By Quinn Marcus

Project Power

(2020)

Age: 14+

50/100: Sour

“So the question is, what’s your power? Could be good, could be bad. No one knows.” Project Power was directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, directors of Paranormal Activity 3 and Paranormal Activity 4. What would you do with five minutes of pure power? When a pill that gives you unpredictable superpowers for five minutes hits the streets of New Orleans. An ex-soldier must team up with a teen dealer and a cop to take it down. What a cool concept, am I right? I had some expectations for this movie and came out disappointed in what it had to offer. Project Power is a film that takes itself very seriously, but it’s actually pretty ridiculous, my flaws?

1. The script and story. As I said before, the concept is very interesting, but the way it was handled was pretty crappy. Sure it had a few decently written scenes, but overall the dialogue sounded like gibberish I didn’t care about. I didn’t feel much for pretty much any of the characters in the movie. And the story felt like an incomplete project that needed more time to develop. Maybe it could have been a better tv show instead, it would have been given a bigger chance to develop its characters and storyline. 2. The action. While many might disagree with this point, I found the action scenes, especially with the powers, to be disturbing and at times a little chaotic. Action scenes should have me glued to my seat, unable to blink afraid of missing something. During the action sequences, I was thinking about when the movie would end. However, there was one specific fight that I thought was glorious, (we’ll get to that later). 3. Some of the CGI. While there were moments I liked from the special effects, there were many instances where it looked pretty damn awkward. Especially when that bad guy turned into that troll, goblin, ugly ass thingy. 4. The villain. To create a good villain you need what he/she wants and his/her motivation for wanting this. The villain in the movie clearly expressed what she wanted, to sell the drug in multiple cities, but her motivation is because superpowers are cool I guess. The villain should be interesting, the polar opposite of our hero, it’s too bad that the main villain had like five minutes of screen time. Those were my main issues, I have one mixed point to discuss before we get into the positives. 1. Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I love this actor, absolutely love him. Inception introduced me to him, and his performance was entertaining and had character. He was okay in this film, I guess. Maybe it was because his character had the likability of a block of wood, but I found his performance to be a bit bland. To be fair, he did have some funny scenes with Dominique Fishback, but I wanted more from him.

Alright, here’s what I liked about the film. 1. The cinematography. This is where the film truly shined. The cinematographer, Michael Simmonds deserves some recognition for his use of color, some pretty unique and stylish shots, plus clear skill for the job. 2. That one epic action scene. See, told you I’d get to this. When Jamie Foxx takes the pill towards the end and shows his explosive shockwave abilities, it looks freaking awesome. The CGI team really outdid themselves for the 20 seconds of pure epicness. 3. The directing. Although clearly not able to execute a tension-filled action scene, I thought that directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman did a pretty good job. The film is brought together well, and they obviously had a point A and B, just not the proper script to get there.

Overall, Project Power boasts impressive cinematography, solid directing, (mostly) cool CGI. But a terrible villain, some chaotic action and a script and story in the middle of a tug of war, not quite knowing what it wants to be.

The cast including Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception), Jamie Foxx (Ray), and Dominique Fishback (The Hate u Give) all had very good performances, well two of em anyway. I already discussed Mr. Gordon-Levitt, so let’s move to Jamie Foxx. His character had charisma and was entertaining, and Foxx’s performance was as good as ever, providing some great chemistry with Dominique Fishback whose performance was the best of all of them. Fishback’s character was obviously the one the writer’s focused on the most. She was the most fun to watch on screen, having all the best scenes, providing some solid comedy and top-notch rapping skills.

Project Power is a more gory superhero flick. People are stabbed, shot, damaged. There are some intense power morphing scenes that are disturbing. A large amount of blood, explosions, and some language. There is no romance in the film. The one positive message, hugs not drugs kids, hugs not drugs.