The Netflix buddy-cop action movie genre is far from untapped. But “Project Power” shines not in its originality, but its premise, characters, and heart. With a star-studded cast of Jamie Foxx Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and talented newcomer Dominique Fishback, “Project Power” doesn’t really exceed your expectations, but sure as hell meets them.
There’s a new drug on the streets of New Orleans, and it’s called Power. And no, that’s not a metaphor. This new pill allows you to have a random superpower for five minutes, all based on animal-like abilities. For example, you can be as fast as a cheetah, or you can have the camouflage of a chameleon. Although sometimes, you just blow up into a million pieces. Obviously, this drug seems a little unsafe, so the company that produces the pills are testing it on the citizens of New Orleans, to see if it’s ready to go public.
In the center of this story is Art (Jamie Foxx), an ex-marine who is trying to find his superpowered daughter who is being tested on by the pill company, Frank (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a corrupt cop who is using Power to his advantage, and Robin (Dominique Fishback), a young drug dealer who is trying to pay the bills for her sick mother. Although the character’s motivations are a bit cliché, they still seem like fresh new people who will surprise you along the way. Art, Frank, and Robin collide as they realize how dangerous Power really is, and that the only way to save New Orleans is by defeating the evil company that distributes it.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in “Project Power” (Netflix, 2020).
“Project Power” is what the latest X-Men movies tried to be. Although it is a Netflix Original movie, I was surprised at how high-quality everything was. The special effects were some of the best I’ve seen, Netflix or otherwise. The action choreography was nothing special, but still exciting to watch, and the dialogue was surprisingly good compared to other recent Netflix films. The characters overall are pretty compelling, and the character development surprised me in its depth.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not without flaws. “Project Power” has one of the most boring villains of all time, with yet another greedy corporate boss who only wants to make a profit. We’ve all seen it before, and along with the fact that we’re only introduced to her in the third and final act, it makes for a pretty crappy villain. Another problem I had with “Project Power” was the lack of interesting superpowers. They had the ability to show us a wide variety of animal-like superpowers, but they basically just showed us all ones we’ve seen before, such as super-strength, bullet immunity, camouflage, fire, and ice. It just seems like they could’ve gone much further with the idea, but there’s always room for that in the sequel.
If you’re looking for a serious, mind-boggling action movie such as Christopher Nolan’s “Inception,” or an insane superhero film full of epic battles such as “Avengers: Endgame,” “Project Power” is probably not for you. But if you’re looking for a low-key superhero action flick on a Friday night, you should probably give it a go. You won’t find anything new, but by the end you will have found that you have enjoyed the ride nonetheless.
