Dir: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman (15 111 mins)
Riffing on superhero films, shady corporations and finding your voice via rap, Project Power is a zippy, formulaic actioner that papers over some cracks and plot machinations via the charisma of its leads. Jamie Foxx is a haunted father searching for a missing daughter in New Orleans amidst the rise of a new drug which grants its takers five minutes of superhero powers. These powers can take various shapes, all drawn from some dodgy genetics from the animal kingdom super speed, strength, being bulletproof, getting some Wolverine-esque metal claws, as well as potentially just making you explode.
It essentially covers all the mutant bases with a five minute stopwatch Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the honest cop trying to level the score on the streets enlisting the help of Dominique Fishback’s school girl would be rapper to take down the bad guys. This likeable trio of sparky characters at first at odds with each other, then ultimately working together to a backdrop of a New Orleans still trying to recover from the abandonment and tragedy of its recent past helps to ground the special effects.
Set pieces abound from an opening tussle with a human torch, a chase after a chameleon bank robber and a shootout scene captured in glimpses through a glass cage prove well staged, exciting and diverting. Directors Joost and Schulman are clearly enjoying themselves, graduating from the low budgets of their Paranormal Activity sequels to the rather more luxurious trappings of a Netflix summer release. The script and edit feels a little fractured with odd narrative leaps made and the baddies headed by an underused Amy Landecker, a bloke with a funny beard and lots of random goons are rather bland. Levitt and Foxx’s charm propels their scenes with Fishback making a winning third wheel, sassy, funny and vulnerable amidst the alpha males.
The old superhero tropes are given a slightly new spin with racial and socially conscious momentum, Foxx and Fishback share some home truths, but it’s told mostly with flair and fun with an enjoyable mix of actors worth taking at least half a power pill for.
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Words: Keiron Self
Streaming on Netflix now