‘Bloodshot’ Review
This movie took me back to 10 year old me who hadn’t seen much movies yet and I thought that I would’ve totally loved this then. Bloodshot might’ve very well been made in a lab for that demographic just like the titular character since it really does try to be sexy, action-packed and violent for a PG-rated film. You could say that it has a cool vibe and there is effort behind it, however the effort is only used narrowly for few things.
Based on the first three-or-so scenes, Bloodshot seemed to be going different direction than it ultimately ended up going. It kind of felt like a psychological mind trip that a soldier was having with a military mission first followed by a romantic scene. Then there’s a (what reads oddly on page) scene where main character Ray Garrison/future Bloodshot (played by Vin Diesel) is being held hostage by Martin Axe (Toby Kebbell) who comes in dancing to ‘Psycho Killer’ by Talking Heads. This scene’s end leads the whole story to flip upside down and not in a good way. Besides the beginning there’s a flare-lit sequence in a tunnel which was well done in terms of action, VFX and lighting. Couple supporting actors in Lamorne Morris (as Wilfred) and Siddharth Dhananjay (as Eric) bring much needed levity and fast-paced dialogue to the film and their characters also have a part to play in what ensues. Their coding skills wasn’t used just for hacking but for moving the plot forward as well.
During the beginning I thought in my head ”Oh finally they’re letting Vin Diesel act, it’s been like 15 years”. Due to the story flip he is pretty useless for the rest of it as he speaks in one note for 90 minutes while not being skilled enough to do the action scenes that are offered. Sam Heughan (as Jimmy) is just a bore to watch since the character is the human equivalent of ”screw you”. Much of the story’s payoff is based on the pairing of Ray and KT (Eiza González) and they simply don’t have any chemistry. They really only share one proper scene together and most of that is Ray staring her lustfully, other than that their partnership isn’t built at all. Other problems arise in the action scenes as the VFX makes them look worse than most current video games and the unrelenting cuts that’ll make you disoriented. Bloodshot overall is just a 45 million wet dream for a creative team that has previously worked on Transformers, Fantasy Island and many video games. Especially director David S.F. Wilson seemingly forgot the active directing of actors and instead focused on VFX: ”We’ll just do it in post”.
Smileys: Lighting, Siddharth Dhananjay
Frowneys: Characterisation, Vin Diesel, directing
Drinking game: take a shot whenever there’s a drone shot of surroundings or when you can’t understand what Vin Diesel said.
2.0/5
