Synopsis:
AMERICAN ASSASSIN follows the rise of Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien), a CIA black ops recruit under the instruction of Cold War veteran Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton). The pair is then enlisted by CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) to investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on both military and civilian targets. Together the three discover a pattern in the violence leading them to a joint mission with a lethal Turkish agent (Shiva Negar) to stop a mysterious operative (Taylor Kitsch) intent on starting a World War in the Middle East.
Film Review:
Right from the beginning, American Assassin became yet another action-thriller film that pulls from the vengeance of the death of a loved one. The opening scene felt staged and unnatural; that it did not make any sense. Shots were being fired everywhere with the aim of killing everyone on the beach except for Mitch (Dylan O’ Brien) who was left to bleed from a leg and shoulder gun wound. It seems that the armed men missed aiming at Mitch- quite the contrary to everybody else getting the fatal shots like his fiance Katrina (Charlotte Vega).
The film felt quite short regarding storytelling and made it hard to follow. There was no substantial backstory to make the movie interesting or engaging. Although there were many action scenes including the many combat training but none of them are memorable. Not to forget Micheal Keaton as Stan Hurley was probably the only character in the film that felt natural. A mentor who made a mistake and now he’s is trying to fix things before it’s too late. A role that Keaton played well but not enough to bring the whole movie to a different level.
Micheal Cuesta, the director, has made the film feel more like TV than a movie. Altogether the film is not a very compelling action-thriller but sadly one of the same ones that we’ve already seen before. There was no momentum throughout the movie, only an attempt to excite but not enough. Hence, a very predictable action film.
Rating: R16 Violence, cruelty & offensive language
In NZ Cinemas Now