Based on all the wannabe critics and their 1's, and clearly ignoring the bogus 10's, and considering the very low overall rating on here and RT, I didn't expect much going into this, but still had fun watching it.
Clearly it's a B film with a bigger budget, an international production with relatively unknown filmmakers and B-list actors, yet it still managed to pull it off. The acting wasn't bad, and any abilities lacking I'm sure was due to inexperienced cast directing, such as Noomi Rapace's inconsistent, annoying and cringeworthy accent that sounded like a cross between a redneck and a European cabby.
The story itself was actually interesting and engaging, albeit poorly executed and a missed opportunity. The directing was on-point, especially for a B film, but the main problem here was the screenplay. There was too much unnecessary and gibberish dialogue, and many long, dragged out and unnecessary scenes. There were also many plot and technical issues, and some logic defying scenes, and aside from plucking in random secondary characters, there wasn't much character development. I could overlook that had there been less filler and nonsense in between the main yet clunky narrative, but the nearly 2-hour runtime simply had too much filler, and the plot trotted along too slowly for the most part. Had this film removed the filler and been trimmed down to about a 90 min runtime, I feel more people would've enjoyed it.
The cast carried their own, the cinematography, sets and locations were great, and the score surprisingly good especially for a B film. The action scenes could've been filmed better, but were still better than most B grade action films out there. It's no John Wick, but hundreds of times better than most Bruce Willis recent action films, and there were even times when it exceeded my expectations. Thus considering its big budget value, inexperienced filmmakers, and it's B-grade production, it's well deserving of a 7/10 from me.
Clearly it's a B film with a bigger budget, an international production with relatively unknown filmmakers and B-list actors, yet it still managed to pull it off. The acting wasn't bad, and any abilities lacking I'm sure was due to inexperienced cast directing, such as Noomi Rapace's inconsistent, annoying and cringeworthy accent that sounded like a cross between a redneck and a European cabby.
The story itself was actually interesting and engaging, albeit poorly executed and a missed opportunity. The directing was on-point, especially for a B film, but the main problem here was the screenplay. There was too much unnecessary and gibberish dialogue, and many long, dragged out and unnecessary scenes. There were also many plot and technical issues, and some logic defying scenes, and aside from plucking in random secondary characters, there wasn't much character development. I could overlook that had there been less filler and nonsense in between the main yet clunky narrative, but the nearly 2-hour runtime simply had too much filler, and the plot trotted along too slowly for the most part. Had this film removed the filler and been trimmed down to about a 90 min runtime, I feel more people would've enjoyed it.
The cast carried their own, the cinematography, sets and locations were great, and the score surprisingly good especially for a B film. The action scenes could've been filmed better, but were still better than most B grade action films out there. It's no John Wick, but hundreds of times better than most Bruce Willis recent action films, and there were even times when it exceeded my expectations. Thus considering its big budget value, inexperienced filmmakers, and it's B-grade production, it's well deserving of a 7/10 from me.