Not Brand-X

I'm old, so to me, the X-Men are the original five: Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Angel, and Jean Grey. I had never even heard of Wolverine until the movies. But a few years ago, I got a big iPad and a subscription to the Marvel U and read most of the New Mutants run. So I was ready for the movie The New Mutants (2020).

It starts with Blu Hunt running from her house as it is destoyed from within. Her father encourages her to run, then gets killed. She passes out as the monster approached and wakes up strapped to a hospital bed in a sort of old-fashioned hospital. It turns out to be run by Alice Braga, who is sympathetic but strict. She doesn't really explain anything, but invites Blu to a group therapy session where she meets the other inmates.

• Maisie Williams, a shy but sweet Scots girl 
• Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things), a West Virginia bad boy with a broken arm and trucker hat. I kept thinking it was a strangely de-aged Kevin Bacon until Ms. Spenser told me who it was.
• Henry Zaga, an egotistical Brazilian
• Anya Taylor-Joy (Emma.), a very sarcastic Russian. She has a plush puppet dragon, named Lockheed (after Kitty Pryde's dragon)

The session doesn't go well, and Blu isn't very happy, so she tries to run away. At Taylor-Joy's urging, she runs full-tilt into a force field. When she tries to fight Taylor-Joy, she discovers her power - she can vanish and teleport. As is the current convention, super-hero names are rarely mentioned, but she is Illyana Rasputin, Magik.

Also, a wolf running nearby hints at Maisie Williams power - she's a werewolf.

We also see Heaton tethered to a concrete block, zooming around like a tetherball - he's Cannonball.

The idea is that this hospital (Medfield State Hospital, also seen in Shutter Island) is for the training of mutants whose powers are dangerous or out of control. It slowly becomes clear that the monster that destroyed her village, the Demon Bear, was summoned by her, leaving her wracked with guilt. She tries to kill herself, but Maisie talks her out of it, and they become friends and soon, lovers. But more and more the kids are menaced by creatures out of their nightmares. 

The story is that if they learn to control their powers, they can join the X-Men. But Dr. Braga doesn't seem to be that trustworthy or sympatico. She keeps referring to them as "patients" in a condescending way. Finally, she gets instructions from her superiors (NOT Prof. X) that Blu is too dangerous, and must be put down. That triggers worse monsters, because her power is to manifest people's worst fears -including her own fear of demon bear. 

There are strong elements of horror in this version of the story. The decrepit hospital, the monsters from the id, the evil doctor who wants to control or kill. There's even a scene in the closed school pool, like in It Follows. But it's fairly light, as horror goes. The lesbian love theme is also not really pounded on. It's mostly just a regular superhero origin story. 

This movie had a rough production history, with years of anticipation, false starts, new directions, and so on - finally being released into the mouth of the COVID lockdown. It was, as far as I can tell, completely ignored. But I liked it. Blu and Maisie had a tough sweetness, and Anya T-J is a great bad-ass Illyana. Heaton gets an interesting back story - I know his as a goofy farmboy, but here he killed his father and a bunch of miners going off underground. Zaga doesn't get much more than a moment, but maybe that's for the best. 

I'm guessing that this will be a one-off, which is too bad. I wouldn't mind seeing them, and maybe a couple more members in later movies.