STARRING: JAMIE FOXX, JOSEPH GORDON LEVITT, DOMINIQUE FISHBACK
DIRECTOR: HENRY JOOST AND ARIEL SCHULMAN
DATE: AUGUST 14, 2020
Project Power is a Sci-Fi thriller released by the streaming service Netflix. The film was written by Mattson Tomlin, who is somewhat of a newcomer to Hollywood but is known for being a co-writer for the not yet released film, Batman. Project Power’s run time is 111 minutes and costs $85.1 million to produce. It stars Oscar winner Jamie Foxx and is set in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The story begins with Robin (Dominique Fishback), a high school drug dealer, almost getting robbed for her super power creating pills in an alley. Fortunately, a local New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) officer named Frank Shaver (Joseph Gordon Levitt) was able to save her. He is surprisingly one of her customers although he has been suspended from the force for consuming these pills. Although he has been suspended, he is informed that the government is on the lookout for a man named Art (Jamie Foxx) who is trying to find Biggie (Rodrigo Santoro), the distributor of these pills.
The pills are known to unlock super powers within humans for five minutes but no one is aware of what super power they will receive or if it will be beneficial or detrimental to them. These super powers range from, but aren’t limited to, becoming invisible, becoming bulletproof or even exploding into pieces. As a result, the crime rate within New Orleans has peeked because people are consuming the pills willing to take their chances regardless of the outcome.
Art, Robin and Frank are thrown together into this world of an unbelievable reality. The three have a love/hate relationship with one another but eventually agree upon a common goal which is to put an end to Project Power. Project Power was a pleasantly entertaining film. Along with the Sci-Fi, the film has tones of systematic racism spread throughout but it doesn’t oversaturate the viewer with it. The storyline is not particularly great but it gets its point across when it has to. The action sequences and special effects are aesthetically pleasing to the eye and there aren’t many times where the film drags to the point where the viewer would lose interest.
Project Power receives 7 stars out of 10 stars.