That film, which was supposed to be Donner’s comeback to the action-movie territory ended up as a disappointment. Of course, this isn’t the first time Wenk working on a potentially good but lacklustre screenplay that manages to attract a lot of high-profile talents in the past, stretching way back to 2006 where he wrote Richard Donner’s race-against-the-time thriller 16 Blocks.
#PROTEGE FILM PATCH#
While I do enjoy the love-hate interaction between them, thanks to fine acting work from Maggie Q and Michael Keaton, the film somewhat shortchanged their potential character development in favour of a choppy narrative structure.Īs a result, The Protégé suffers from a bumpy ride desperately needed a good script doctor to patch up the inconsistencies within Wenk’s screenplay. Take the relationship involving Anna and Rembrandt, for instance. Right to the point where certain story elements are either haphazardly told or curiously incomplete. It may seem intriguing on paper but the overall execution is sadly muddled.
#PROTEGE FILM PROFESSIONAL#
The story also deals with the would-be complexity of the character dynamics between Anna and Rembrandt - both professional killers who apparently shared mutual attraction as much as they don’t mind fighting or shooting against each other under forced circumstances. Instead, in Richard Wenk’s screenplay, the film attempts to delve deeper into the shady conspiracy surrounding Moody’s death and Anna’s personal vendetta in tracking down the killer. So far so good but as the film goes on, it feels as if it tries too hard not to restrict The Protégé merely as a straightforward revenge thriller. The film then slows down the pace to make way for establishing the relationship between Anna and Moody. Well, at least to a certain extent, beginning with its well-paced first 10 minutes detailing Anna’s assignment in Bucharest. If you can look past its all-too-conventional title, the film does look promising.
As Anna sets out to find out the people responsible for killing Moody, she crosses paths with Rembrandt (Michael Keaton), a mysterious killer from her past who may or may not have to do with Moody’s death. We learned that Moody used to rescue her in Vietnam when she was a child (Eva Nugyen Thorsen) and trained her to become a killer ever since. The Protégé follows Anna (Maggie Q), a highly-skilled contract killer seeking vengeance after his mentor and father figure Moody (Samuel L. The Protégé also sees Campbell exploring his recurring theme of vengeance - something that he’s been fond of these days since the Mel Gibson-starred Edge of Darkness in 2010. And now, Campbell returns with another generically titled action thriller called The Protégé, where it was initially known as The Asset back when the film was first announced in late 2019. What’s with the generic title in Martin Campbell’s films these days? First, we have The Foreigner four years ago, the one which starred Jackie Chan in a rare dead-serious role of a grieving father who vows revenge for his daughter’s death.
0 kommentar(er)
