Bloodshot

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio Ballarat and South West Victoria on March 20, 2020.

(M) ★★

Director: David S. F. Wilson.

Cast: Vin Diesel, Eiza González, Guy Pearce, Sam Heughan, Toby Kebbell, Lamorne Morris, Alex Hernandez, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Talulah Riley.

Pictured: Inappropriate social distancing.

There's never been a worse time to release a film, let alone launch a cinematic universe. But just as the COVID-19 outbreak was turning from epidemic to pandemic, Valiant Comics unveiled Bloodshot - a film debut for one of their best known characters that they hoped would be the vanguard for more movies.

The film has scraped to a box office of US$28.4m worldwide against a budget of US$48m amid cinema closures everywhere. Bloodshot probably would have made its money back in a different era. Hell, it might have even earned enough to at least financially warrant a franchise.

But that probably won't happen now. Bloodshot will pop up on streaming platforms eventually, or it may even slide back into cinemas when this whole crazy coronavirus saga is over. But is it worth seeing or even spawning a filmic universe? Not really.

Diesel stars as Ray Garrison, a top-notch soldier killed in the line of duty and brought back to life by Rising Spirit Technologies and its head scientist Dr. Emil Harting (Pearce). With bio-mechanical enhancements and a thirst for revenge against the man who killed his wife, Garrison AKA Bloodshot is unleashed on a world that has no idea how to stop him.

SPOILER ALERT: DON'T WATCH THIS TRAILER IF YOU DON'T WANT THE MOVIE'S BIG REVEAL SPOILED FOR YOU.

The script is as blunt and dumb as you would expect, and any hope of this subverting the superhero genre in anyway disappears quickly. The ideas are okay, and the big reveal is strong, but the film never moves deeper to find any themes, nor does it move in a direction that feels fresh or interesting. Its characters are one-dimensional and even the character with the most depth - Bloodshot - will draw little emotion of audiences.

The film's strong suit is its action, and first-time director Wilson has a thirst for these sequences but over-edits them. A shoot-out in a tunnel filled with flour is visually fascinating if somewhat edgeless, while a running street battle and the big finale do a decent enough job to get the blood pumping.

But the film's attempts at hitting emotional depths reveal the limitations in Vin Diesel's abilities, confirming once again that he is a poor man's Rock. As for Pearce, he is absolutely slumming it and picking up a paycheck. Best on ground is Lamorne Morris, who seems to have stumbled in from a different movie. At least he provides a ray of sunshine as uber-hacker Wigans, but around him, any attempts at humour fall flat.

Bloodshot is painfully predictable and is never exciting or interesting enough to overcome this predictability. It can't get past its B-grade script, and it's only the presence of Diesel and Pearce that got it into cinemas in the first place.

In spite of all this, I can't help but feel sorry for the film. Its release timing was unfortunate, robbing the movie of an audience that wouldn't have cared for my criticisms and would have lapped up the ballistic energy and Diesel's unstoppable menace. Cult status awaits Bloodshot on the other side of the coronavirus era.