Project Power

I remember exactly where I was when Project Power dropped: hunched over a laptop in the middle of a 2020 lockdown, wondering if "outside" was still a real place or just a high-budget simulation. I watched this while nursing a slightly-too-warm Diet Coke and trying to ignore my neighbor’s power drill, which ironically added a very specific industrial soundscape to the action. At a time when we were all starving for a summer blockbuster, Netflix handed us a glowing, neon-blue pill and told us to swallow. It didn’t change my life, but for 113 minutes, it made the walls of my apartment feel a lot less restrictive.

The "Contemporary Cinema" era is often defined by a crushing weight of intellectual property—sequels, prequels, and multiverses that require a PhD in lore to understand. Project Power is a rare bird: an original superhero IP that feels like it crawled out of a gritty 90s graphic novel but was polished with that high-gloss, $85 million Netflix sheen. It’s a "what if" movie. What if a pill could give you a superpower for five minutes, but you had no idea if you’d turn into a human torch or just spontaneously combust into a pile of goo?

The Biology of the Brawl

The directors, Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost—the duo behind Catfish and a few Paranormal Activity entries—bring a surprisingly tactile energy to the superhero genre. Instead of the clean, "sky-beam" destruction we’re used to in the MCU, the action here feels messy and biological. When a guy takes a pill and develops the traits of a pistol shrimp, the resulting shockwave doesn't just look cool; it feels like it’s tearing the room apart.

The standout sequence for me involves a character trapped in a high-tech glass "power chamber" while a fight breaks out on the other side. We watch the chaos through the glass, a distorted, voyeuristic perspective that makes the action feel claustrophobic and urgent. It’s a clever way to hide a mid-range budget while amping up the tension. Michael Simmonds, the cinematographer who also lensed the recent Halloween trilogy, drenches New Orleans in a humid, sickly palette of amber and cobalt. It’s a city that looks like it’s sweating, which fits a plot about a drug that's literally cooking people from the inside out.

A Trio of High-Octane Humidity

While the concept is the hook, the cast is the reason the hook stays set. Jamie Foxx (bringing that same "don't mess with my daughter" intensity he perfected in Django Unchained) plays Art, a man looking for his kidnapped child. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (sporting a Steve Gleason Saints jersey for maximum local flavor) is Frank, a cop who takes the drug just to level the playing field. Gordon-Levitt is doing a very specific "tough guy with a heart of gold" bit here, but he’s so likable that you forgive the fact that he’s basically playing a live-action Saturday morning cartoon character.

But the real discovery—the heart of the entire operation—is Dominique Fishback as Robin. In an era where "strong female leads" are often written as stoic, humorless warriors, Fishback gives us a teenager who is scared, ambitious, and uses rap as a defensive mechanism. Her chemistry with Foxx is the movie's secret weapon; they have a "grumpy dad and reluctant protege" vibe that keeps the stakes grounded when the CGI starts getting wacky. Seeing her go from this to the powerhouse performance in Swarm makes re-watching Project Power feel like catching an early glimpse of a future legend.

Stuff You Didn't Notice

One of the coolest things about the production is how much they leaned into actual animal biology for the "powers." The screenplay by Mattson Tomlin—who later worked on the script for Matt Reeves' The Batman—was originally much grittier, but even in this polished version, you can see the obsession with nature’s weirdness. Apparently, the "frozen girl" sequence involved a massive amount of practical makeup and fake ice that took hours to apply, only for the scene to whip by in a flash.

The film also captures a very specific moment in the streaming wars. Released during the height of the pandemic, it bypassed the theatrical "flop or hit" narrative and went straight to the "Top 10" list, becoming a cult favorite for those of us who missed the sticky floors of a cinema. It’s a "VOD classic"—the kind of movie you find on a Tuesday night and end up recommending to your friends because it’s actually trying to do something different with its $100 million budget.

Project Power doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it puts some very flashy neon rims on it. It’s a sturdy, imaginative action-thriller that benefits immensely from its New Orleans setting and a breakout performance from Dominique Fishback. If you’re tired of capes and "chosen ones" and just want to see Jamie Foxx fight a guy who has the properties of a thermobaric bomb, this is your five minutes of fun. It’s the ultimate "Friday night on the couch" flick—flashy, loud, and just smart enough to keep you from checking your phone.