Project Power Review: Netflix’s Limitless-like superhero movie flips fast

The idea behind the new Netflix movie Project power is incredibly potential. In the world of the movie, superpowers are not what you were born with, or you win through a bite from a radioactive spider. They come from pills that activate the user’s hidden power for five minutes. What’s more, no one knows what superpower they will have until they take the pill – at which point a few unlucky users just explode into a mess of blood and gut.

The height of taking the drug – called Power – is represented by deademis for a dream-wash splashes of color and cells that last for split seconds, an effect that is a handy metaphor for Project power even though. Directed by Catfish‘s Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman from a script by The Batman‘s Mattson Tomlin, Project powerThe burst of color comes from the central concept and the sense of Joost and Schulman. It’s bright and attractive, but it’s flashing fast. Tomlin’s idea is innovative, but the story he tells is tiring.

Project power main character Robin (Dominique Fishback) is a collection of clichés: She is a high school teacher and would be a rapist who treats drugs to take care of her sleeping mother. She works with Frank (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a cop, to help him keep track of who buys something, and to empower him. While the police continue to use force and distribution in the city, Frank sees the drugs as the playing field leveling against criminals, because it makes him bulletproof. And Art (Jamie Foxx), a mysterious former soldier, crashes into both of her lives when he kidnaps Robin in an attempt to reach the source of Power.

Their race to stop Power from spreading and destroying is quite formulaic. That’s the revelation that Art is looking for his abducted daughter, who immediately bonds him with the fatherless Robin. Meanwhile, Frank is forced to reckon with the fact that the police department may, in fact, be corrupt.

A few scenes and details stand out: the power of one character turns him into a version of the Human Torch, which makes him a deadly enemy, but also leaves him with heavy fires. Moreover, the superpowers receive an engaging resource: all forces are based in nature, mimicking an shell of an armadillo or a lizard’s ability to regenerate. But the standout moments are rare. Tomlin’s script almost ends up ignoring Power’s Restricted factor – the five-minute ticking clock and the idea of ​​achieving extraordinary abilities via pharmaceuticals – because the story juggles social commentary with superhero antics.

Project power takes place in New Orleans, and there are some vague references to Hurricane Katrina and the government’s bad emergency response, as well as the opioid crisis and the systemic disadvantages that Black women have. But they are only references – attempts at depth call by Robin’s fascial characterization. They are never extensively elaborated on the shallow introduction of the initial concepts. (It is worth noting that the directors, producers and writers of the film are all white.)

Joost and Schulman are happy, as such, that Project power is high on star rating, as is Fishback (easily the standout of HBOs The Deuce), Foxx, and (to a lesser extent) Gordon-Levitt make the caricatures they play out through extreme charisma. Fishback’s confidence gives her character a vitality that extends beyond her stereotypical background, and Foxx’s charm makes him a more captivating version of Liam Neeson’s schticky. Taken character.

A few inventively staged scenes help move things – one fight is fully seen through a window of slowly freezing glass – and the jittery camera work makes Project power feels more grim than its more mainstream counterparts. But the most interesting aspect of Power – the period when the drug was first released, when people with superpowers ran willy-nilly – is moved to a ‘six weeks later’ era. Power is meant to be uncontrollable, but the story takes place in a world most likely to find out. Almost everyone seems to already know what their power is, and how to use the pill effectively. Only a select few nameless peoples deal with the risk of explosion.

The end of Project power sets up a sequel, but this is the rare case where a prequel would be more valuable. The unpredictability of the film’s superpowers is what makes it new and interesting, however Project power launches into a part of the timeline that makes them meet in part. In a movie where the concept should be the thing, the stars end up saving the show, gliding over the script’s clumsy attempts to tackle race, and bringing enough star power to the screen to at least clear the head of secretly hiding the film.

Project power now streaming on Netflix.