Project Power is a new branded film Netflix which enriches the already large catalog of original films on the streaming platform. Kind action, science fiction and also, albeit to a lesser extent thriller. 111 minutes (certainly too many), directed by a couple of directors: Ariel Schulman, essentially unknown e Henry Joost, which instead has already made itself known for having directed, among others, two chapters of the saga Catfish and as many of the saga Paranormal Activity, having therefore already ranged in more than one film genre. Certainly a remarkable cast, consisting of Jamie Foxx in the role of one of the protagonists, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, one of the young actors of Hollywood more in business in the last fifteen years and also Rodrigo Santoro, an actor who is slowly gaining his space thanks to important participations like in the film The 33 and in the series Westworld, of production HBO.
A group of entrepreneurs creates a powerful new one drug contained in tablets. It allows whoever hires it to get a real one super power, casual and for yourself five minutes. Sometimes it consists of something that can enhance defense, make super-resistant to attack or invulnerable; sometimes into something that instead transforms the person into a hunter, into a war machine. New Orleans it is the city chosen as a test bed for this drug and the entrepreneurs give it to a group of drug dealers for circulation in the city. What follows is an exponential increase in crime and a dangerous exposure of citizens to continuous mortal danger. A former soldier looking for his daughter (Jamie Foxx) and a local policeman who decides to fight on equal terms by trying the drug himself (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) will thus decide to oppose the spread and large-scale production of the drug.
Project Power: but a screenplay project?
This is the plot of Project Power, of which the sci-fi part is definitely the strong point. Not to say that behind there is who knows what originality (these are topics already treated in films like Limitless o Lucy), but there was still a creative commitment, especially in main hub of the synopsis. The problem is everything else. In fact, the film is soon enriched with characters, thoughts, wishes and objectives already seen. It is like seeing clips of other works assembled together and repeating themselves, as if we already knew a part of the film. The logical consequence is that, although the scenes are engaging, sometimes spectacular and lively, in the central part we still end up getting bored, perhaps also due to a acting not always convincing and of characters with a truly banal background. Nothing is ever thoroughly investigated. We become aware of information concerning the good ones, completely superfluous being real cliche, and where instead we could find some interest, that is in the point of view of villain (who instead have a project to carry out), nothing is done. As soon as we get to know one and understand that it can be charismatic and interesting, it disappears from the screen and gives way to another. In short, until the end of the film we never have time to have a full understanding of all the characters, including one film script not quite perfect. Yet, it would have been enough to reduce the duration, perhaps the number of characters and, at the same time, save some budget to use it in the visual rendering of some scenes, which at the level of special effects suffer a little.
Behind all this there is an idea of direction which basically works, with all the limitations imposed by the script. Also an idea of photography consistent throughout the film, which becomes interesting with regard to some camera movements that characterize the vision from start to finish, together with the use of deliberately crooked shots. Some may not like them, but they are still choices dictated by personal tastes, which somehow manage to characterize the feature film. The Department audio has some very good quality bursts, especially in action scenes, but the colonna sonora it is really very banal, simple and copied from at least four or five other similar films.
A necessary note in support of the European version: the dubbing of the main characters is not bad at all, but we point out this work as certainly one of the last of the late Roberto Draghetti, who lent his voice for Jamie Foxx and passed away just a few weeks ago. In conclusion, Project Power is an attempt with a minimum of courage to tackle a genre that is not yet so detailed by Netflix original films, with a script that is partly very intriguing, partly very mundane. A sizable budget, but perhaps not used at its best; an important cast, but wasted. In short, a whole series of good intentions that do not arrive at a convincing result, which would then be what we see in most of the film productions of recent times.
