"Project Power is another on of Netflix's many original superhero movies, but does it hold up?"--Bryson Saunders-Beckles, 10th grade
Project power is another one of netflix's many original superhero movies, but does it hold up?
Project Power was a movie that came out on August 14, 2020 on Netflix, with a budget of $85.1 million, and directed by Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman, and Screenwriter Mattson Tomlin. It takes place in New Orleans where a new drug called Power will give you a superpower for five minutes. The story follows a Power dealer named Robin, who deals to make money for her diabetic mother, Irene, and how her story intersects with Frank Shaver, a cop who buys Power to handle super powered criminals, and Art, a mysterious man, who knows a lot about Power, and who is attempting to shut down the operation. He’s also trying to get his daughter back, who has been kidnapped for her natural-born Power, which has been harvested for the drug.
The drug itself gives you superpowers for 5 minutes, but you don’t choose what your power is, and there is a chance you will die from taking it. Near the end of the movie, we learn that Art was part of a group of government agents that were the first super-powered people, and that he has the abilities of a pistol shrimp, which allows him to generate heat waves and make water hotter than the surface of the sun. (It’s complicated.) He uses this ability at the end of the movie to save the day, but he dies when he uses it. To which his daughter, Tracy, brought him back to live with her power. After that, he gives Robin the money for her Mom, and he and Tracy leave.
The movie itself was pretty cliche, by which I mean that it does a lot of things seen in other movies and shows. Things like, a drug that gives you superpowers? Check. Badass action hero who needs to save someone that he cares about (and sometimes about to think outside of the box to handle superpowered people)? Check. Giant conspiracy of bad guys who want to make money/bring humanity to its next evolutionary step/rule the world(?)/the government is involved(??)/the power to tear down nations(???) Check. To tell you the truth, the Power dealers seemed to say anything as long as they made money. Throughout the story, the idea is that there are superpowers, but no superheroes. We are instead thrown into a morality ambiguous story where we as the audience choose who is right. Does that sound familiar? It’s because it is. In the modern day and age, the public and entertainment seem obsessed with making superheroes feel realistic, whatever that means. You can’t really add realism to a story where your skin turns bulletproof from swallowing a pill the size of your fingernail that looks like a mix between a supernova, a dissolvable capsule, and a layer of car paint rolled into one that will set you back $500 a pill!
But enough about the bad guys, let’s get to the main characters: Art, Robin, and Frank. I’ll start with Frank. Out of all of the characters, Frank is by far my favorite. In the whole cast, he’s the one that feels most like a superhero. If you remember from earlier, he is a police officer that buys Power from Robin in order to properly handle Power-wielding criminals (even though it's illegal), and (at least to me) that feels pretty reasonable. It doesn’t hurt that his ability is bulletproof skin. Not to mention that he provides some of the movie's humor, and I like that.
Robin, the second main character and my second favorite, is a teenager dealing Power to help her diabetic Mom, Irene. You really get the feeling that she doesn’t want to do this, but she has to in order to pay for her Mom’s medicine, and that she has a talent in the form of rapping. You actually see into her life and care what happens to her and that Irene matters a lot to her. Throughout the movie, she develops a bond with the “main” main character, Art.
I don’t like Art. He kind of comes off as the anti-hero that we as the audience are supposed to care about, but we learn so little about him, that we don’t really develop an emotional connection to him or his daughter, Tracy, who was kidnapped by the bad guys because she has a natural born Power to heal. We see that he has PTSD flashbacks when she’s driving with Robin later in the movie, but that’s barely addressed, if at all. And when he first meets Robin, the first thing he does is: Step 1: Knock her out, Step 2: Put her in the trunk of his car and drive away to a discreet location, Step 3: Threaten to kill her AND her Mom, while she’s sobbing and scared for her life. This is the main character that we are supposed to sympathize with? This is who we are supposed to care about as the story progresses? But however much I could say he’s a bad person, he does have his moments. He DOES care about Robin, and throughout the film, tries to patch things up and do not the right thing in the moment, but what he thinks is the best thing in the moment. You do get the feeling that he’s lost a lot to the Power People and is just trying to get back what little he has left.
The fight scenes in the movie felt surprisingly underwhelming. The special effects look really good, but the fight scenes lacked a special kind of Oomph! that’s essential for a fight scene to look good and be exciting. The Power Pills only last 5 minutes per pill (though they get more power the more pills they take) and it's possible that you could explode from taking one if your body rejects it, so I kind of understand that the fight scenes are kind of short, but they just didn’t have flair. That’s a consistent problem that I have with the movie. It’s all style, no substance, and the messages that the film is trying to convey get lost in everything else.
