Anyone see New Mutants this weekend?

[Cyke]

There are a few things I didn't like about it, but overall I enjoyed it more than any non-Deadpool X-movie since X2.

As for the risk to health, I generally interact more with strangers when I buy groceries than I do when I see movies. I was not worried.

The thing is, grocery stores tend to have more circulated air pumping in/out, along with steady and moving traffic. Theaters are enclosed, puts people in close proximity and a stationary position for 2 hours, masks constantly coming off to eat/drink, and often times more droplets going up in the air (from laughing or gasping, or other reactions to the film itself; or even just routine coughing at a theater) with not-great air circulation. For theaters, it's more about the cumulative danger of built up exposure in a closed space rather than the number of potential carriers. So watching a movie in a theater brings the same risk as eating indoors at a restaurant. It's safer to go grocery shopping than to watch a movie or eat at a restaurant indoors.

Plus then, there's the possibility of someone being an asymptomatic carrier -- if you're asymptomatic, you may not be in danger but you'd potentially be putting others in danger. In a grocery store, people are always on the move and so they'll be leaving your vicinity with no problem. In a movie theater, you could be sitting with a 5 seat-radius from the next viewer but those droplets have nowhere to go aside from the rest of the theater, and no one is moving in that theater.

And, above all else, movie theaters have the financial incentive to pack theaters as much as possible. They may enforce social distancing, but there's nothing really stopping them from making those gaps smaller and smaller to fit more people in as time goes on. They're going to gradually prioritize income over viewer health.

I'd be curious to see how much Bill & Ted made this weekend over VOD (currently #1 in iTunes). In theaters it made $1 million, and I don't think anyone forecasted it to beat New Mutants, but if it made a profit in VOD in the ballpark of New Mutants did in theaters, it would say something about the audience's preference of playing it safe.

[Noodle]

And, above all else, movie theaters have the financial incentive to pack theaters as much as possible. They may enforce social distancing, but there's nothing really stopping them from making those gaps smaller and smaller to fit more people in as time goes on. They're going to gradually prioritize income over viewer health.

The same could be said of any retailer. If you don't think that these big box stores are pushing the limit of how many people are allowed in their store at once in order to maximize profits, you're kidding yourself.

I get people are uncomfortable going to a movie, and I respect that. But theaters aren't doing anything worse than every other retailer that's re-opened (or in some cases, never closed).

[titanfan]

You shouldn't take any risks you're not comfortable with doing. But if word of mouth is any indication, theaters (right now) are probably safer than tons of other places. That doesn't mean things won't change in the next few weeks, but if you're already going out for grocery shopping/gym/church/small gatherings with friends--right now things are way safer.

[MyriVerse]

The thing is, grocery stores tend to have more circulated air pumping in/out, along with steady and moving traffic. Theaters are enclosed, puts people in close proximity and a stationary position for 2 hours, masks constantly coming off to eat/drink, and often times more droplets going up in the air (from laughing or gasping, or other reactions to the film itself; or even just routine coughing at a theater) with not-great air circulation. For theaters, it's more about the cumulative danger of built up exposure in a closed space rather than the number of potential carriers. So watching a movie in a theater brings the same risk as eating indoors at a restaurant. It's safer to go grocery shopping than to watch a movie or eat at a restaurant indoors.

Close proximity is pretty much my main point. In the groceries, people bump into me constantly. In the theaters, I tend to never come within 20 feet of another person, except the ticket lady (tends to be female). And the air circulation is about the same.

[Cyke]

The same could be said of any retailer. If you don't think that these big box stores are pushing the limit of how many people are allowed in their store at once in order to maximize profits, you're kidding yourself.

I get people are uncomfortable going to a movie, and I respect that. But theaters aren't doing anything worse than every other retailer that's re-opened (or in some cases, never closed).

I didn't say other retailers weren't doing that, but other retailers can do things that movie theaters can't. That's a big difference. If you allow more and more people into, say, a big box store, at the very least you still have a larger/more complex ventilation system, the constant opening of the main and cargo doors for natural air flow, and steady traffic. Theaters do not have those options. Plus, big box stores tend to have more staff to monitor/enforce distance. Theaters already had much fewer staff pre-pandemic, and cut their workforce drastically during it.

