Dumb titles aside, Project Power is a film that doesn’t fully realize its potential. It’s not a terrible film, but it never rises above being okay. While I wasn’t over the moon excited for the film, I feel it should have been better than what we got. There was so much potential with its plot, but it was wasted, mainly due to a script that needed more work.
The film takes place in New Orleans and follows a drug dealer, a police officer, and a former soldier who team up to stop the distribution of a pill that gives the user superpowers for five minutes, with the catch being that you don’t know the power you get until you take the pill.
That was to be the most exciting part of the film. The not knowing what power the character who took the pill would get, had me on the edge of my seat. Some of the skills were better than others, and we get glimpses of how abusing the pill can damage your body, which I dug a lot.
The film directed by the duo of Henry Joost and Ariel Schuman, known for Catfish: The Movie, Paranormal Activity 3 & 4, and Nerve (which stylistically is what this film resembles the most). They have been known to make obscure premises work, and for the most part, they do a stable job here, since they didn’t have a hand in the screenplay, the film’s issues don’t fall on them.
The hook of the film is the power pill. Unfortunately, we only see the powers get used about seven times in almost 2 hours. The times we see the powers get used, the duo directed the hell out of those scenes. They have always shown to be stylish directors, and they do this once again as the fight scenes are excellent and extremely violent.
The script by Mattson Tomlin was a mixed bag. As I stated, the film doesn’t reach its potential, and that comes down to the script. It’s predictable in areas, and it’s like he had this great hook but didn’t know how to expand on it entirely. If his execution was just a bit better, this could have turned out to be the first great sci-fi Netflix original.
His script tackled issues of a drug epidemic and how with great power comes great responsibility, and it does it in a non-cliche way. Some of the themes he decided to tackle, such as systemic racism, might seem too heavy-handed for some, but I feel he did it just right without it being in your face. I’m glad that he isn’t writing The Batman script by himself as that would have had me scared based on his work here.
The film also has a subplot with Jamie Foxx’s character looking for his daughter, who was kidnapped by the corporation behind the pill, and I felt that part of the plot was so generic and something we’ve seen done many times before and done a lot better.
The film’s pacing and editing needed a lot of work as the film is 113 minutes, and that’s about 15 minutes too long. With some trimming, the film could have been so much better. There are some scenes that went on for too long. The first act was great at setting up the plot, and the second act did an excellent job at forwarding the story, although it’s the section that could have used trimming the most. The third act was underwhelming and a very generic action film. The film also has tonal issues, with the film balancing many tones and a storyline in a noncoherent way.
The film’s budget was $85 million, and I feel a lot of it went to the salary of Foxx and Gordon-Levitt as the film’s hook wasn’t used enough to justify such a high budget. Thankfully, when we see the hook, the VFX department shines. The power sequences that rely on them are eye-opening and amazing. The best VFX I’ve seen a Netflix film ever have. Specifically, a scene with an invisible man is mesmerizing and one of the best scenes I’ve seen all year.
Jamie Foxx gives one of his better performances in a while and is immensely entertaining. His character is a former ex-soldier, and the film allows him many moments to show that he is a badass. It also knew how to use Jamie’s charisma. The film allows him many moments to be funny, which isn’t hard for him as we’ve seen for decades how great he is at comedy. The role seems like a mix of his characters in Baby Driver and Horrible Bosses.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is excellent as usual. I liked this performance a lot more here than his comeback one earlier this summer in 7500. He is very likable in the role and seems to be the only good cop in the film. He was the most compelling character for me, as despite being a good cop, we see him battle the dilemma of playing by the rules or take the pill himself to even the odds with the criminals. He takes a bit of a back seat in the first 40 minutes but plays big-time in that last hour.
Dominique Fishback, who I’ve seen in The Hate U Give, Night Comes On, and The Deuce steal the film. She was great and delivered a star-making turn. I loved seeing her on-screen as many of my favorite scenes and lines include her. She makes us care and root for her character off the bat while also being very charismatic, balancing it with her emotional weight. She does the best with her character as part of it has the cliche trait of being the annoying teenager never listening to adults, but it’s a testament to Dominique’s talent that she makes her character a stand out. She had great chemistry with both Foxx and Gordon-Levitt and stepped it up big time opposite those veterans, stealing the movie from them.
Rodrigo Santoro and Amy Landecker as the villains were severely wasted and one-note. I’ve seen Rodrigo be so much better in other projects such as 300 and Redbelt, so I was hoping to see him relish in being the villain in a film like this, but he is so forgetful. He comes off like many Latino criminals we’ve seen in the past. Despite being the real big baddie, Landecker is rarely in the film, and when she finally does show up, she doesn’t impress one bit, being very painted by the numbers. Their characters suffer from one of the most significant issues superhero films do, that the villains tend not to be as fleshed out or compelling as the heroes.
Speaking of severely wasted actors, nobody suffers from it worse than the great Courtney B. Vance. I had no idea he was in this film, and when he appeared, I got happy because he’s shown countless times, especially in The People v. O.J. Simpson, how great of an actor he is. In the first act of the film, he shows up as Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s superior but never shows up again. Having an actor of his caliber in your cast and being excellent to one of the lead actors should have been done with him.
Machine Gun Kelly isn’t in the film as much as I expected, but he impressed me in his short run time. One of the powers he gets to possess is flame on, and it brought a smile to my face as I’m a huge Human Torch fan. That sequence was terrific as it’s a great example of the pills’ wrong effects as he becomes uncontrollable. His character, despite not being in it much, is essential to the overall story.
Despite my issues with the film, I feel this is a better stab at the superhero genre than The Old Guard was, they are both films that needed a lot more work, but Netflix is slowing moving in the right direction at tackling the genre.
