I liked the New Mutants movie

[DougGraves]

My daughter wanted to see it.  I have to admit I might not have watched past the first 15 minutes without her as it was a bit slow.

 

But the characters were generally very close to the comics.  I don't remember Illyana being a jerk in the comics, but she looked right, her sword and armor and teleporting was great.

 

The story made sense.  It had a horror elements but turned into a superhero fight at the end which I liked.  It felt like a comic.

 

It was an origin story, of which I am not fond, but it did a solid introduction to the characters and was generally entertaining.  I don't see why  it was panned.

[Mr. Vee]

I think it was pretty good for a comics movie as well, and definitely better than the source material. It was also the best version of Dani's powers, which if they'd done that in the comics they could have spared her 40 years of shifting powers nonsense and eventual de/re-powering. I liked what they did with Cecilia's powers too even if they did make her a villain. 

Spoiler

Having Sam and Dani's powers kill their parents added a lot as well.

 

As to why it was panned, I think the years of hearing about it was probably the main factor. Even though it was much better than I expected it was still unnecessary. Still I'd put it second best after First Class in that batch of X-movies if we don't count Deadpool 1/2.

[The_Warpact]

I heard it was a combo of being limbo, re-shoots/scheduling, and the time it came out.

Couple with critics immediately panning it for direction ie; is it horror or a superhero movie.

So basically a tsunami of negativity. 

 

Personally, I like it some things could have been left out or compounded upon ie; Dani and Wolfsbane, character growth, etc.

So yeah I could see the re-shoot issues because some areas did feel choppy.

 

The main parts were great though, I thought Magick was great, would have loved to have seen more about them while dealing with a threat. But, too late now as this direction is now dead.

[Haijinx]

I thought this was a good one as well.  

 

I wasn't bothered by the pacing, but maybe that's because  I find most newer movies feel like they rush around, and I have gravitated to strong Narrative TV series.