Review of Bloodshot (2020) by Thequietgamer — 11 May 2020

Because the decision was made to reveal Bloodshot's main story hook in the trailer all the movie really has to go on are its visuals as we basically know how everything is going to play out ahead of time. Luckily they are up to the task. First time director David Wilson had previously done a lot visual effects work for various video game related projects and even Age of Ultron. Everything looks absolutely fantastic and hyper-stylised as a result. Witnessing Vin Diesel have body parts blown off and reform in a cloud of nanites never gets old. A good thing too as this hero is entirely defined by his powers in this first outing.

In a detrimental move the film is so focused on the action at hand that we never get to learn who Ray Garrison is as a person. As the intended starting point for a new cinematic universe, this shows a troubling lack of insight as to what led to the MCU's near instantaneous success. It wasn't the pre-existing popularity of the characters being adapted that captured everyone's enthusiasm, but rather the fact that we all felt like we got to know Iron Man when he first popped onto the scene back in 2008. So little was revealed about anyone in this movie that I don't even have a clue as to what they're plans for the rest of their lives looked like after they drove off into the sunset.

Some goofs were made that will make it harder for people to connect with the world that's being established here going forward. Although, as someone completely unfamiliar with Valiant Comics this was a decent enough effort to pique my curiosity. These superheroes were clearly envisioned with unique ideas for powers and the content is far edgier than the majority of its contemporaries outside of Deadpool and maybe Harley Quinn (haven't seen that one yet). Some improvements will definitely need to be made in future installments should this universe be able get off the ground, but for all its faults it's the start of something new and that's pretty exciting.