PLOT: There's a new drug on the street of New Orleans called "Power". When taken, it gives the user a unique superpower for five minutes. Some powers may be useful, some may be hideous, and some may be deadly. Enter a former army Major (Jamie Foxx), bent on rescuing his daughter, whose genetic code holds the secret to the drug, a Power-using street cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and a teenage dealer (Dominique Fishback), who band together to take the drug down once and for all.
REVIEW: PROJECT POWER is the latest installment of what I like to think of as the post-modern superhero genre. It's similar to "The Boys" in that it aims to take a quasi-realistic look at how super-powered humans could feasibly be created in the real world – the answer being drugs of course. In some ways PROJECT POWER could almost be a prequel to that show, with the drug as shown here, Power, having some serious drawbacks. One is that the powers themselves only last for five minutes, but the biggest drawback of them all is that everyone's power is different. Some of them may be cool, like the Joseph Gordon-Levitt character having bulletproof skin, but others may be hideous, such as the power an unlucky dealer gets early on where he burst into flames and is left with disfiguring burns. Super-powers aren't all they're cracked up to be here.
It's a fun take on the genre from CATFISH/ PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 directors Ariel Schulman & Henry Joost. They've been working their way towards a big action movie for years, with their previous film, NERVE, being a fun little teen thriller. This is a huge leap forward in that, at least as far as Netflix originals go, it's a tentpole, boasting a hard-R rating and some high octane action, mostly courtesy of Jamie Foxx, in his first real action lead since DJANGO UNCHAINED.
Here he plays an ex-military man who was a test subject for Power, and whose daughter may have inherited some affected DNA. This is probably Foxx's most physically demanding role in ages, with him obviously in top-shape to play the gun-toting major. His action scenes are a solid mix of hand-to-hand scraps and gunplay, with some audacious choreography. For my money, Schulman & Joost do a good job shooting the action, but they make one huge misstep. There's a big moment where Foxx's character decimates a club full of superpowered henchmen, but rather than allow us to enjoy the carnage, they shoot it from the perspective of a Power test subject watching him through frosted glass. Meaning you never really get a sense of what's happening – a cheap way to shoot what should have been the movie's signature action set piece (accompanied by a solid score by THE RAID's Joseph Trapanese).
By contrast, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's role takes a back seat, with him a heroic cop that's mostly chasing Foxx for the first half of the movie, before they – surprise surprise – realize they're on the same side. It's cool to see a newly buff Levitt mix it up in some action scenes (although Courtney B. Vance is wasted in a tiny supporting role as his captain), but the role doesn't amount to much.
Rather, the film is all but stolen by "The Deuce" star Dominique Fishback as Robin, a local dealer who's taken hostage by Foxx and gradually comes around to his side. Fishback digs deep into what could have been a thin role, and she gives it more gravitas than there likely was on the page. She's one to watch. Too bad that the film fumbles when it comes to giving us a memorable villain, with Rodrigo Santoro's Biggie a glorified henchman. Amy Landecker, as the government agent in charge of the project, could have been an interesting baddie, but she's only introduced in the third act.
Overall, PROJECT POWER, while perhaps a little derivative of "The Boys" (although this went into production back in 2018 so it predated the TV version) is still a fun, surprisingly hardcore and action-packed ride. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but as a genre exercise it works, and Foxx is always a dynamic action lead, while Fishback is a star in the making.