Not many people will know this, but I absolutely love Luc Besson. He's like a well read Michael Bay. Someone who has a decent storyline, colourful characters and many an explosion.
However, his latest movie has left me wondering about whether or not his skills as a writer are in question, or if Hollywood still has an awful habit of messing with the creativity of the rest of the industry.
Bryan Mills is on the run from the police after being accused of murder, while trying to find the real culprit.
Storyline/Dialogue: The reason a cinema will give you a refund after the first 10-15 minutes is because that's how long it takes for humans to get invested in the film. Normally, I would have walked out before that time had elapsed with this movie. While it's a somewhat important part to the story, I struggle to connect with any of his family members or old workmates. It's like Bryan himself beat the character out of them. For example, what happened to Kim's singing with that somewhat famous person? Do Sam and Bryan's other mates (Whose names I don't think are disclosed during the movie,) do anything while Bryan's not around? It just feels like they sit around and wait for him to cause trouble. It's because Bryan is such a central character that anyone else feels like a plot device, rather than an actual character and that concerns me greatly. I feel like I would care a lot more about these characters if I knew more about them other than them simply being bait so that Bryan can go do his CIA badassery. Furthermore, the ending was atrocious! It felt as though nothing was really resolved and there was no emotional payoff. I want to see a killer brought to the justice I expect of Bryan Mills when he is out for blood, damnit!
Cinematography: Visually, this movie hurt my eyes. I felt as though my retinas would have had the image of Bryan beating on nameless thug #200 burned onto them. I'm amazed I can still see after all that. I did however like how the over shoulder shots attempted to create a sense of dread at what he was to find. It felt like an advertisement for California, rather than a feature film. Personally, all it told me was that I'd be better off filming when it's less bright. If I were to film there. Which I don't plan to.
Audio: This movie knows that sometimes, silence creates more atmosphere than a track could. With that said, its track weren't all that memorable. I love how some music in some scores will just randomly come back to you. I have already forgotten most of the score in this film.
Overall: The first movie, was fantastic. It really stuck with me that a person will do as much as humanly (Or in Bryan's case, inhumanly,) possible. Something with a primal theme such as the desire to protect the ones you love really resonates with the audience. However, the next two movies seemed to lose their way. This last one especially. I can't abide poor storytelling nor terrible dialogue. This movie was as bad as the movie in which Neeson played an air marshall.
I give this movie two stars.
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