There's a reason why drive-in theaters are making a comeback. It's the best of both worlds.

But it also has to be said that the reason why outlets aren't sending critics to movies isn't because of preconceived quality of the movies, it's a safety risk where they're not going to monetize the health of their own staff. They also need to make money, too, but it goes to show how different businesses must adapt -- but there's a fine line between trying to make a profit and the number of people you're willing to put at risk. Even writers willing to brave the risk are forbidden by their outlets because then that would be rewarding health risk unnecessarily.

And the air circulation is about the same.

No, it is not. Air circulation is more than just the vents (to which grocery and big box stores have more of anyway because of food containment needs), but also the doors and traffic that people themselves produce. In a theater, you're several doors away from natural outside wind, and those doors are always closed.

Without that outside air, droplets can recirculate in the same space with recycled air. Part of the reason for the original outbreak was because during cold months with closed doors, the path of infection in restaurants mapped perfectly to the internal heating/air conditioning paths -- that is, diners sitting in those paths were at a greater rate of infection than those sitting between currents.

The AV Club on movie theater safety

(Also, if folks are bumping into you in a grocery store, you have every right to tell them about social distancing. Put your foot down!)

[sunofdarkchild]

I will grant you that most of the other characters had very little character development, and what we did get was mostly what traumatized them when their powers first manifested. Sam and Roberto especially felt thin. I didn't mind that they were almost all defined by their relationship to Dani, since she was our POV character into this world.

I never read New Mutants growing up, and looking at them now I have a hard time because I really don't like the artwork. So I really didn't mind the changes made to the characters. I especially liked Illyana's tweaked origins, as well as a new origin for Lockheed.

The new origin for Illyana is perhaps the worst change they made. Her origin is what gives her all of her depth and the explanation for her powers. Literally everything that defines her as a character is gone and all that it is replaced with is 'she needs to learn to not be mean.' And it's actually more confusing than leaving her origin untouched would have been, because at the end of the movie we still don't know what her powers are. Her mutant power is making a lightsaber and armor over one arm? If she can teleport, why does she always act like she's trapped with everybody else? Now she can create entire dimensions with her mind? Why does she have that kind of power and how is anything a threat if she can warp reality like that? Even her 'so am I' line is just nonsense without the context the movie never tries to provide. What they did is basically the same as trying to do Batman without having his parents shot or Superman without him coming from a dead world. She's Illyana in name only with only the most superficial similarities to the actual character.

[Noodle]

If she can teleport, why does she always act like she's trapped with everybody else?

The same reason Reyes gave Sam. Illyana admitted to killing 8 people. If she teleported out of there she'd still be a wanted fugitive constantly on the run. I mean, yeah, she could teleport to Limbo and live there, but based on what we saw of it it doesn't really look like the best place to live.

[MyriVerse]

The new origin for Illyana is perhaps the worst change they made. Her origin is what gives her all of her depth and the explanation for her powers. Literally everything that defines her as a character is gone and all that it is replaced with is 'she needs to learn to not be mean.' And it's actually more confusing than leaving her origin untouched would have been, because at the end of the movie we still don't know what her powers are. Her mutant power is making a lightsaber and armor over one arm? If she can teleport, why does she always act like she's trapped with everybody else? Now she can create entire dimensions with her mind? Why does she have that kind of power and how is anything a threat if she can warp reality like that? Even her 'so am I' line is just nonsense without the context the movie never tries to provide. What they did is basically the same as trying to do Batman without having his parents shot or Superman without him coming from a dead world. She's Illyana in name only with only the most superficial similarities to the actual character.

Well, this really isn't Yana's story. It's Dani's story. They didn't delve too much into Yana's history, but from what we see, it's largely the same as the comics. We get that she has a "Special place" that feels a lot like Limbo with demon thingies in it. That's pretty much it.

As for teleporting away, it's possible that Reyes' forcefield kept her in, as well. Forcefields do that sometimes.

[sunofdarkchild]

Well, this really isn't Yana's story. It's Dani's story. They didn't delve too much into Yana's history, but from what we see, it's largely the same as the comics. We get that she has a "Special place" that feels a lot like Limbo with demon thingies in it. That's pretty much it.

As for teleporting away, it's possible that Reyes' forcefield kept her in, as well. Forcefields do that sometimes.

