The problem with action movie reviews is that people tend to overestimate insignificant movies like that while labeling them as 'good fun' and that drags entire genre to the bottom like an outlier in a non-weighted average. Action movies don't need to be 'simple' or 'dumbed down'. There are great action flicks over decades that are praise-worthy and some of them are even defining sub-genres of their own like Heat or Bourne series and some are just standing alone like Ronin or John Wick and ageing like a good wine.
Sadly, The Gray Man is neither of these things: it's not going to define any new genre, it's rather exploiting the well-established one and it won't stand the trial of time. It's rather algorithmic crowd pleaser that ticks familiar boxes, but while watching it you feel like you have seen all that before in a hundred of different places. It's not a bad movie per se, it's just ridiculously unimaginative although it packs some visual punch.
Sadly, The Gray Man is neither of these things: it's not going to define any new genre, it's rather exploiting the well-established one and it won't stand the trial of time. It's rather algorithmic crowd pleaser that ticks familiar boxes, but while watching it you feel like you have seen all that before in a hundred of different places. It's not a bad movie per se, it's just ridiculously unimaginative although it packs some visual punch.