Project Power

[JohnC]

A new superhero-ish movie out on Netflix today. A new drug gives people a superpower for 5 minutes. Or a chance that it kills them. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a local cop. Dominique Fishback is a teenage dealer and aspiring rapper (apparently rap is part of the storytelling). Jamie Foxx is a former soldier whose daughter was taken. They team up to try to bring down the pills creators, while risking taking it to achieve that. It's written by the co-writer of Reeve's The Batman.

 

 

[Captain Kelsten]

IGN gave it 3 out of 10.

 

Quote

Netflix's Project Power misses the potentiality of its relevant themes and intriguing concept for an overwrought reconception of the superhero narrative. Directors Joost and Schulman have come a long way after their debut film, Catfish, but Project Power shows their ongoing learning curve. Fishback, Foxx, and Gordon-Levitt persevere through a thin script, delivering tiny fractions of resonance to a superhero concept left at the surface. The pacing drags through action set-pieces left obscured by messy compositions and limp, over-stylized visual choices. New Orleans, as the film’s setting, is wasted while the film’s gritty concept fails to deliver the desired intensity.

 

[SpagMasterSwift]

It’s shit...am I lying?

[Tequlia]

I...liked it... 

 

Funnily enough as I was watching it I knew it would be one of those many films I'm fine with but most aren't.  Yeah ok it was scrappy in places but I actually quite liked the general style and use of colours etc.

 

Clearly easily pleased!

[MechE]

I'm not saying it was good, but it wasn't bad either. I kinda of disagree with the IGN review in that to my mind it's much more interested in examining the intersection of race, class and power than it is in being a reconstruction of the superhero narrative. The leads put in decent performances, especially Fishback.

 

Again, I doubt anyone will be taking about this in a few months but I don't think it deserves to be lumped in with the real dross like The Old Guard and 6 Underground.

[deerokus]

The Old Guard is a lot better. 

[monkeydog]

4 hours ago, deerokus said:

The Old Guard is a lot better. 

 

Yikes. That's really not a recommendation for this.

[mushashi]

It's Netflix, set your expectations to none, makes their stuff more palatable.

 

I've watched a few of their originals now, the best being Aldi John Wick.

 

Which is pretty much my opinion of Netflix in general, it's like shopping at Aldi, fine for some value basic sustenance, just don't expect premium fine dining.

[Grobbelboy]

This was good. The plot is basic but cleverly detailed, the characters nicely fleshed-out. Above all the action is impressively executed and sharply edited. That shot from inside the glass tank is a particular highlight. The slightly underwhelming finale didn’t sour things. 
 

Best Netflix production of the year so far.

[JohnC]

Laughed at that reaction shot where random guy sees something unbelievable, mouth agape, and takes off his sunglasses. 
 

Just needed him to be holding a bottle of hooch for him to look back at. 

[yashiro]

This is pretty bad tbh. It takes too long to get going, the acting is bad and the plot is nonsense in a bad way. The only highlights are the VFX which are pretty good for this level of trash. (fire guy, giant blob guy, freezing woman). It just never gets interesting or exciting, which goes against what you're expecting really.

 

 

[Ry]

Watched this the other night. 

 

It wasn't anything good but it's definitely watchable. Yes the script is poor but it has some solid performances and is really well shot. 

 

5/10

[Vimster]

Watched this over the weekend, I reviewed it in the Rate The Last Film Out Of 5 thread: 

 

It's all about the concept: there's a new drug in town that gives the user special powers for a short period. Obviously there's a more sinister reason for this than mere mad shit. As far as the film goes it's more mad shit than sinister despite the directors' efforts. The superpowers make the basis for some flashy action yet the main motivation behind them is very, very formulaic; the good ideas used in the action don't feed back into the plot. And the action here is exciting with some superb CGI that blends well with reality on the whole, especially the bank-robber. Sadly the inter-personal drama, whilst initially promising much with an emphasis on Dominique Fishback's character's struggles as a black teenager trying to do the right thing, takes something of a back seat. Jamie Foxx's character similarly has some potential depth, a man stretching moral bounds for his own reasons. Probably the weakest lead in a dramatic sense was Joseph Gordon-Levitt's power-using cop, he barely gets a mild wrap on the knuckles for his actions. So what remains is a decent enough, exciting tale with great CG let down by characters and plot that don't live up to their full potential.

 

3/5

 

In essence a missed opportunity, but I guess they'd fall on the side of easily-digestible action, being Netflix and all. 

[Thor]

Well I enjoyed it. It's miles better than The Old Guard.

[Alex W.]

This probably needed to back in the oven for a while but it has its moments. Any movie that uses pistol shrimp as an object of awe deserves some credit.

[Steve McQueef]

What a strange film, like it was unsure if it wants to be a PG-13 action movie, or something darker and more adult. Except all the adult content has been neutered to be nice and non-objectionable. Even the gore was strangely dull and safe. 

 

Didn't hate it, though. 

 

I'm willing to forgive certain flaws, if I really like a movie's soundtrack. 

[Alex W.]

It sounded to me like it was temp scored with the Inception soundtrack for the most part, and a few of the other standards, and they replaced them with sound-alike versions.