Project Power Review

August 22, 2020 at 9:48pm
By Jason Stettner

Project Power is a Netflix Original film that follows some individuals that are attempting to stop the distribution of a powerful pill. This particularly pill grants unpredictable powers for five minutes. It could be anything, from the ability to use fire to the amazing strength of exploding instantly. It’s quite a gamble, and a rather grotesque type of ability since it appears to leave some heavy scars depending on what you end up taking.

It’s basically a play on a drug war, but with that taken to a higher level. It’s set in New Orleans and follows a couple perspectives. It’s not anything too wild in terms of being a thriller, just a casual action film with high octane moments and a bloated sort of plot. They definitely could have trimmed this one down a bit, and had the same beats play throughout it. It’s got a solid performance from the will to do whatever it takes lead Art (Jamie Foxx).

There’s also the surprisingly enjoyable Robin (Dominique Fishback) and a rather ok at times one from Frank (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). He was definitely going all out, but perhaps not in the best of ways. That could have been the material here too I suppose, it just was off. I generally found the characters to fall into cliché roles throughout this, so you won’t be too surprised.

It did have some neat original rap material, but at the same that stuff didn’t quite fit in too well. I think the character performing would have benefitted by not having that extra little bit of fluff as they were already intriguing enough in this particular situation.

I was pleasantly surprised by the CGI quality in this one. While used sparingly, when these abilities were in display they were impressive to take in. There was a particular scene towards the end of this one that really delivered. They did some great work on the CGI elements that are typically more of a downside on the service, so I was definitely pleased by what I saw.

They had a good sense of scale here, and it feels like a fairly generic action film you’d catch in a theater which is what I feel they were going for. Some solid performances, interesting music and a plot that was decent enough. Nothing too new, but it served the goals of the film which is obviously important.

It’s a different sort of setting, and the abilities concept was neat. I liked how it was also somewhat grotesque in that regard. It’s cool to get the power, but the aftermath could definitely leave a mark on you. I thought that was important for the gritty aspect of the realism, and to give a sort of lasting impression that these pills mean business.

The Conclusion

Project Power is a somewhat generic action movie, it had some great CGI and an interesting mix of performances. Don’t expect anything too wild in terms of a fresh plot, and you’ll have a decent time with it.

Foxx is quite charismatic in this role, having a sort of deeper edge that helps make this one shine a bit more than it would have with someone else in that role. I did find whatever Levitt was doing to be weird. I liked the whole special abilities concept, it’s familiar yet unique and sets up an interesting plot.

The story itself was a bit bloated though, some more focused editing could have kept the narrative more on track. It was almost spread out too thin if that makes sense. Still, an alright watch I suppose for a particular type of audience. The one that likes easy going action, it hits that mark.

Project Power Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Content Access was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 5.8