It would be nice if they bothered to explain any of that. And Limbo is not her 'special place.' It's her personal hell and responsibility and the reason her life was ruined.

It's not the same as the comics at all. In the comics she's a demon sorceress whose was kidnapped and had her soul mutilated and spent 7 years literally in hell before returning seconds later. Her story was about whether she could use power power that was inherently evil in nature in order to do good and whether she could avoid becoming just like the person who abused her for so many years. She created the soul sword at a crucial moment when she had the realization that she could never be the person she wanted to be. Even the parts about her being a killer were wrong. When she joined the New Mutants the only people she had killed were 2 people she had in fact loved, and she only killed them to save them from an even worse fate and it killed her inside to do it. When she finally beat Belasco, the man responsible for literally everything bad that ever happened to her, she decided to let him go rather than to kill him in anger. When people were scared of her, it had nothing to do with her being mean or saying mean things, it was because she was aloof and being stuck in Limbo for 7 years left her unable to understand how to interact with people on earth for a while and so she seemed strange.

If this was comics accurate, the roles would be all changed. Illyana would be the outsider who didn't fit in instead of Dani and the one who was the mystery again instead of Dani. Rahne would be the bitch to Illyana instead of Illyana being the bitch to Dani since her religious upbringing made her instantly detest the witch. And Dani would be more like Rahne was in the movie.

Yes. This was Dani's movie, and that was their first big mistake. The mystery surrounding her did not come together and they focused so much on her that they didn't try to make it a true ensemble piece like they should have. Many of the X-Men films get justified criticism for focusing too much on Wolverine or Mystique to the detriment of the other characters, but this was more egregious. Most of those movies manage to at least give a couple of other characters the proper focus and at least have a complete arc for more than one character even if there wasn't enough screentime devoted to that arc. And this is not to say anything against Blu Hunt's acting, but the character as written was not able to carry a movie the way Wolverine is.

[MyriVerse]

The Demon Bear could have worked, and I think it's an excellent place to start, but they didn't nail the ending. I was left feeling that it wasn't so much a Demon Bear as just Dani acting out her frustrations, which is a bad thing for it to be. It might have helped if the Dani actor had more experience under her belt. I don't think she was capable.

I was not really expecting an ensemble. Not with these characters. You could do a whole movie on each of them. Frankly, ensembles are for tv series with more than 15 episodes to work with, not <2-hour movies.

Limbo is very much Yana's special place. "Special" does not mean what you might think it does. We did get a glimpse of this place and it was certainly hellish.

[AnakinFlair]

Huh. I don't get rushing out to see this. I was curious, and interested when it was being made. But if the studio didn't think it was actually worth releasing, even as a Feb dump, then why would I potentially risk my health to go see it now? It is literally only being released because that had it sitting there and needed content.

None of the studios behavior on this one should really be rewarded, and certainly not at the risk of my health, and the potential health of others.

(not to kink shame anyone who went, but... like, whyyyyyy?)

I went to a 2:15 Sunday afternoon showing at my local dine-in cinema in the recliner theater, which had the fewest seats already. I was in contact with more people when I went out with my parents to Rib City, so I really wasn't worried.

[Beaubier]

The theater I went to had installed a plasma air purification system in every auditorium.. so, there’s that.

[Flash Gordon]

From what I understand, it was contractually obligated to be released theatrically first. But that deal was made well before the pandemic struck, otherwise it would have been released VOD like Bill & Ted.

Ah okay, I'll have to wait for it to be on VOD.

Is it more in the vein of LOGAN than the typical superhero flick? That's what I've been hoping for, especially since it's probably the last opportunity for a Marvel movie like that.

[WebLurker]

Was surprised to see all the negative reviews; thought it was pretty good. Not a game-changer, but a solid cast in a story that tries to do something new with the genre. Certainly better then the past few X-Men flicks (that does seem to be a pattern since Days of Future Past; the main movies are weak or bad, while the spinoffs are great).

[Joker]

My point wasn't whether theaters are safer than grocery stores or restaurants.

My point was why would anyone risk their health at all for a movie the studio deemed not worth releasing FOR YEARS. Literal years this movie sat around being not worth releasing. And that's something you're willing to risk your health for? That's fucking crazy to me.