Project Power

It’s rare in the days of the Marvel and DC Cinematic Universes to see a movie about superpowers that is an original story.

But screenwriter Mattson Tomlin (who is working on the new Batman movie) has penned a new Netflix film - Project Power - which comes from his mind rather than the pages of a hitherto unappreciated comic book or graphic novel.
Directors Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost take up his tale, set in New Orleans in a near future, where the city is battling a new drug problem - pills that give users a random superpower that lasts five minutes.

This is a particular problem for three reasons. Firstly, the Big Easy’s criminal fraternity are using them as performance enhancers - tilting bank raids and police chases in their favour. Secondly, as no one knows the first time they imbibe what power they are going to get, they are a danger to those willing to experiment. You could just as easily end up being a tragic story for the local news team as the next Spider-Man. Lastly, those wholesaling the pills may have slightly bigger plans than turning New Orleans ne’er do wells into anti-social versions of the Human Torch.

Into this troubled world comes ex-soldier Art (Jamie Foxx,) who ropes in Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s rogue cop, Frank, and teenage rapper/dealer Robin, portrayed by Dominique Fishback, to find his kidnapped child, who has apparently been taken by the shadowy forces behind the superpower epidemic.

Mattson has said his main influences in writing the film were Hitman drama Collateral (which also starred Foxx, alongside Tom Cruise), and 8 Mile - whose inspiration we can see in Fishback’s engaging performance as Robin - a smart teen who has only got involved in the underworld to help her sick mother. Art throughout must manage his motley crew (as Cruise’s hitman did with his taxi driver in Collateral) to keep them on track with his self-imposed mission.

And the script is something of a borrowed mish-mash of other films. There’s elements of Richard Linklater’s adaptation of A Scanner Darkly in there - albeit without the enjoyable bonkersness. Visually, The Usual Suspects gets nods. But it holds together and rattles along while giving us a showcase for its stars’ talents. Gordon-Levitt is a competent veteran of the quirky sci-fi and superhero films, having starred in Looper and The Dark Knight Rises, Foxx is a star whose potential fronting the genre has perhaps been overlooked since a botched outing as a Spider-Man villain. Fishback, meanwhile, is a talent we will see much more of in the coming years - and shows exactly why as Robin, arguably Project Power’s most endearing figure.

Ultimately, in its second half it slightly goes awry by ditching the engaging character moments and noirish sensibilities for the pulpy action you get in lesser superhero films - and Foxx’s hunt becomes somewhat circular. But there’s still more than enough here to entertain - and with its original premise, it’s an enjoyable step into the unknown, despite references cineastes will undoubtedly pick up on as pilfered from worthier classics.