Ray Garrison, an elite soldier who was killed in battle, is brought back to life by an advanced technology that gives him the ability of super human strength and fast healing. With his new abilities, he goes after the man who killed his wife, or at least, who he believes killed his wife. He soon comes to learn that not everything he learns can be trusted. The true question is: Can he even trust himself?
Written by Sony Pictures Entertainment
Almost by default when it comes to an obscure action adventure film, Vin Diesel’s name is sure to populate the minds of creatives when narrowing down a true lead. It goes without saying that the man was born for this type of stuff. With the addition of a well-known comic book property it would seem like the perfect marriage for a fun moviegoing experience, but that’s not what remotely happened with Bloodshot. First time director Dave Wilson may have a few good shots when it comes to the effects, but everything else in the film was a hyper technological mess.
Ray Garrison (Vin Diesel), an elite solider who was killed in battle, is now given a second shot at life, but now with cybernetic enhancement upgrades at his disposal. He’s hellbent on finding out who murdered his wife and killed him, and I can’t blame him. This sounds like a fun interesting premise that any fan of this genre of movies would be excited about, right? Early on this is where the film’s problems start to mount up. First, it’s extremely difficult to care about the character Ray Garrison. The film spends no time developing his character or showing anything unique about him. You’re also supposed to be convinced that he’s an elite soldier, but he just appears to be an actor in cosplay. There was also no chemistry between him and his late wife. I felt no warmth from their presence on screen. When passion was being exchanged between the two it felt awkward and misplaced.
The lack of character development could’ve been forgiven if the action was served up nicely, but it wasn’t. The editing in the film was atrocious. The director simply didn’t know where to put the camera, and when he did there were far too many jump cut edits that didn’t allow you to fully comprehend the choreography that’s being displayed on screen. There was one action chase scene where one character had enhanced legs that gave him the ability to leap around like a kangaroo, but due to the poor editing choices it was difficult to make out anything. This leaves you frustrated.
The story didn’t sum up to anything exciting or worth being wild about either. You already don’t care about the lead character, and now with all the upgrades there are absolutely no stakes to be found in the rest of the film. Ray Garrison is now immortal, and no number of bullets or rocket launchers will take him down. This morphs the film into a dry, boring snore fest. There isn’t even a worthy villain in the final showdown of the film. There are just other side characters that fill in space in an attempt to show off the new technology this film tries to impress you with.
Films like Bloodshot really knock the wind out of you. With so much potential to be great it breaks my heart when the goal is missed by miles. Other studios have created a template that could possibly be followed when it comes to comic book adaptations, but Sony clearly isn’t taking notes. This film was awful, and after the first 30 minutes you’re clock watching and would rather be balancing your check book. If there is any enjoyment to be had it may be from the effects department, but other than that I’d only recommend this film to others if I’m playing some sort of practical joke on them.
Bloodshot Review Video:
BLOODSHOT – Official Trailer:
