Review of Mechanic: Resurrection (2016) by Christian C — 24 Nov 2016

Jesus fucking christ, talk about a generic action movie. I honestly can't even believe how generic this is. And this is from someone who, somewhat, was looking forward to this film since I did enjoy the first flick, which is a remake of a Charles Bronson movie.

As far as I'm concerned, I've always been a fan of Jason Statham. I think he's believable as an action star mostly because he actually does look like he could kick your ass if he sets his mind to it.

And I think the grand majority of his movies reflect that, since they do showcase his 'skills' in the martial arts realm. Is he the greatest action hero of all time? Debatable, particularly if you look at some of the movies he's been in.

He's still really good at what he does, so I enjoy his movies. But I found very little to like about this. Not only does it feel like an unnecessary sequel, but it also bears little resemblance to the film that came before it other than the fact that it shares the same name.

The only thing that makes it feel like a sequel is the fact that the character of Arthur Bishop has supposedly been dead for years before he's drawn back into the world he thought he had left behind.

That's it. There's nothing else that carries over. They probably took a generic action script, made some minor changes to make it fit as a sequel to the Mechanic and voila, this is the film we have.

The major problem, to me, outside of it being a bland and generic action movie, is the fact that Jason Statham is pretty much an unstoppable killing machine who never suffers any sort of adversity or harm in the journey to overcome his villainous foe and his goons.

I'm serious, Jason Statham kills so many people in this movie that I almost started feeling sorry for them with how much ass Jason actually kicked. One of my main issues with Superman is that, unless you have kryptonite, there's nothing that you can actually do that would make you feel any sort of sympathy for him save doing the 'everyone I love is in danger' bullshit.

Add that to the fact that Superman has no personality whatsoever, so it makes caring for him as a character nigh impossible. Jason Statham isn't quite Superman in this film as he is still very much a human who can die if enough bullets hit him.

But that's just it. Nothing ever hits him. He's never in any danger of being physically outmatched by any of the villain's goons. That definitely adds to the film's blandness. If I felt that something was actually at stake, then I might have thought that this was better than it actually was.

Because, realistically speaking, while the action isn't anything mind-blowing, it isn't bad either. It's mindless and senseless, yes, but it isn't bad. Part of the problem is that there really isn't any heft to it.

Staham kills a bunch of faceless, nameless goons and by the thousandth goon he kills, you've become desensitized from all the violence on display here. The narrative is pretty much nothing. Statham is pulled back into this world he left behind to save the woman he loves, I guess.

They do a shit job at portraying the 'romantic' elements of the film. The bad guy, someone from Bishop's past, orders Bishop to perform hits on his opposition so he can control the entire world's arms market.

I think, I wasn't really paying attention to it. It really is that unimportant, because the details don't really matter in the long run. What matters is how many people Bishop kills in a 95-minute movie.

The end count probably isn't as much as I'd think, but my perception is that he probably killed everybody on earth and he is the lone survivor along with Jessica Alba's character. They now need to repopulate the earth.

That, honestly, sounds like a better movie than this one was. Bland, dull, generic, lifeless, pointless. I don't know what else I need to say to make you see that this movie was just no good. You can do far worse, for sure, but this will be the type of movie you forget the day after.

I'm sure Mad Max: Fury Road or both Raid movies are available for cheap somewhere. Watch those masterpieces instead.