Review of S.W.A.T. (2003) by Hoops2448 — 21 Jan 2012

Swat doesn't try to be anything more than a fast paced action film so I'm not going to treat it like high art but boy does it disappoint. It's not that it has bad actors. The leads (Colin Farrel and Samuel L Jackson) are good, the villain (Jeremy Renner) is menacing with decent time devoted to his back story and the supporting members of the team (Michelle Rodriguez and LL Cool J) are decent too. It's not about the writing although it is a little hammy at times. It's just that Swat is half a movie.

Swat would be a pretty good action film if it didn't take so long to get started. The main story doesn't emerge until an hour has passed with the first hour being slow, uninteresting and just plain aggravating. The forming and training of the team could have taken half the time and could have been much more interesting. The unessential addition of Farrel's characters unhappy girlfriend just delays further and infuriates. The last hour itself is pretty decent with some great action and a nice brisk pace. The night-time setting does lead to some lighting issues with the final fight being hard to follow but it still entertains which is more than I can say about the beginning which is just dire. Finally if you're going to have a menacing villain, actually make him menacing. Olivier Martinez's French villain isn't so much bad as he is laughable. Someone who should be fearsome and dark is pompous and annoying and acts like his mummy took his toys away for being bad. It's just plain funny.