BLOODSHOT – Review

Okay action flick fans, it’s still fairly early in the movie year but who’s ready for a high-octane thriller based on a comic book character? I’m guessing the answer’s a resounding yes, though the superheroes don’t generally invade the multiplex for several more weeks. So which comics publishing company is the print home of the possible subject of a new big franchise? It’s not the current “golden stable of stars” Marvel (now part of the “Mouse House”). Nor is it the older line that’s trying hard to “catch up”, DC (linked with Warner Brothers). Perhaps it’s Image, the upstarts that gave us Spawn? Nope, but you’re getting closer. One of its ilk from around the same era is Valiant Comics (Entertainment as they expand), part of the independent press explosion of the early to mid-1990s. Back then the readers were all over the heroes with big “guns” (ripply, veiny muscles and massive artillery). Well, after a quarter-century, here he comes, blasting out of the “four-color” pages and on to the big screen, the man known as BLOODSHOT.

As we meet his alter ego Ray Garrison (Vin Diesel) he is, indeed, toting a big ole’ gun as a “special forces”-type soldier on a covert mission in a hostile foreign land. After a brutal hostage rescue, he’s transported back to a US military base in Italy where he’s reunited with his lady Gina (Talulah Riley). Their romantic getaway is cut short the next morning when a squad of goons grabs them. When their leader, a grinning sadist known as Martin Axe (Toby Kebbell), doesn’t get the intel on Ray’s last mission, it’s “lights out” for the couple. When Ray awakens he’s on a metal slab in the high tech HQ of P.R.S. run by Dr. Emil Harting (Guy Pierce) and has no memory of his name or past life. He explains that Ray was indeed murdered and when no family claimed his remains, Ray was given to them for a risky experiment in which his blood was replaced by “nanites”, thousands of tiny insect-like robots. The doc grabs Ray’s hand and slices the palm open with a blade. To Ray’s shock, the “bugs” swiftly go to work, stitching, repairing, and closing up the wound in a manner of seconds. Plus he’s got enhanced stamina and strength, so he’s a super-soldier who can’t be killed. Again. Ray is then introduced to the doc’s previous “reconstructions” (he himself sports a robotic arm that replaced one lost to cancer). One man, Tibbs (Alex Hernandez), has an all-new visual system since he lost his sight, while Jimmy Dalton (Sam Heughan) has a pair of robotic legs that provide superspeed. Then there’s the lady, K.T. (Eiza Gonzalez), whose damaged lungs were replaced by a P.R.S. breathing apparatus that makes her immune to gasses and able to stay underwater a long time. One evening, as Ray shares a drink with her after training, a piped-in tune sparks a memory in Ray of his last moments. Brushing K.T. aside, he escapes the lab on a fevered quest for revenge. But is it all as simple as that? Could it be that random or is it part of a deeper plan?

Though he’s no doubt pleased to be out from behind the wheel of another super-charged auto and not having every other line of dialogue about “family”, Diesel seems to be doing a docile riff on the 1980s action film stars as Ray. We get to see a tear trickle as he endures his loss and learns the “big truth”, but his role is too much a wooden composite of iconic thriller SF characters. A touch of ROBOCOP, a pinch of THE WOLVERINE, and a big dollop of THE TERMINATOR as he just keeps comin’ at the baddies, only pausing for the “bug bots” to piece him back together. Aside from his weird glowing red chest and pale skin to signify his breakdown, there’s not much that Diesel contributes to making him unique. We keep hoping for him to team up with Gonzalez who makes a most formidable and sultry heroine, but she’s kept on the sidelines to bicker with Pierce’s devious doctor. As usual, he projects an aura of smug superiority, but Pierce never gets a chance to be more than the furious boss bellowing orders. Heughan appears to be having a bit of campy fun as the always sneering Dalton, but he’s reduced to another CGI-aided effect by the finale. Luckily the tone is lightened by the comic relief of Siddarth Dhanjayas Eric the main computer nerd (as Peter Parker’s buddy Ned would say, “The guy in the chair”) and a scene-stealing turn by Lamorne Morris as programming geek god Wilfrid Wigans, whose snappy comic timing and witty retorts makes us wish for a solo spin-off (doubtful).

Former special effects artist and first-time feature director Dave Wilson uses his visual skills to keep the flick moving though it seems to stall during the exposition exchanges in between the big action sequences. His reliance on the new action cliche of going really fast, then slow down for a bit (a spin on “bullet-time” from the now 21-year-old first MATRIX), then suddenly kicking back into double speed quickly becomes tedious. Some effort is made on providing an off-kilter look by using smoke. K.T. goes into battle holding canisters that release billowing red clouds. And Ray’s first big villain “take-down” is in a motorway tunnel turned into a white alienesque landscape due to an overturned semi filled with baking flour. Really? It feels more forced than original. We spared a lot of gore in order to snag the more teen-friendly PG-13 rating, but the carnage count is right up there with the JOHN WICK flicks, though without the sense of “over the top” comic irony. And because of the big “reveal”, we get to see rehashes of previous bits of business, making it seem as though the whole flick is “spinning its wheels” while going nowhere. It finally devolves into lots of noise, massive property damage, and pulsating pixels. Back to the garage, Mr. D. After two dull hours of this monotonous mayhem I felt dazed and truly BLOODSHOT.

1.5 Out of 4