My Review of "The Killer (2023)"

The Killer (2023) has recently dropped exclusively on Netflix. It's a thriller that looks great on paper but in execution doesn't always hit. To me it looked like the perfect movie. It's like a John Wick type movie but directed by David Fincher. I've loved a ton of David Fincher movies but they all had some sort of mystery to them. Therein lies a bit of the problem.

The movie starts off with the killer. He goes by many aliases so we never truly know his name. Throughout the movie he narrates what's going on in his head because you can't have external monologues while trying to assassinate people. He's obviously a pro in the game that's been doing it forever. Well that's what I suspect. He seems to know what he's doing.

Then the movie goes on a swerve where he misses his target and has to skip town for his screw up. Due to his mishap stuff in his personal life happen as well. As a result, he wants to take revenge for the people that messed around with his personal life. Now we have a revenge movie.

The way they set everything up is actually quite good. They build up the tension and the intensity of our killer. We truly believe he's going to kick ass in a cold deliberate way. In a sense he does.

With each murder he commits he comes closer to the head honcho. Though this isn't a mystery movie. He doesn't really have to go searching for clues to figure things out as I'm used to with other Fincher movies. Basically he goes out and intimidates people to get answers. It's pretty much paint by numbers.

Each encounter feels somewhat like a video game level where he goes from person to person to figure out what the next level will be. They're a bit drawn out but carefully done so that there is enough tension to keep our interests throughout the scenes. I like that there's a bit of doubt in the killer's head to keep us as the audience guessing whether or not he's going to survive. Ultimately it's kind of predictable but still they did a good job in creating some tension.

There is one big action sequence that grabbed my attention and I kind of wished there were more of them. There aren't a ton of action sequences for a revenge movie. This movie is more of an exploration of the killer's psyche while he's going through the motions. Each of the victims he has to erase give him different reflections of himself. He wonders whether he missed the first target on purpose. Where's his moral compass? Why is he even in doing this in the first place?

Action fans will only like one big scene but the rest of the movie may feel drawn out for you. I did enjoy the psychological aspect of the killer. It's interesting to explore his thoughts as he's trying to figure out what to do next. For the most part he doesn't screw up so we start questioning why certain things transpired as well.

This movie doesn't give you any answers and it's up to us as the audience to deduct our on conclusions from what we see. I personally hated the ending for this movie but was entertained by the majority of the movie.

Overall, it's all about the fun factor of the movie. I did have a good time with this movie up until the end. I thought it was still well crafted and I didn't really expect a ton of action because of the players involved with this movie. I have to give this movie a 6.5 out of 10. It's enjoyable enough that I'd recommend it but only to a certain few individuals.