Project Power

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback, Rodrigo Santoro, Courtney B. Vance, Amy Landecker, Machine Gun Kelly, Tait Fletcher, Allen Maldonado
Directed by: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Science Fiction
2020

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: In New Orleans, a new drug hits the streets- and it gives people superpowers for 5 minutes.

Review:

Tim: I wanted to like Project Power. The idea of a non-Marvel, non-DC superpowers movie was intriguing, and since I didn't know anything about it, it showed up on Netflix out of the blue. Unfortunately, like 2020 as a whole, this movie is a disappointment. There might be some decent ideas here, but you don't turn to the directors of Paranormal Activity 3 and Paranormal Activity 4 when you're looking for someone to flawlessly execute your film. Now, this movie is decent- there's definitely some things to like about. However, you can't claim this is an especially good film. It's deeply flawed and ultimately disappointing.

The idea here is an interesting one. What if there was a pill that gave you superpowers for 5 minutes? I really like the idea and there's so many intriguing places to take this. Unfortunately, the movie completely botched this idea. It didn't explain things nearly well enough, so much of the film was confusing to me. Early on, I was asking, "Did people get the same powers every single time?" "What's the deal with the people who die? Is that just some people can't handle the pill, or could someone who takes several all of a sudden die?" These are important questions that the movie just glosses over. It was really aggravating trying to figure this out on your own. Some of the questions get answered eventually, but others I still felt confused about when the film ended. It makes it seem like the story wasn't well thought out. There's myriad script issues, but you also have to ding the directors for this. The whole movie has this feeling- like it's a poorly explained, poorly defined story. There's too many interesting questions that go unanswered and unexplored.

The cast is definitely a plus, which helps. I mostly felt bad that the movie around them wasn't better. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was a standout and I feel for him that he delivered such a strong performance in a film that didn't rise to his level. His accent, the coolness of his character, it all just worked. Gordon-Levitt is an especially talented actor and he made this movie better with every scene. He's good enough to almost warrant seeing this movie for him alone (I did say almost). Jamie Foxx adds in a respectable performance. He's a solid actor and was enjoyable here. I don't think he did anything fantastic, nor was his character given enough to do. The "dad in search of his missing daughter" thing has been done so many times before and many others have done it better than him. Still, Foxx is good and it was fun watching his scenes with JGL. Dominique Fishback was decent. There were moments when her performance worked really well, and there were moments when I seriously questioned her acting ability. As a whole, her performance left a good deal to be desired. Rodrigo Santoro was fine, but he didn't get much to do outside of one small scene. I always love seeing Courtney B. Vance and he was enjoyable in his small role. I'm still very unconvinced about the acting ability of Machine Gun Kelly, and I never recognize him until I see his name in the credits afterwards. His scene was pretty cool, but he was unremarkable. As a whole, the cast might not have been great, but it was good- and certainly the strongest aspect of the film.

The visual effects were fine. They aren't up to the level of a Marvel or DC film, but I don't think anyone was expecting that here. They don't detract from the story. There's not much originality in any of the powers, so the whole movie banks on you being wowed by the "five minutes" part of the power. This works far less effectively than the movie imagines. The timing was so convenient that you just groaned at various points in the movie. Five minutes can seem so long, unless of course, you need someone's powers to wear off at a specific moment. The whole thing felt forced.

I'm obviously a superhero fan, so I liked the idea of this smaller scale film exploring a story about a pill that gives people superpowers for five minutes. Unfortunately, the execution was lacking. I know I've been complaining a lot here, but Project Power is a decent movie. It was fun to see something outside the mainstream comic publishers and I did appreciate the attempt to do something different. The story was weak, but Gordon-Levitt and Foxx were fun together. This movie might not be the the most intelligent, but it offers a few occasionally thrills. You can do worse here. However, I was hoping this would have been a good movie and it's not quite there.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



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