WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Freaks, set for release Sept. 13 in the United States.
Despite fans taking to X-Men movies such as X2: X-Men United and X-Men: First Class, the verdict has usually been negative when it comes to fan reception regarding the Children of the Atom on the big screen as done by Fox. These movies have a lot of naysayers, with the one true film that's been critically adored being James Mangold's Logan.
Now, while folks were eager to see the mutants head to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has made it perfectly clear it'll be quite some time before we see them rebooted and appearing in the MCU. However, courtesy of Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky, if you're jonesing for a proper X-Men film, the directors have answered your call via Freaks.
THE NEW MUTANTS
With Dark Phoenix flopping, Disney is reportedly reluctant to release The New Mutants and experience another box office miss. But in Freaks, you get the perfect mutant rebellion, focusing on young Chloe (Lexy Kolker), who's kidnapped and weaponized by her grandad, Mr. Snowcone (Bruce Dern). At first, it seems he has a Magneto-like philosophy, wanting to launch a terrorist attack on humans. He ends up being more of a mentor like Cable, as he's actually training the girl to be a freedom fighter for the new generation of people like her.
Snowcone also trained Chloe's unnamed dad (played by Emile Hirsch) and his wife, Mary (Amanda Crew), to liberate mutants from a prison in America known as the Mountain. But we soon discover the government's been rounding up mutants and experimenting on them. That's why the parents attacked the facility in the past, resulting in Mary getting left behind. It's a lot like Cable training the New Mutants as a liberation front, as told by the likes of Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod in the '90s comics, to protect and rescue fellow mutants.
THE X-MEN PHILOSOPHY
Chloe's the most gifted of all, a weapon of mass destruction due to her having powers like Jean Grey: mind-reading, the ability to manipulate one's thoughts and mind-control to the point she can make you kill yourself. She can also astral project and hide her presence at any given location, speaking to her target only while possessing them or others in the area, which even pays homage to Charles Xavier. Her dad is also very interesting, as he teleports like Nightcrawler, although he's actually manipulating space-time, slowing down time and creating bubbles to move in.
As for Snowcone, he's not as threatening, as he just turns invisible, but when Mary is rescued at the end, she's just are fearsome as her daughter. Mary can fly at supersonic speeds like Superman; she's reminiscent of Cannonball, leaving sonic booms that cause trails of destruction in her wake. With Snowcone acting as a middle ground between Xavier and Magneto, and Chloe going through her own Dark Phoenix Saga as she contemplates killing off humanity for the greater good, you get drama relatable to so many X-Men stories of "the other" being oppressed, especially with the government's anti-mutant campaign of "they look just like us."
THE HUNTERS
The government is dissecting the mutants at the Mountain, finding ways to turn them into their killers or co-opt their powers. Their soldiers are very much indicative of Stryker's Purifiers, one of the biggest mutant hate groups in Marvel's stable. In the finale, they try to kill Mary at the base when they realize Chloe is possessing a guard and freeing her mom, and you see their anti-mutant sentiment come to the fore, with Grace Park's Agent Ray just as vindictive as Stryker was.
With her dad slowing time down, Chloe gets Mary outside of the compound so she can do her Supergirl thing and fly out. With all the hunters coming at them, Chloe possesses their minds and drives them to kill each other, as she realizes how relentless they are. Sadly, the hunters bomb their home with drones while Chloe's performing this projection, killing her dad who reminds her, no matter what, her powers must be used for good against such a lethal army. With drones and machinery hunting them like this, you can even draw parallels to Sentinel tech.
THE MUTANT MESSIAH
Chloe ends up taking on a role similar to Hope Summers when her mom rescues her. Mary, thanks to her mental connection from her escape, finds her daughter, but sadly her husband and Snowcone are dead. This leads to Mary transporting Chloe away, with the young girl admitting the rebellion starts now and that they need to find others like them and fight back.
Chloe's embraced her powers and wants to be the savior of her people, especially to those imprisoned. Seeing her wanting to come out of hiding also hearkens to the likes of Cyclops and Magneto, with her mom agreeing to finish her training as she herself understands that, no matter Chloe's age, their species has finally found their messiah.