Anna Daniels
The comment might read like a swipe at Dark Phoenix, particularly for those who actually enjoyed the film. (It earned a 23 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which means that this translated to “a pretty darn small group of people.”) But Boone’s comment was merely an acknowledgment of what the critics said about Dark Phoenix, and his confidence in New Mutants is about more than the X-Men: The Last Stand do-over being a dud. It’s also based on how well New Mutants has performed with the handful of people who have actually seen it. “Honestly, I feel less pressure now than I did ahead of [the first slated release date],” Boone said. “Because we’ve tested our movie so many times, and audiences have loved it.”
Knate Lee, who co-wrote the comic-book adaptation’s script with Boone, agrees with the director about the team feeling less pressure to blow audiences away after they’ve had to wait so long. But he points to a different superhero tent-pole film, both in terms of its success and its different approach, as a source of anxiety relief regarding New Mutants reception, according to SyfyWire.
“In a weird way, I think the delay’s been good for us,” Lee told Empire. “Last year, I saw the most epic, grand-scale superhero movie ever [Avengers: Endgame]. You can’t go bigger than that. So, it feels like the perfect time for a superhero movie that’s more intimate and claustrophobic.”
General audiences will have to wait once again before they can decide whether New Mutants outshines Dark Phoenix, but for now, it appears that at least one thing was able to rise from the ashes of Fox’s X-Men franchise.
Written by: Looper
