Project Power is another forgettable action flick courtesy of Netflix

Despite three strong leads, Project Power is bogged down by abysmal pacing, questionable effects, and a sheer lack of story.

Although The Old Guard gave us hope that Netflix may have turned a new leaf when it came to the constant stream of subpar action movies it seems intent on churning out, Project Power sees a return to form with a bloated, forgettable jumble of a film that manages to fall flat even with three strong leads doing their best to sell it.

The film follows the story of teen misfit/aspiring rapper Robin as she navigates the criminal underworld of New Orleans, which has been overtaken by a mysterious and volatile drug that gives users supernatural abilities for a brief period of time. Also wrapped up in the mayhem is Frank (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a cop with whom Robin has cut a deal, and Art (Jamie Foxx), a mysterious ex-military man known as “the major,” who is hunting down the source of the drug in order to free his daughter from captivity.

While the idea of a drug that gives each user a different superpower is a cool concept on its own, Project Power utterly fumbles any excitement or intrigue from its premise. A drug that grants superpowers isn’t necessarily new (we’re particular fans of the short-lived CBS series Limitless, which was adapted from a movie that had a basically identical concept), but the added bonus of the drug impacting everyone differently seemed like an interesting way to externalize differences in character, as well as provide for some exciting action scenes.

Instead, Project Power bogs itself down with a boring, overcomplicated plot that drags its feet, moving from scene to scene without any real sense of purpose or direction. Although we did get some central beats, we couldn’t for the life of us be bothered to remember the how and why behind Art and Robin going where they go and doing what they do.

To make matters worse, Project Power has one too many leads. We can envision a script in which it’s just Art and Robin, one where it’s just Robin and Frank, or even one where it’s just Art and Robin — because each character has their own motivation worth diving into. However, when you try to stuff all three plots into a single film, it feels overcomplicated and chock full, and limits the amount of exploration you could’ve done had you just stuck to two protagonists.

It also doesn’t help that the film doesn’t really seem to know which of the three characters is its lead. At first, it seems as if Robin is taking the reigns with Frank as her foil, but then Art is introduced and Frank is almost completely forgotten about, with Robin working as his sidekick. This is particularly frustrating because, despite the fact that we spent the entire last act of the film in his shoes, Art is the last of the three to be introduced, and the least sympathetic. The plot with his daughter is as basic as it gets, and is even less emotionally impactful because for the first half of the movie we’re not even sure if he’s telling the truth about the fact that he has a daughter.

But if the plot was a letdown, the action was even more so. In the past, even when Netflix action stinkers had terrible stories, we could at least tune out the dialogue because we knew we’d be in for some great fights. (See also: Extraction). But the mix of questionable and sometimes shoddy CGI, poor choreography, and shaky camera work make the uninventive fight scenes even more frustrating to watch than the convoluted plot.

Our favorite fight was far and away the one between Art and Newt (Machine Gun Kelly, in another bizarre Netflix film role, following Birdbox), although if you’ve seen literally any of the marketing for this film, the surprise/excitement of the fight has been spoiled for you: Newt’s power is that he basically becomes the human torch.

The one other bizarre addition to Project Power that we would be remiss if we didn’t mention is the rapping. Robin (played by Dominique Fishback) intermittently raps throughout the film, imagining herself schooling her teacher, and then freestyling for Art when he gives her words to start from. Although she’s undeniably talented, we can’t help but wonder why — it has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot, has no payoff, and just takes up time, even if it’s entertaining.

While Fishback herself gives the film’s strongest performance by a mile (she puts both Levitt and Foxx to shame, which is no small task) even she can’t hold together the questionable script and its bizarre dialogue choices, which ping-pong wildly in tone from scene to scene. We imagine the filmmakers were attempting to strike that Marvel Cinematic Universe balance of action and comedy, but most jokes here fell flat — an issue exacerbated by the lack of chemistry between its leads.

Like its Casey Neistat cameo, Project Power is many things, but none of them good. Unnecessarily convoluted, a waste of a solid premise and some grade-A talent, and a jumble of poor fights and effects all combine to make it one of Netflix’s most skippable efforts in recent memory.

Have you seen Project Power? What’s your favorite Netflix original movie? Sound off in the comments below.