I'm not sure how I feel about a superhero movie referencing Batman and Robin when that movie co-stars Robin (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, of "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012)) in another role and features an unrelated character (played by Dominique Fishback) also named Robin. Regardless, the concept of "Project Power" really does get at the crux of what's the matter with superhero movies; I'll give it that. Our culture is popping these things like the pills from "Limitless" (2011) these days--all for a fleeting high, to consume and distract with its momentary sense of animalistic invincibility. Some burn brightly for a time before drowning, or may be briefly bulletproof, others seem nearly invisible among all the other contenders, while still others simply bomb. Unfortunately, though, most of the rest of the narrative in this supernaturally-powered fix is worthlessly hackneyed. There's the father (Jamie Foxx) with "a very particular set of skills" searching for his taken daughter, the teenager slinging the dope to support her sick mother, and a diminutive and white Luke Cage as a cop trying to clean up his corrupt city's streets. The city this time is New Orleans, which provides an opportunity for parallels to Hurricane Katrina that are never well developed and seeming struggles to make work a pun out of the city's "Superdome" stadium. The only promising material in all of this isn't found in the superpowers, but with the teenage dealer's, Robin's, rapping.
A lot of these comic-book-type movies feature such meta narratives--part of the story being about the construction of the story. Clark Kent and Lois Lane are journalists for a newspaper that reports on Superman. The Green Hornet owns the rag that tells his story. Peter Parker snaps pictures of Spiderman's wrist-snapping for a tabloid, which is also why I think his last movie, "Spider-Man: Far From Home" (2019) is one of the best of its kind, as the photographer's nemesis there is a visual-effects technician in a battle for control of the web-slinger's story and public image. Even Netflix's last superhero feature, "The Old Guard" (2020), had a team of supes whose immortality wrote history--even if all of it was disappointingly reduced to a guy's crazy board. And so it is here, as Robin not only provides the others their superpowers by selling them the pills, but she also tells of those powers through rap. On the plus side, this gives us a mid-credits scene that actually compliments that plot, of the character as the writer of the very movie she's in, without selling us a proposed sequel or making a stupid joke. Yet, just taking a word to construct an entire superhero movie doesn't necessarily make for much of a rhyme.
Soundtracks have become increasingly important in the genre, to the point that music has become the meta narrative. "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2004) incorporated its pop score into scenes via Starlord's Walkman. Netflix's "The Umbrella Academy" series did similarly its first season, including with its main character being a violinist. And so we have a rapper, here, in a movie with a cast featuring musicians (Foxx, Colson Baker, even Gordon-Levitt, apparently) and a score with some rap and other popular music. Unfortunately, they don't compliment the visuals very well. The MCU standard has the supes fighting--sometimes in long takes--to such tunes, but "Project Power" has few such scenes, and the music isn't prominent or relevant in the ones it does have. Instead, we get Foxx wrestling with CGI in one and posing with it in another, while someone must think photographing Gordon-Levitt from behind as he runs down a corridor carrying a shotgun looks cool because he did the same thing, among other similarities between the two roles, in "The Dark Knight Rises." Oh well, at least "Project Power" satisfies that superhero movie fix for now.
A lot of these comic-book-type movies feature such meta narratives--part of the story being about the construction of the story. Clark Kent and Lois Lane are journalists for a newspaper that reports on Superman. The Green Hornet owns the rag that tells his story. Peter Parker snaps pictures of Spiderman's wrist-snapping for a tabloid, which is also why I think his last movie, "Spider-Man: Far From Home" (2019) is one of the best of its kind, as the photographer's nemesis there is a visual-effects technician in a battle for control of the web-slinger's story and public image. Even Netflix's last superhero feature, "The Old Guard" (2020), had a team of supes whose immortality wrote history--even if all of it was disappointingly reduced to a guy's crazy board. And so it is here, as Robin not only provides the others their superpowers by selling them the pills, but she also tells of those powers through rap. On the plus side, this gives us a mid-credits scene that actually compliments that plot, of the character as the writer of the very movie she's in, without selling us a proposed sequel or making a stupid joke. Yet, just taking a word to construct an entire superhero movie doesn't necessarily make for much of a rhyme.
Soundtracks have become increasingly important in the genre, to the point that music has become the meta narrative. "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2004) incorporated its pop score into scenes via Starlord's Walkman. Netflix's "The Umbrella Academy" series did similarly its first season, including with its main character being a violinist. And so we have a rapper, here, in a movie with a cast featuring musicians (Foxx, Colson Baker, even Gordon-Levitt, apparently) and a score with some rap and other popular music. Unfortunately, they don't compliment the visuals very well. The MCU standard has the supes fighting--sometimes in long takes--to such tunes, but "Project Power" has few such scenes, and the music isn't prominent or relevant in the ones it does have. Instead, we get Foxx wrestling with CGI in one and posing with it in another, while someone must think photographing Gordon-Levitt from behind as he runs down a corridor carrying a shotgun looks cool because he did the same thing, among other similarities between the two roles, in "The Dark Knight Rises." Oh well, at least "Project Power" satisfies that superhero movie fix for now.