During the weekend, there was a new movie released in Netflix, which has been promoted quite a lot. I was definitely intrigued by the premise and since cinemas are yet to open due to Covid-19 pandemic, the release of this movie was certainly a huge welcome. OK, what was the movie all about? Let us find out, shall we?
Brief Story Line
A group of mercenaries with extraordinary ability led by Andy (Charlize Theron - The Addams Family, Atomic Blonde etc) with her friends Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts - Red Sparrow etc), Joe (Marwan Kenzari - Aladdin live version etc) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli) were hired by an ex CIA agent Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor - Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Sherlock Gnomes etc) to free some kidnapped children in Sudan. However when things went sideways, they had to save themselves from people who were after them.
Meanwhile, after an incident in Afganishtan, a young marine named Nile Freeman (KiKi Layne - If Beale Street Could Talk etc) seemed to start having mental connection with Andy's group. As she was trying to find out the reasons, she finally met and became entangled with what Andy and her friends were doing.
With danger lurking from a wealthy CEO of pharmaceutical company named Steven Merrick (Harry Melling - Harry Potter movies etc), Andy and friends have to fight their way out to safety.
End of Brief Story Line
I did not have the chance to watch the trailer to this movie and so when I watched the film and the special ability was first shown, I was quite surprised and became totally excited by it. This ability made them a bit like superhero. In fact for those who did not know, the movie was based on graphic novel of the same title written by Greg Rucka who also wrote many other DC comics, Marvel comics, including Stumptown (which has been made into TV series itself). So it should not be surprising the aura of comic book was felt in here, like the special ability, presence of major villain and the strong feel of origin story, especially with that ending.
The movie was focusing quite a lot on the introduction of characters which were pretty well done to my opinion, with very brief flash backs and the revealing of the persons' background via conversations and other means which did not make the movie boring. The characters, in particular Andy, was truly interesting and the ramification of what happened to her made it intriguing if they decided to make a sequel of this one (which I think they should, considering the movie seemed to do well with critics and audiences).
The action sequence was definitely what I loved in here. Charlize Theron again showed how fantastic she is as an action star (like she did in Mad Max: Fury Road or Atomic Blonde). KiKi Layne was surprisingly good as well, even if I never saw her before, but from what I could see on her filmography, this is first time she was cast as major lead in action movie. She did not pale in comparison with Charlize Theron. The rest of the team were OK but did not seem to excel too much, except maybe Marwan Kenzari who was surprisingly agile in action especially considering he previously played in musical movie.
For a superhero movie, this one was not heavily reliant on CGI and the action was the rather old-fashioned kick-ass gun shooting & hand to hand fighting. They were mostly pretty intense, although personally I think the finale fight could have been made a bit more spectacular. Btw, the story was not too complicated, and not a lot of twists that could blow our mind. There was no mid or post end credit scene, but the last scene before closing credit did give a surprise that should make it interesting in case a sequel is indeed made.
Overall I thought this was a good action movie where the good guys are people with that special ability which made them very unique. It was not a heavy or really dark movie that would make us feel too depressed watching it, but not light enough to make us feel joyful after watching it. It has a duration of around 2 hours but did not feel overly long. It is certainly entertaining enough as summer movie despite released on small screen. If you are looking for a good action movie with some nicely done fight sequence, then this one is definitely for you. You should be able to easily access this as it is available on Netflix.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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