.I.M.. Whilst the mission is short it manages to introduce the three heroes in a good way, showing their personalities pretty well, establishing how they will be acting in the book going forward, particularly Thor, who is clearly shown as a more fun-loving version of the character.

The art-style suits the book well, and each of the characters gets a great new makeover by Sommariva, who takes these iconic characters and gives them relatively small visual tweaks. The designs are clearly their characters, yet stand out well as being their own versions. For example, Captain Marvel sports her iconic costume, but has a more segmented armour look, rather than a simple fabric. She’s instantly recognisable as Captain Marvel, yet looks different enough from her regular comic counterpart for this to be clearly the Marvel Action version.

With a lot of mystery set up within this first issue I’m excited to see what happens next, what the villains are really up to, and what other characters are going to turn up, and what interesting new designs they might have. Marvel Action: Avengers has been designed to be accessible for people of all ages, and as such is a nice easy read that is sure to appeal to both casual readers, and long time fans.


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Star Trek: Insurrection – Throwback 20

Originally published on Set The Tape

Star Trek: Insurrection is the first Star Trek film that I remember seeing in the cinema. Having grown up watching various incarnations of the franchise on BBC2 in the evenings, and having seen the previous films I was very excited to go see my first Star Trek movie. However, when I left the cinema I found myself feeling somewhat deflated about the experience; and nothing much has changed over the last 20 years.

To be fair, there isn’t really anything hugely wrong with the film. The story is fine, the character moments are on the whole very good, and there’s an interesting central moral struggle for the Enterprise crew to grapple with. What it doesn’t do, though, is feel like a movie.

Star Trek: Insurrection would be a perfectly reasonable two-part episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but having followed the massive success of Star Trek: First Contact it doesn’t even feel like it’s in the same league. Having researched a little into the making of the film I think there are a number of reasons for this.

The biggest reason for the film not being as good as its predecessor is the fact that Paramount Pictures set out to make a film with a much lighter tone than the last. Considering how dark Star Trek: First Contact is both visually and tonally it’s not hard to be different, but it seemed like the studio set out on this path without any clear indication of the type of story they wanted to tell.

A number of writers were brought on board the project, including  long time Star Trek alumni Michael Piller and Ira Steven Behr, to provide treatments. The story went through a number of changes, ranging from Romulan plots to Picard (Patrick Stewart) as a renegade who would have killed Data (Brent Spiner) at one point in the film. From what I have read it would appear that the finished film was something of a compromise, with several writers, producers, and cast members all bringing input to the final piece. Despite this, the story ended up being quite good, but lacked the ooph that a feature film needed.

The final plot sees the crew of the Enterprise being sent into a region of space known as the Briar Patch, to the idyllic home of the Ba’ku people – a race who possess the secret to eternal youth – to rescue a team of scientists that were secretly studying the Ba’ku, after Data appears to have gone berserk. When it transpires that Starfleet want to remove the Ba’ku from their planet in order to harness the secret of their youth, Picard and his crew must go against orders to save them.

The moral questions raised by the film are fairly good – ‘Is it right to destroy 600 lives to save billions?’ – and the effects that the planet have on the crew are interesting and varied, and in some cases a lot of fun. The scene in which Geordi (LeVar Burton) gets to see a sunrise with real human eyes for the first time in his life is an incredibly touching moment, especially for long time fans of the character.

Despite this, there are still a few things that the film does wrong. The villains feel too one dimensional and ‘evil’. The comedic moments feel a little forced on occasion. There’s a huge lack of much needed action. And the pacing is just too slow. Personally, one of my biggest complaints is the fact that they cut out scenes that would have explored Worf (Michael Dorn) having recently had his wife murdered.

Star Trek: Insurrection is Star Trek spread too thin, a story that ticks all of the boxes but doesn’t try to excel in any particular way. The cast are great, as always, and the sets and visual effects are good, but never reach the levels of Star Trek: First Contact for emotional punch or visual flare. A competent Star Trek story, but not a good Star Trek film.


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The New Mutants – 2019 Preview

Originally published on Set The Tape

Originally slated for a 2018 release, The New Mutants was pushed back to an August 2019 release with little to no explanation, though the recent Disney acquisition of Fox may explain some of this.

Directed by Josh Boone, The New Mutants stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin/’Magik’, Maisie Williams as Rahne Sinclair/’Wolfsbane’, Charlie Heaton as Sam Guthrie/’Cannonball’, Henry Zaga as Roberto da Costa/ ‘Sunspot’, Blu Hunt as Danielle Moonstar/’Mirage’, and Alicia Braga as Cecillia Reyes.

The New Mutants shifts its focus away from the Xavier School For Gifted Youngsters and the characters that we know, and will tell the story of a group of young mutants that are struggling to survive in a world that hates and fears mutants.

The New Mutants has promised to change the tone of the X-Men universe, leaving behind the bright costumes and super heroics that the franchise is known for, instead choosing to embrace horror; an area of the X-Men universe that has been explored many times in print, but not yet on film.

Josh Boone and the cast are already a good indication of this change, with a director best known for the drama The Fault In Our Stars, and actors from The Witch, Stranger Things, and Game of Thrones a sign that Fox are willing to embrace a different feel for the film. Fox chairman and CEO Stacey Snider has said that the film is less of a superhero piece and more of “a haunted house movie with a bunch of hormonal teenagers”, crediting both One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and The Shining as inspirations for the project.

The New Mutants were the first ever spin-off team based around the concept of additional mutant super teams at Marvel Comics, debuting in Marvel Graphic Novel #4 in December 1982, written by Chris Claremont. The team would go on to prove popular enough to merit their own ongoing title that would last for several years. Over the course of this initial run all of the characters that feature in the film made appearances. The book has returned a number of times since this original run, with many of the characters going on to reappear.

The fact that Fox is taking advantage of these spin-off characters is a great source of comfort for X-Men fans, especially with the increasingly confusing continuity of the main series. With the X-Men films having become so bogged down in their own interweaving stories and conflicting chronology it will be a great relief to have an X-Men project that manages to stand on its own.

Yes, Deadpool existed as its own entity, but it acknowledged these inconsistencies and changes in the other films (though with a sly wink) in that it reminded viewers that this was just another part of a larger, more confused whole.

With The New Mutants rumoured by the director to be the first part of a trilogy, hopefully it will manage to remain separate enough from the rest of the films not to be damaged by association. It’s entirely possible to include connections to the larger universe without interacting with it in any real way; just look at how Legion managed to be a part of the X-Men’s world whilst still being its own entity.

With a cast of some of the best up and coming young actors working in film and television at the moment, a director who has proven that they can deliver an effective film about teenagers in extraordinary circumstances, and a trailer that genuinely sent shivers down my spine, let’s hope that The New Mutants delivers on its promises and gives the X-Men franchise the end that it deserves with Fox before Disney takes creative control.


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