Review of American Assassin (2017) by Connor S — 03 Dec 2017

At one point, Michael Keaton (Tim Burton's Batman) is told that "it's not the Cold War anymore," but if that's the case, why did they make a movie based on a Cold War novel about nuclear terrorism?

While I haven't read the book, those who have told me American Assassin barely resembles it. What we got is a trite action movie full of flaws. For one thing is the writing. The script is a textbook example of how not to write exposition. Not only does the movie repeatedly rely on news broadcasts to explain the plot, it also breaks the basic "show, don't tell" rule by repeatedly telling us how unbelievably elite the assassin is without giving any evidence of how he's "off the charts." The second glaring flaw is the obviously fake CGI that nearly ruins the climax. The third is its total lack of self-awareness. American Assassin tries to follow in Jason Bourne's footsteps, but it forgets that self-awareness is what makes Jason Bourne a great series. I kid you not, this movie features a kind of waterboarding and endorses political assassination, both of which have been banned by executive orders for good reasons, and treats them like they're perfectly acceptable. The assassin himself is horribly unhinged and traumatized to the point that he can't function in society, but they make him a highly trained killing machine anyways, even though what he really needs is therapy. He goes through the movie brutally killing terrorists who are injured or begging for their lives, but that's OK because he never kills anyone even remotely sympathetic.

There are some things American Assassin does right, though. It has a good sense of pacing, and the hand-to-hand combat is very well choreographed. Special shout-out to the fact that the one conventionally attractive female agent on the team isn't used for a shoehorned romance subplot, although the plot twist about her is so painfully obvious it's a surprise none of the characters figured it out the moment they meet her. American Assassin is not an unpleasant movie to watch at all. It's simply not a good movie.