Looking at the cast list for Netflix’s Project Power, it’s hard not to wonder if it might have gotten a theater release in a non-COVID world. Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Courtney B. Vance, they’re relatively heavy hitters and the concept, about a mysterious drug that imbues the user with a unique super power for exactly five minutes, feels like it would fit right in with the MCU/DCEU fare we should be getting this summer. However, the longer we spend with its visual storytelling and the way the plot unfolds, the clearer it becomes that Project Power was made for television.
That may sound like a criticism, but in this case, it’s mostly a compliment. As directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, Project Power feels like the best CW superhero show ever produced. Mattson Tomlin’s script has a lot of world building to do and for the most part, it delivers it elegantly. Perhaps the best example comes early, when Gordon-Levitt’s New Orleans cop, Frank, stops a group of men from stealing the Power drug from teenaged dealer, Robin (Dominique Fishback). When one of the men threatens to take the pill to stop the arrest, Frank warns him that while most users are given a unique power for five minutes, some people just explode. It’s a smart moment that not only sets the stakes for taking the drug throughout the film but establishes the type of character Frank is.
Just as satisfying is the way that scene ends, with Frank revealing that he only spotted the robbery because he’s one of Robin’s buyers, using the drug to have a fighting chance against the criminals using it to wreak havoc. Unfortunately, the characters quickly separate not long after and in the film’s first act especially, focus is split between so many plot threads that even the filmmaking makes it feel almost like a TV pilot. Cinematographer Michael Simmonds’s camera is constantly moving, swooping through scenes in the same way as the plotting, and editor Jeff McEvoy so quickly moves us from one set piece to the next that the viewer can be left desperate for solid ground.
Though the film eventually settles on Foxx’s Art — a mysterious and dangerous figure who will do anything to find the source of the Power pills for reasons that don’t become clear until much later — as its complex hero, it’s actually Robin who is the most compelling character. Fishback is a relative newcomer and this will likely be most viewers’ first exposure to her, but her performance is a star-making turn. Though Robin is a dealer, she’s only doing so to pay for her mother’s medical bills and her real ambition is to become a rapper. Unfortunately, she’s also too shy to rap in front of anyone—something Art mocks her for. However, rather than be embarrassed, Robin challenges Art to give her a word as a jumping off point to freestyle. It’s a scene that could easily become corny, but thanks to lyrics penned by musician CHIKA and the fierce confidence of Fishback’s delivery, it’s just one of the many moments that make the audience root for Robin.
Indeed, Project Power’s strongest element is, surprisingly, its character work. Sure, the actors have to quickly convince the audience of a lot of connections and insane moments, but they’re more than up to the task. Rather, where the film fails is in its genre elements. First, and most minor, is the CGI, which just isn’t up to the quality of the superhero movies we’re used to seeing. An early scene where a human torch-like Machine Gun Kelly chases Art through a crumbling apartment building is just on the edge of convincing, like the best an episode of The Flash has ever looked.
Harder to ignore are the goofier elements of the world building, mainly, the fact that the powers sparked by the pills come from whatever animal DNA was used in its development. On one hand, there’s fun in waiting to see how abilities from animals like the Wolverine frog will appear onscreen, but the film also feels like it’s rushing to deliver on all its promises of mutations and exploding drug users to the point that it feels like Project Power either needs an extra half hour or two more episodes to really dig into its mythology and let all its character beats breathe. Worse, the film constantly toes the line of making itself look ridiculous and a hint of which tiny animal one character’s powers mimic is positively absurd in theory and only saved by a truly thrilling action sequence that finally slows the action down enough to let us enjoy it.
Considering how many things could have gone wrong with Project Power, it’s perhaps not so bad that its biggest flaw is that it has too little time to explore its ideas and characters. Joost and Schulman’s film may never give the audience a chance to breathe, but they also fill it with so many fun moments, good performances and exciting action sequences that it’s at least never boring. And even when the credits roll and the viewer finally has a moment to think, there’s enough in the mythology and the metaphors at work to help the film linger. Project Power might not have fared so well in a theater setting, but it is perfect Netflix home entertainment.
I watched last night. It was just odd to see Fishback playing a 17 year old kid after I’ve seen her on The Deuce. 29 year old playing 17 is 90210 style.