Review of Black Crab (2022) by Jluis_001 — 19 Mar 2022

Noomi Rapace does not usually disappoint, but her choice of roles, or rather the ones she is offered and accepts, are not usually satisfactory.

Under the Netflix banner, Black Crab has every one of the familiar and tendentious characteristics of any dystopian thriller.

That doesn't make for a good feeling, but the film grabs you in its first 20 minutes because you want to make sense of what you're watching. But once the tone is set, the bland and uniform narrative reveals a barely functional action thriller.

If there's anything positive to mention about this film, it's the tone, which is quite bleak, and that some of its scenes are quite well composed. Surprising for a first-time director.

Now, the mission that drives this story is very weak, to be honest. Mostly because its focus on survival lacks perspective. Everyone involved is disposable. The only character that matters is Rapace's and she the only one with a story arc, and it's barely sustained by the excessive length.

So from there you can kiss the tension goodbye, you know she has to make it to the end because she is the face of the film.

By Netflix standards it will do more than enough for its subscribers.

At this point we already know how disposable these kinds of films are, regardless of the small amount of interest and entertainment they may generate on the weekend they are released.