MOVIE REVIEW: BLOODSHOT (R)
At its best, this adaptation of the Valiant Comics source material manages to steer clear of sinking to the depths of the very worst of comic book adaptations but at its weakest, Bloodshot is likely to remind you of much better movies. That’s certainly what it did for me. Movies like Robocop, Total Recall, The Matrix, The Bourne Identity, and Edge of Tomorrow immediately spring to mind. Not that Bloodshot is guilty of being the first film to take a cue from stronger films (nor will it be the last) but sadly, there isn’t anything particularly striking about the execution, performances, or visual effects here, either.
Bloodshot features Vin Diesel as Ray Garrison, a tough-as-nails soldier who, following a botched mission, finds himself back from the dead. Further still, he’s been blessed with superhuman strength and the power of accelerated self-healing. In short, he’s virtually unstoppable. But why and how? The answers he seeks may lie within Dr. Emil Harting (Guy Pearce) and a team of mysterious underground mercenaries he’s been stationed with. As Garrison (aka, Bloodshot) attempts to piece together what the hell is going on with his new life, increasingly strange thoughts, which could best be described as deja vu in nature, only further complicate an already ultra strange set of circumstances. Eventually, this enhanced badass sets out on an entirely new mission; One that opens his eyes to the bizarre truth behind his existence.
There’s a lot going on in this would-be superhero opus, but for all its uptempo action and visual effects, this movie as a whole is the last thing I wanted it to be. Boring! Convoluted, too. Director Dave Wilson, who also put together a short for the Netflix series Love and Robots, makes his feature directorial debut here and while he keeps things moving at a brisk enough pace, there isn’t anything particularly dynamic in terms of the action set pieces. What’s more, I didn’t really find myself rooting for Garrison in any sort of meaningful way–Even though something bad happens to him early on–And that’s a big-time problem given that he’s the film’s protagonist.
Speaking of the protagonist, Diesel leads the charge here and while he can be an effective actor and action star (see his outstanding work in Saving Private Ryan, Boiler Room, the Riddick series and yes…even the Fast saga), he emerges as a bit of a blank here. He isn’t particularly heroic and he comes across more one-note and silly than charismatic and intimidating. For whatever reason, he actually generated more personality in The Iron Giant and Guardians of the Galaxy than he does as Garrison, and if you’ve seen those particular films, you know he doesn’t really have a lot of lines to speak of. Hard to say what went wrong here, because again, it’s not like the guy is a bad actor. Perhaps it’s all about the material.
Elsewhere, Pearce (so good in early career efforts like Priscilla Queen of the Desert and L.A. Confidential) virtually sleepwalks through this thing as a man who may or may not have the answers to Garrison’s questions. Of the cast, it’s Eiza Gonzalez (bringing energy to the role of KT, a woman who helps Garrison transition into a new way of life) and Toby Kebbell (as Martin Axe, one of a handful of thorns in Garrison’s quick-healing side) who leave the strongest impressions.
On a technical level, even the effects work comes up short in Bloodshot. It’s cartoony to the point of distracting. Look no further than a climactic (and undeniably bombastic) set-piece involving a tall building and plummeting elevators. It’s just not very entertaining. With all its flaws, even Ruben Fleischer’s relentlessly silly (and messy) Venom worked to stronger effect mostly because, at the very least, that movie was fueled by a committed, bonkers, go-for-broke performance by Tom Hardy. No such luck for Bloodshot. It isn’t Batman and Robin or Cat Woman bad, but it would be best displayed in a double bill with the likes of last year’s misguided Hellboy redo.
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