Project Power would have been better as a TV Show, where the motivations of the villains and the heroes were expanded upon instead of condensed into such a short experience. The world could be expanded more (or at least better), and more powers could have been seen and elaborated on. More development for the characters as well to understand them better. The movie itself had a compelling premise, and characters that were enjoyable to watch, but it felt like the film held back, and that some elements of the plot felt forced, but I will admit that the budget might have something to do with that. Overall, 6/10. Not bad, just underwhelming. I think that the sequel will definitely be better, with character development and plot. For example, remember how Art was part of a government experiment to make super-powered people? Are the other ones alive? And if so, where are they now?
The drug itself gives you superpowers for 5 minutes, but you don’t choose what your power is, and there is a chance you will die from taking it. Near the end of the movie, we learn that Art was part of a group of government agents that were the first super-powered people, and that he has the abilities of a pistol shrimp, which allows him to generate heat waves and make water hotter than the surface of the sun. (It’s complicated.) He uses this ability at the end of the movie to save the day, but he dies when he uses it. To which his daughter, Tracy, brought him back to live with her power. After that, he gives Robin the money for her Mom, and he and Tracy leave.
The movie itself was pretty cliche, by which I mean that it does a lot of things seen in other movies and shows. Things like, a drug that gives you superpowers? Check. Badass action hero who needs to save someone that he cares about (and sometimes about to think outside of the box to handle superpowered people)? Check. Giant conspiracy of bad guys who want to make money/bring humanity to its next evolutionary step/rule the world(?)/the government is involved(??)/the power to tear down nations(???) Check. To tell you the truth, the Power dealers seemed to say anything as long as they made money. Throughout the story, the idea is that there are superpowers, but no superheroes. We are instead thrown into a morality ambiguous story where we as the audience choose who is right. Does that sound familiar? It’s because it is. In the modern day and age, the public and entertainment seem obsessed with making superheroes feel realistic, whatever that means. You can’t really add realism to a story where your skin turns bulletproof from swallowing a pill the size of your fingernail that looks like a mix between a supernova, a dissolvable capsule, and a layer of car paint rolled into one that will set you back $500 a pill!
But enough about the bad guys, let’s get to the main characters: Art, Robin, and Frank. I’ll start with Frank. Out of all of the characters, Frank is by far my favorite. In the whole cast, he’s the one that feels most like a superhero. If you remember from earlier, he is a police officer that buys Power from Robin in order to properly handle Power-wielding criminals (even though it's illegal), and (at least to me) that feels pretty reasonable. It doesn’t hurt that his ability is bulletproof skin. Not to mention that he provides some of the movie's humor, and I like that.
Robin, the second main character and my second favorite, is a teenager dealing Power to help her diabetic Mom, Irene. You really get the feeling that she doesn’t want to do this, but she has to in order to pay for her Mom’s medicine, and that she has a talent in the form of rapping. You actually see into her life and care what happens to her and that Irene matters a lot to her. Throughout the movie, she develops a bond with the “main” main character, Art.
I don’t like Art. He kind of comes off as the anti-hero that we as the audience are supposed to care about, but we learn so little about him, that we don’t really develop an emotional connection to him or his daughter, Tracy, who was kidnapped by the bad guys because she has a natural born Power to heal. We see that he has PTSD flashbacks when she’s driving with Robin later in the movie, but that’s barely addressed, if at all. And when he first meets Robin, the first thing he does is: Step 1: Knock her out, Step 2: Put her in the trunk of his car and drive away to a discreet location, Step 3: Threaten to kill her AND her Mom, while she’s sobbing and scared for her life. This is the main character that we are supposed to sympathize with? This is who we are supposed to care about as the story progresses? But however much I could say he’s a bad person, he does have his moments. He DOES care about Robin, and throughout the film, tries to patch things up and do not the right thing in the moment, but what he thinks is the best thing in the moment. You do get the feeling that he’s lost a lot to the Power People and is just trying to get back what little he has left.
The fight scenes in the movie felt surprisingly underwhelming. The special effects look really good, but the fight scenes lacked a special kind of Oomph! that’s essential for a fight scene to look good and be exciting. The Power Pills only last 5 minutes per pill (though they get more power the more pills they take) and it's possible that you could explode from taking one if your body rejects it, so I kind of understand that the fight scenes are kind of short, but they just didn’t have flair. That’s a consistent problem that I have with the movie. It’s all style, no substance, and the messages that the film is trying to convey get lost in everything else.
Project Power would have been better as a TV Show, where the motivations of the villains and the heroes were expanded upon instead of condensed into such a short experience. The world could be expanded more (or at least better), and more powers could have been seen and elaborated on. More development for the characters as well to understand them better. The movie itself had a compelling premise, and characters that were enjoyable to watch, but it felt like the film held back, and that some elements of the plot felt forced, but I will admit that the budget might have something to do with that. Overall, 6/10. Not bad, just underwhelming. I think that the sequel will definitely be better, with character development and plot. For example, remember how Art was part of a government experiment to make super-powered people? Are the other ones alive? And if so, where are they now?