So, I felt compelled to see it again, and wow, it was like a whole other movie.
What frame of mind was I in when I saw it the first time?
Some movies/shows are like that, you hate 'em the first time, then you see 'em again with a different frame of mind, and it's like "what the Hell was wrong with me?".
Battlestar Galactica was like that for me.
First time, it turned me right the fuck off, and I bailed after 4 episodes, then I binged it a couple years ago, and I saw it as a masterpiece.
Twin Peaks, there was another one.
This time, I realized, Magik's smiley-face men boogeymen she sees in her nightmares are coded pedophiles.
She's a heavy duty molestation/rape survivor.
Her limbo portal is a physicalized manifestation of her dissociation during rape.
That's kind of important to know about the character, Fox!!
Geez!!
They never so much as utter the word "abuse".
It's very highly coded, they dance around it like a fucking ballerina.
No wonder it flew past me the first time.
Apparently, you can't directly address child abuse with anything less than an R rating even if you aren't fully explicit.
Anya Taylor-Joy plays a molestation victim in "Split" too, and even though we don't see the touching, they make it pretty damned clear what's going on.
PG-13, you have to crack a fucking code.
Jesus, Fox.
*Googles* nope, "Split" is PG-13!
Some Fox suit made them water it down then.
What, did you want to sell New Mutants lunchboxes to kiddies, Fox?
What the actual fuck?
Logan was R, Deadpool 1 & 2 were R, New Mutants needed to be R.
Magik deserved better.
Someone, I think it was Patty Jenkins, said "little girls need a superhero even more than little boys".
Well, abuse victims even more so!
Not only does Magik deserve better, abuse victims deserve her as a superhero, and they deserve better.
BUT! Maybe abuse victims saw though the code better than I did, and they dug the film better on first viewing, because they got it.
Yeah, now that I see it, the whole thing is an allegory for abuse.
Magik and Wolfsbane are directly abuse victims.
Magik sexual, Wolfsbane psychological and violence.
Although, given the heavy coding, there might be sexual in the mix with Wolfsbane too.
The other three are trauma victims.
Their powers killed loved ones.
They kind of abuse themselves with guilt.
Cannonball outright self-harms.
Layer on top of all of that, the evil institute is psychologically abusive.
I don't think they even address the pedo stuff in the bonus materials.
It's all danced around at every level.
What. The. Fuck. Fox?
Oh! And this time, I caught that Essex Corp is behind the institute.
And there's a flash-forward to the kids being abused in "Logan" so they're behind X-23 too.
Essex are set up at the end of "X-Men: Apocalypse".
So "New Mutants" and "Logan" are the payoff to that.
That plot thread has closure after all.
Even though we didn't directly get Mister Sinister.
So yeah, the film jumps up a couple notches in my estimation.
The quiet snail's pace problems are still there though.
You still have to be caffeinated to get through it.
*Checks Rotten Tomatoes*
Ssss, damn, 36%, that's a bummer.
Yeah, the PG-13 rating, and Fox not wanting to "go there" (like "Split" did) with corporate Marvel characters is what hobbled this flick, not anything to do with the writing, or acting, or directing.
I've said it a million times before, they were going for "Dream Warriors" and this time, I even see some "Girl Interrupted" in there.
But, both of those flicks are R.
I guess superheroes aren't allowed to go full "Girl Interrupted" except on the printed page.
Or, if they're no-name-brand like "Split".
My new head-canon?
Casey from "Split" gains her powers, and becomes Magik.
Still not my favorite X-Men universe flick, but I admire everything they were going for, and I respect the film for that.
I wish the MCU would bring Magik and Wolfsbane in.
But...Christ, if Fox was scared of characters with abuse baggage, you think Disney has the balls?
Fuck no.
But then, that gets fucked up.
Wanda has trauma, but it's big shit like war PTSD.
You can have Wanda's family splattered with a mortar round, but you can't have Magik get diddled.
Our culture is sooooo fucked up.
So mind-blowingly fucked up.
Well!! Now that I think of it, DC beat Marvel there.
They made it clear what was going on with Crazy Jane in "Doom Patrol".
Her daddy was very clearly pedo, no code there.
But, that was streaming TV.
They don't have the guts to put Crazy Jane in a DCEU movie.
That ain't happening.
Maybe that's the solution.
Maybe New Mutants needs to be a Hulu show.
Alas, poor New Mutants.
My only hope, is that it becomes a cult film, and gets re-discovered.
Like, it becomes the "Evil Dead 2" of the Marvel universe over time.
That would make me happy.
That'd be great.
I'll retro-add this re-review to "Disney/Fox Part 18: New Mutants from start to finish".
2 comments:
Holy crapanoli I can't believe this dumbass is still alive:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pat-robertson-putin-ukraine_n_621dbaf4e4b06e1cc59426e5?utm_campaign=share_facebook&ncid=engmodushpmg00000003&fbclid=IwAR0dc42d6oxpoi6Z_FtViCD0YW1eBZGThMK1YH2Ydyf8RoxatA_MHCovhnY
I vaguely knew he was alive, but I didn't know he had a retirement to come out of.
Part of me wants him dead, another part is bone-chilled by the power vacuum his cronies will rush towards, and who will stand victorious.
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