Dan_Tebasco
Jan 10, 2018
6/10
I'd rather watch this than any of the Iron Man films
No, it's not amazing and no the story is not an emotional journey that makes you both laugh and cry... but.
It's a video-game adaption, and you really can't go in to them thinking they are gonna blow your socks off because really, most of them aren't that great.
The 1994 Jean Claude Van Damme adaption was genuinely awful and that was pretty true to the (no) plot of the video-game so of course they had to do something different here, which I am glad they did, not just fighting all the time but an actual story.
Now of course the story does have a bunch of plot holes (but honestly what video-game adaption that doesn't?) and Chris Klein's acting in particular is pretty dodgy, he plays a tough guy cop which he tried to do again in CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE (2012) but he fails every time.
I like him fine usually but yeah he's not at all believable as a 'bad ass'.
Better is Kristin Kreuk in the lead and Michael Clarke Duncan and Neal McDonough are pretty cool as the bad guys.
And most of the fight-scenes are pretty well orchestrated (except perhaps the dance-club scene) and the cinematography is good and keeps at a good pace plus a pretty good soundtrack as well.
All in all, not a 'great film' but perfectly watchable if you leave your thinking cap on the shelves and just take it for what it is, if you enjoyed ELEKTRA (2005) you should be able to enjoy this... If you didn't (which granted many didn't) then tread carefully I suppose.
