In BLOODSHOT, soldier Ray Garrison (Vin Diesel) is on a mission in Kenya, where he rescues a hostage and kills a terrorist. Later, he’s kidnapped, and a man named Martin Axe (Toby Kebbell) kills Ray’s wife when Ray can’t provide the details behind the mission. Axe then shoots Ray. Astonishingly, Ray wakes up to discover that Dr. Emil Harting (Guy Pearce) has brought him back to life, using micro-biotechnology, and turned him into a super soldier. At first Ray can’t remember anything, but when a song triggers a memory of the killing, his first reaction is to hit the road and get revenge. However, when the task is finished, he learns that everything that’s happened has been a lie, and that he’s being used. Will he remember what’s going on the next time he’s rebooted?
A pretty good sci-fi plot idea is mostly ruined by mindless action sequences, vacant characters, and a need to completely wring the life out of whatever cleverness the movie might once have had. Based on a popular comic book, Bloodshot doesn’t really feel like a superhero movie as much as it does one of the lesser Fast & Furious movies. It’s all dumb swagger, chaotic fights, and slo-mo explosions. Both the heroes and the villains are so tediously one-note that it almost doesn’t matter who wins. Given the basic skeleton of the story and its potentially interesting twists, it could have really been something. In other hands, it might even have been as good as Memento (which, coincidentally, starred this movie’s villain, Pearce).But first-time director David S.F. Wilson, whose previous work has largely been in video games, takes the easy way out, going for spectacle, traditional plot arcs, and a tidy wrap-up rather than using the idea of identity and memory in any kind of interesting way. Wilson does manage one fairly interesting fight sequence in a blocked-off tunnel filled with powdery clouds of dust. And there’s an amusing supporting character, coding genius Wilfred Wigans (Lamorne Morris), who brightens up a few of the later scenes. But for the most part, Bloodshot is wearingly empty entertainment.
MOVIE DETAILS
- Cast: Vin Diesel, Eiza Gonzalez, Guy Pearce
- Director: David S. F. Wilson
- Studio: Columbia Pictures
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- Topics: Superheroes
- Run time: 110 minutes
- MPAA rating: PG-13
- MPAA explanation: intense sequences of violence, some suggestive material and language.
