Bloodshot - Review

The nineties were a unique time for the comic book industry. Marvel and DC lost their former influence, and independent publishers, usually founded by immigrants from the same Big Two, swiftly flooded the market. Some of these companies, for example, Image or Dark Horse, have survived to this day, while others have been supplanted or absorbed. But the publisher Valiant Comics suffered a different fate: in the 90s it launched several episodes and was bent, but in 2012 it suddenly resurrected and even made a lot of noise among comic book readers. Valiant decided to create its own full-fledged universe, with crossovers and global events, just like Marvel or DC. It turned out to be a fairly large and well-developed world, but instead of the battered Batmen and Hulks, there are other, largely unique characters. Only here on the big screen, we will not see them soon, because the first adaptation of Valiant comics turned out to be at least mediocre.

Ray Garrison is a brutal warrior who, as befits an action hero, shoots first, and then asks questions. Bad guys die, good guys stay alive, and a beautiful wife awaits at home - in general, everything is perfect. Until then, until some villains kidnap Garrison and kill his wife right in front of him. After the turn comes to Ray, but for him, death does not become the ending. The veteran is revived in a secret laboratory and reported that he had become an invulnerable super-soldier. Having mastered the new status, Garrison goes to avenge his beloved, and then a chain of events begins.

Then follows the main, or rather the only plot twist of the film. Only now, the creators revealed it in the first trailer. However, anyone who reads the comic book already knows what it is, and those who are not familiar with the original source will guess everything in the first third themselves - even a minimum of observation is enough.

It is difficult to single out one specific problem, but most of all other components, perhaps, the script is lame. Not the plot, I emphasize, namely the script. After all, Bloodshot is surely someone will defend from a position of nostalgia. Say, this is an old-school fantastic action movie in the spirit of the Universal Soldier and Robocop - there are also simple stories, but no one complained. Yes, the story can be arbitrarily straightforward - it is important how it is presented, how the characters are revealed, and what they say to each other. In the same Robocop by Paul Verhoeven, there was a place for the transformation of the hero from the car back into a man, and for the whipping satire, and the phrases quoted thirty years later. There is nothing in the Bloodshot except the exposition. Each of the characters that are of little or no significance to the plot will be surely spoken aloud by some of the characters around which most of the dialogues are built.

When the characters do not explain everything that the viewer already understood, they exchange pathos about duty, freedom of choice and other high matters. Perhaps this should create the illusion that they have characters and motivation, but in the end - neither one nor the other. With Harrison, who, by the way, is never called the Bloodshot, everything is clear. He is a man-cannonball - where they launched, there and rushing. But the rest of the characters develop in the same way, or rather, they move by some inertia of unknown origin. There is a soldier girl Katie who sympathizes and helps Ray because she has suffered the same fate. And there is a former Marine Dalton, who hates Ray, because, he says, he has to mess with Garrison and clean up after him. But we will never see this - the justification of the conflict is limited to a couple of phrases.

Actor's play doesn't really draw it all. There has been little demand for Vin Diesel for twenty years now - it's enough for him to frown and decisively throw scoundrels severely. But sometimes the hero has to grieve or delve into himself, and then the main star rests on the ceiling of his abilities, and the viewer experiences a slight feeling of awkwardness.

In principle, of the entire cast, only Guy Pearce depicts something bright on the screen, even though he has almost nothing to work with. Although the cast still has a terrific Toby Kebbell, the creators spend his talent on an episodic and not needed character. But a lot of time is allotted to Sam Heughan, who plays the same Dalton Marine, and this is something incredible.

But the failure of the actors is, as a rule, the fault of the director, and Bloodshot is primarily concerned. The picture was staged by debutant Dave Wilson, who had never worked with live artists before, and was engaged in-game cinematics, for example, for the first The Division or the second The Force Unleashed. And this is felt because individual scenes in the film resemble story trailers of some shooter. Or rather, one scene - a shootout in the tunnel. It is dynamic, sometimes tense, and a solution with a red light allows you to hide the flaws in the graphics and the lack of blood. But this is one working episode for two hours. The rest of the action came out at best unprepossessing, and sometimes - shameful. The graphics look worse than in the latest Terminator and even some blockbusters.

Yes, $45 million is a relatively small budget, but Leigh Whannell managed to remove a similar upgrade for nine times less, and it looked cooler. And the final fight in the film by Dave Wilson brings to mind the times of the PlayStation 3.

Bloodshot - if not the worst, then is definitely the most nondescript film adaptation of comics in recent years. This picture will surely fail and will be forgotten in a month. But the most annoying is that it is likely to bury the hope of the Valiant movie universe.