If you didn't know, this is a part of a hugely successful franchise of books. 15 in total, all best sellers about Mitch Rapp an anti terrorist vigilante. I've never read them nor do I have any idea how it levels up to the movie. What I knew going in was that that cute boy from Teen Wolf seeks revenge on someone because the killed his girlfriend, the end. Now that is basically it, the people that killed his girlfriend/fiance were terrorists, motives unknown other than to incite terror, who storm a beach in Spain and claim many innocent lives. Rapp trains himself up to kill them from the inside out which of course gains attention from the CIA who convince him to join and be trained up by Michael Keaton.
The opening to me was a little uncomfortable but I don't know for the right reasons, possibly because I didn't see it coming but I didn't like it. Sunny happy couple on a beach then men with guns and dead bodies everywhere. It was abrupt, which was the point. It happen very quickly, which again, was the point. It was averagely shot with the madness and it's the first time I've personally seen a terrorist attack on a beach depicted in cinema and it was a little odd. Not to say we're desensitised to seeing a bomb in a city on film but yeah we kinda are, better the devil you know. I don't think it was shot well enough for the weight of it.
The beginning leans on stereotypical Arabic terrorists. Mitch's heartbroken state leads him to have a beard, which lets us know that time has passed. He learns Arabic and memorises the Qu’ran and manages to convince some baddies that he can be a loyal baddie too. Thankfully the shooting and the initiation happen very quickly and later we learn its about 18 months later.
The action was okay, was surprised that it was an 18 before and after seeing the movie. There is of course some violence, a short torture scene towards the end and multiple shootings and a few stabbings throughout. And some boobs. Action was for the most part alright though nothing to chat about. The training that the Mitch and the other assassins to be go through is quite interesting to watch. The use of VR headsets is a cool concept which they casually use was a nice touch.
Dylan O'Brien is a cutey patooty. I'm a fan of his even though he's not done a great deal of various work yet. I was a fan of him in guilty pleasure teen drama Teen Wolf and enjoyed him in the Maze Runner franchise but I was open to see what he can do in something a bit different. We see the character briefly in love and happy but for the most part we see a broken man. He trains as an MMA fighter, he throws knives and goes to gun ranges each time trying to hone in on skills that he's decided he'll need to murder a bunch of people. I think he shows the extreme of which he's gone quite well with this. He frequently over steps almost robotically, as if his limit or goal is further than everyone else's and he doesn't even think about it. He's relatively emotionless but not entirely dead behind the eyes. He's told not to let things get personal and he learns to kind of do this. Overall I was impressed with him to be honest, his action scenes were great and I believed he was someone I haven't seen before. Bar Keaton the rest of the cast were forgettable. Keaton plays the veteran assassin maker, he has a history with Sanaa Lathan who plays Irene Kennedy the CIA agent that saw the potential in Mitch. He was friends with her father so gets small parental nods each way now and again, which I think was enough. Keaton is great and believable when pushing people, the action that he did was fun too. Though there's an interrogation scene with Keaton that appears a bit much you end up forgiving it because of his build up.
Sound was whatever and so was cinematography. I know it's not the type of film that generally demands gorgeous shots but still come on, it's all over the place, US, Rome, London and we never reeeally get to see anything that shows you you're in a different country. Captured gunshots and punches in a more real sense as opposed to being more stylised but still wasn't used to add to the scenes very well.
Left itself open to a sequel because of course it did, the character is built and there's a dozen stories to go from. Whether it reaches a large enough audience to warrant that we'll see. 5/10 take it or leave it, fancying O'Brien helps.
CINEMATES - A
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