Project Power

Project Power

By James Davidson

“Project Power” is a new science-fiction, action film that was released exclusively on Netflix on August 14th. It stars Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Dominique Fishback. When a mysterious pill that gives its users unpredictable superpowers for five minutes hits the streets of New Orleans, a teenage drug dealer (Fishback) must team up with a cop (Gordon-Levitt) and an ex Marine (Foxx) to hunt down the supplier of this unpredictable, dangerous new drug.

When I saw the trailer for this movie, I thought it looked like a fun, action packed film that might be lacking in some of the storyline, but looked to have some great action sequences. After watching the movie, I felt like I was pretty spot on in my assessment.

The plot was interesting enough, but wasn’t super complex or deep. It was intriguing and created a lot of questions that I wanted answered, unfortunately, the film leaves a lot of these queries open ended. The story vaguely explains what the pill is and how it works, but doesn’t answer a lot of the questions that I had about it. For example, They never explain why the pill is so unpredictable. They also explained vaguely where the pill came from, but not how they created it. Supposedly, the pill is to be used as a weapon to “topple governments”, and they are releasing the pill on the streets to “test and perfect it”. However, the people that created it are trying to sell it before it’s perfected, and never explain how releasing essentially a super soldier serum into the streets and targeting it towards drug addicts is “testing”. There were just a few too many plot holes and unanswered questions in the plot for my taste. 

The film is almost saved from a lackluster plot by some exciting action sequences though. The action scenes were very well done and kept me on the edge of my seat. My only issue with them is that one or two of the action scenes are shot from some very confusing camera angles that almost ruin them.  There is also a lot of very obvious CGI that looks very cartoonish in places and ruins a few of the scenes. I still enjoyed most of the action sequences, but one or two of the scenes it almost seemed like the filmmakers were experimenting with camera angles and kind of turned me off.

I was impressed with the acting of the main core of this film. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jamie Foxx, and Dominique Fishback turned in incredible performances and portrayed some fairly complex characters to perfection. Unfortunately, all of the secondary characters’ acting left a lot to be desired. Luckily enough, most of these secondary characters don’t get a lot of screen time so it doesn’t hurt the movie too much. I was able to overlook some of the subpar acting because the great actors got most of the screen time.

This movie is rated R for violence, bloody images, drug content, and some language. There is quite a bit of gore and violence in this movie, as with most action flicks, and would be inappropriate for younger viewers. However, if you enjoy watching your average R rated action movie, this movie is for you.

“Project Power” is an enjoyable, fun, yet average action film. It has some exciting fight scenes, although some of the camera angles are a bit questionable. If you are a fan of action flicks, I definitely recommend this movie for you. It’s not going to reinvent the genre, but it is a solid action film that is a fun movie to pass some time with friends. It earns 3 out of 5 stars.