"Project Power"-ful or Power-less

Vega
Aug 30, 2020
3 min read

Netflix

Release Date: August 14, 2020

Similar to Netflix's 2017 big-budget draw, Bright, Project Power had the potential to set the foundation for a breakout franchise. Netflix must have realized that potential as well, because the movie is packed with a variety of plot threads that could set roots for multiple movies going forward. The movie is set in a world where an illegal drug called “Power” has the ability to unlock a superpower in a person for five minutes. Set in New Orleans, the film follows three primary characters: Robin (Dominique Fishback), a street smart teenager who deals Power to help care for her mother; Frank Shaver (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) a cop on the NOPD who wants to put an end to the Power pandemic; and Art (Jamie Foxx) who is ex-military, has ties the origins of Power, and is in New Orleans to find his kidnapped daughter.

Project Power offers a lot to unpack in the realm of the world introduced and how it got to where it is. Art's search for his daughter is used as a vehicle to present some history about the drug and Teleios, the private group credited with creating Power. Frank's storyline introduces the revelation that New Orleans is being used as a testing ground by a government agency and welcomes questions of a larger conspiracy. Dominique serves as the connection between Art and Frank, as well as the heart of the film. All of the ideas that get introduced to are interesting and the movie is not boring in the slightest, but rather highly convoluted. Art's search for his daughter ultimately takes over as the primary storyline and none of the other concepts are given much respect. The movie gave more than just a tease for these plot points, so rather than feel excited for the future of the story, these storylines end up feeling disappointing and incomplete. With almost 2 hours of viewing time, the movie would've benefited from a less streamlined focus and more exploration of the side plots and less on Foxx's daughter hunt.

Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt each provide performances on the level you would expect from their caliber. It's Dominque Fishback who is a relative newcomer and a pleasant surprise in the film. She lends an innocence and heartfelt approach to her intentions and serves as a great compliment to the hardened focus of Foxx's character. Her performance also helped bridge this fictional world with the one we live in, making a world with Power feel very believable. Some of it may have felt a little too on the nose with the current socio-political climate for some people, but to its benefit, avoids becoming a commentary on those issues.

The premise for this movie gives ample opportunity to see amazing visuals and varieties of superpowers. One of the earliest introductions to the effects of Power is from a drug dealer, played by Machine Gun Kelly, whose body becomes engulfed in flames. It introduces the, unsurprisingly, grimmer use of such a drug, while also showing that Netflix didn't skimp on the CGI budget. The problem, again, lies in the focus of the film, as it fails to provide the easiest form of entertainment in a superpower-themed movie: superpowers. Throughout the movie, I can recall seeing less than ten different types of powers which would be an easy way of building the essence of possibility. The powers we do see help offset what are generally bland feeling action sequences, another area that the film feels too shy to fully embrace.

The movie opens a lot of doors and does not go much further than that, including leaving a lot of unexplained science about Power and its creation, which would be a detriment to any science fiction movie. There is still a lot of promise for a franchise and more than enough world left to explore, of which would hopefully include closure for a New Orleans still caught in a government/Power conspiracy. I would hope that future installments would learn from the downfalls here and work with less storylines and take chances in exploring them deeper. At the end of the day, the movie would have benefited from its own dose of Power to unlock its untapped potential.