Project Power (2020) Review

Project Power (2020)

Project Power follows Art, who, after a dangerous drug hits the streets that gives users unpredictable powers, enlists the help of a young dealer in tracking down the source in order to get back his daughter.

More often than not, unless Netflix is acquiring a movie after the fact, original projects coming out of the streaming service anymore leave a lot to be desired, always playing it a little too safe. Project Power, even though an incredibly high concept film, sadly falls right into that category; typical mass produced schlock with not much to offer other than “Hey look, Jamie Foxx with superpowers!”. I mean we’ve literally got a film about a drug that gives people ridiculous abilities (of which we barely get to see), go fucking nuts. The last thing this should be is tame, and yet, instead of a two hour super-powered slugfest, we get a story about a man just trying to rescue his daughter. I understand it’s a tall order in this day and age but with such a brainless concept, be a bit brainless and take risks. 

Too often, with films like this, a deeper, more family oriented aspect is thrown in for the sake of “why not?”, as if every other blockbuster film about disaster or heists or what have you hasn’t done the same thing (looking at the entire career of The Rock here). And so while Art, on a mission to get back his daughter, obviously gives way to stakes that will move the plot along, for once, just lay into your concept and be ridiculous. 

Power boasts a relatively lackluster cast as well, starring Kyanna Simone Simpson, Machine Gun Kelly, Amy Landecker, Rodrigo Santoro, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback, and Jamie Foxx. Gordon-Levitt and Foxx, though talented actors, take this in an odd direction, playing it almost too serious, like they aren’t in a movie about a drug that gives people powers, and the film really suffers because of it. 

Project Power, directed by Ariel Schulman & Henry Joost, is another typical, mass produced, cookie cutter garbage film to come out of the Netflix movie machine, having an entirely too cool concept but never capitalizing on what it could have been. 

5.6/10