Review: Project Power
To many, having superpowers sounds like the dream, right? Countless superhero movies one after the other have made us wish we could fly high like Superman or shoot webs like Spidey. However, it could be that superpowers aren’t as glamorous as they seem. Are they something we actually want or need? The new Netflix exclusive Project Power explores exactly that question. Set in New Orleans in a possibly-near future, pills, known as ‘Power’, are being distributed around the city. Take the pill and you get an ability for five minutes. However, people can easily overdose on it as well, proving that there’s still such a thing as too much power.
Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman direct the picture, working together on other past-successful films like Paranormal Activity 3 and 4, Catfish, and Nerve. Joost and Schulman enjoy making films that explore themes on technology, its power, or how people abuse it. One can see these same themes emerge in Project Power.
Project Power released on August 14, 2020. Since the following day, it’s been soaring on Netflix’s Daily Top 10. It’s received mixed reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, hitting in the 50-60 percentile. Just like a lot of action films, they’re not for everyone. However, regardless if one likes those films or not, everyone should at least attempt to watch this film. Not being an action film enthusiast myself, my interest wasn’t all there when I pressed play. Fifteen minutes later, I’m on the edge of my seat with my eyes glued to the screen.
He’s known as ‘The Major’ around town, but his name is Art. Former soldier and still hiding parts of himself, he’s on a search to find his daughter, who was kidnapped for reasons unknown to the audience. Teenage Robin Reilly has dreams of becoming a rap star. However, she puts those dreams on hold so she can deal Power to pay for her sick mother’s surgery. Finally, there’s Frank, a cop who also takes Power. These three characters all lead different lives, but they come together to track down the source of Power. They aim to put an end to the destruction this pill has laid to their city.
There’s one thing that makes the film really stand out from others in its genre. Power acts as a metaphor for drugs. Behind the development of the pill are the government and the rich. They reveal that they want to enhance human life to make money and recruit potential soldiers. So, they target low-income and marginalized communities of New Orleans. Even though the people in the community may think they’re winning some type of luxury, they’re practically being used as test subjects for an unauthorized, defective substance.
The special effects for the film already enhance the film’s diverse premise. There’s a fight scene between Art and Power dealer Newt. It’s the first time we see the pill put to use. Netflix released a behind the scenes video of how the crew portrayed one of the superpowers that is also worth the watch.
Jamie Foxx takes on another action role, which he’s had success with in the past. Joseph Gordon-Levitt returns into the spotlight again after a few years. However, even with these famous names, the true star of the film is newcomer Dominique Fishback, who plays Robin. Unlike most teenage characters, Robin is not a cliché. Part of that may be in the way Robin is written, but it’s primarily in Fishback’s portrayal. She brings a different energy to the character, which will make audiences better sympathize and relate to her even more.
Some of it plays into the action film stereotypes. For example, audiences learn that Art’s on the search for his daughter. Audiences then understand that his hard persona actually stems from paternal love. The character motivation feels a little overused at this point as one can already generally expect what’s going to happen. However, Robin, who could have fallen into the ‘troubled teen’ archetype, proves herself to be the leading hero in the film.
For the most part, regardless, the film definitely holds its own. It’s fast-paced enough to keep one interested, but not too fast to make one confused. In less than the first ten minutes of the film, audiences already know most of what they need to know about the Power pill.
Credit is due to screenwriter Mattson Tomlin. Audiences will see more of Tomlin’s work in the future. Had his name put on the map when it was confirmed that he was writing with Matt Reeves on the highly-anticipated DC comics film The Batman. He’s also set to write the screenplay for the film adaption of the video game Mega Man. Seeing the different route Tomlin took with this film, one should be curious as to how he’ll bend the story with an anti-hero like Batman or a nostalgic character like Mega Man.
Even though he is a white man, Tomlin felt it necessary to incorporate the story of a young black girl. He told The Hollywood Reporter, "I realized that there were very few — alarmingly few — big, fun action movies that had young Black women at the center." He stated in another interview, “we put together a rip reel at one point and it was really hard to find like young black girls in action scenes. Like it’s not something that you see and I think that’s wrong. […] For me, there’s an opportunity to use and kind of weaponize my privilege of being the straight white guy that Hollywood wants to boom up and to go okay, I’m going to use this opportunity to tell this story the way that I’m telling it. And hopefully, that will clear the path so that more people can do the same, because if Project Power works then it’s kind of like – it’s another reference for more movies to come after it.”
Though Tomlin cannot truly write the story of a Black woman, he still makes a good point. Tomlin recognizes the struggles of being a Black woman and how they differ from his. In the film, Art tells Robin, “You’re young, you’re Black, you’re a woman. The system is designed to swallow you whole. You gotta find out what you do better than anybody else and rock that.” It’s a powerful line of the film. One can tell Robin fills with a sense of being understood. Even Frank, no matter how nice he is to her, also just needs to get his Power from her. He does not see the potential in her as much as Art does.
Project Power isn’t the greatest film, but it’s still an excitable watch. If you’re not gripped by the plot and underlying message of the film, you might then be invested by the intense action sequences, special effects, and visuals. Nonetheless, in a time where superheroes tend to be the stars of action films and the media praises the idea of superpowers, it’s thought-provoking to see the nonexistence of superheroes in a world full of powers. In actuality, the film comments of the dangers in rising technology. It can villainize us if we give it the power to do so.
