Julien Neaves – Editor
Imagine taking a pill that is two parts Taken, one part X-Men and just a dash of 8 Mile and you would experience new Netflix superpower flick Project Power. Here’s my spoiler free review.
The film, directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, tells the story of ex-soldier Art (Mr Cool himself Jamie Foxx) searching for his daughter in a modern day New Orleans where there is a pill called “Power” that gives people various special abilities for five minutes. Get it? Power gives you powers? You get it. In his quest Art runs into a Power-popping, play-by-his-own-rules cop Frank (the always fun Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and young aspiring rapper and small time Power dealer Robin (Dominique Fishback in a breakout performance).
First the good stuff. Foxx and JGL are both solid in their roles though both their characters could have used some more development. But the highlight of this film is easily Fishback. Sidekicks in these movies can tend to be annoying and grating but she was charming and likeable. And I could watch an entire movie with her freestyle rapping. A 9 Mile if you will.
I also liked the variety in the special abilities which feature in some pretty sweet action scenes. The visual effects were decent enough.
Other than the three mains the other characters are pretty forgettable, with the villains especially being flatter than steamrolled cardboard. And the plot never delves into whether one should or should not be using the pill, a plot point which would have added some depth to the proceedings. Here Power is just for style and not substance.
This is the third recent Netflix action film featuring people with special abilities; the others are Code 8 and The Old Guard. And while Project Power has more fun with the abilities aspect than these other two it similarly lacks that extra depth and stronger writing to take it to the next level. So while it is enjoyable, somewhat rewatchable, and way better than crap like Bright the Powers That Be could have put in a little more effort to make Project Power more, well, powerful.
Rating: 6 out of 10
For more super power action and a Quick Bite review of Bloodshot you can click here.
Julien Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by Freddy Krueger, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film, creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like “12 flavours of awesome sauce”. I can also be found posting Redmangoreviews stuff on Instagram as redmanwriter, and talking about TV and movie stuff on Facebook at Movieville.