by Heath Lynch, Contributing Writer
The journey of a director can be one of the most interesting types of careers to chart. You follow them as they ride the waves of Hollywood, the highs and the lows. You observe as some directors reach the pinnacles of film, while others might taste success, but are derailed entirely for one reason or another. Usually, this reason is a catastrophic failure of a movie… Martin Campbell is one of these intriguing figures. While it may have taken a while to get his feet under him, in the ’90s he found great commercial success. Films like GoldenEye and The Mask of Zorro established that he could create solid action blockbusters that bring in a great financial take. He followed that up in the 2000s with his most successful film ever, Casino Royale. Yet in 2011, he came out with a little movie called Green Lantern. Yikes. This altered the course and trajectory of his entire career. In the decade since, Hollywood has only given him the opportunity to make two theatrical movies. The first one came out six years after the massive failure of Green Lantern, and was forgotten. The second one just came out this week. With the wizards behind John Wick at his back, can Campbell reclaim some of that success he used to experience with his newest effort, The Protégé? Or, is he set to continue sliding into obscurity?
The Protégé stars Maggie Q as an assassin named Anna. She has a troubled past related to childhood trauma from growing up in Vietnam, and she channels her pain into killing for a living. Anna was raised and mentored by Moody (Samuel L. Jackson), who’s an elite assassin himself and is close to retirement and getting out of the game purely due to old age. However, when a job from 30 years past rears its ugly head, chaos ensues. Lives are turned upside down, and a charismatic hitman named Rembrandt (Michael Keaton) enters the ring to show why he’s the best in the game.
One of the most important things any film can do is establish tone. It helps create a set of rules that the audience can understand and follow so that they can pull enjoyment from the experience. If you’re constantly shifting the tone of a film, it makes it difficult for an audience to engage with what the film is aiming to deliver. Unfortunately, The Protégé never sticks the landing on setting a distinct tone. It likes to dance back and forth between being a seriously brutal action flick on par with The Bourne Identity or John Wick, while trying to be a snide and sarcastic fun action romp with quirky adventures. It makes sense that this conflict exists within the picture when you look at its construction. Campbell likes to direct more eccentric action films. He has a history of stories that implement a lot of flair to them, if not outright campiness. But this was brought to us by the team that brought us John Wick, a film that has set the tone for how modern action films are being created with intensely hard-core and grotesque action sequences.
It’s hard to get a grip on what a movie is trying to accomplish where one scene has two people fighting against each other while simultaneously trying not to have sex with one another, a la Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Yet another scene requires a massive trigger warning as it shows an actual beheading like you would see done by the Taliban in the news. How is an audience supposed to reconcile these drastically different actions and feelings? That’s not to say that the movie is garbage and unwatchable, but it’s important to understand this disparity going into the film.
The performances from our lead three actors is a big reason The Protégé is actually watchable. Jackson is simply playing himself, but he plays it well. He is brazen and hilarious in his uncaring attitude. Maggie Q is great. She is truly one of the great female action stars that has unfortunately not been part of a great movie worthy of her talents. For the moment, this is the best we have to showcase her skill set and prowess. She is hard-hitting, and relentless, in her conviction. And her backstory and how she conveys it, although incredibly uncomfortable, yields the only sliver of empathy this movie has to offer. I can only hope that this movie vaults her to a higher level where she is offered better projects in the future. But the show stealer here is definitely Keaton. He is absolutely terrific and has more than enough charm and charisma to sustain this entire film. His witty lines are a large percentage of why it works. I found myself hanging on every line of dialogue his character offered as the movie definitely had my fullest attention when he was on screen. This is desperately needed because the actual narrative is lacking. The story feels very formulaic and inconsequential. The twists and turns it attempts to take feel unearned and fall flat. The pull of the performances thankfully helps offset the weak story.
I do want to be clear as well that while the tone of the film is constantly changing and hard to connect to, the action on screen is very visceral and entertaining. It is often pulse pounding, and will have you shouting out expletives at some of the most extreme moments. The movie finds a lot of unique and interesting ways to showcase murder and violence. It isn’t simply that everyone gets shot in the face with a gun, although that does happen. It’s creative and varied, with electrocution, explosions, and more. If this is the kind of intense action you were looking for, you will find it here in spades. I would even go so far as to say some of the scenes revel in the violence a bit too much, almost taking joy and satisfaction out of the murder. There were a couple scenes in particular that turned me off from the movie because it was so unnecessary. There are even blatant moments of torture. If this kind of blood and gore is not for you, then I recommend staying away from this picture because you will not find enjoyment here.
One thing I will give this movie props for is its technical components. The costumes and wardrobe look really sharp, especially for Maggie Q. Though the art direction is nothing special, it is fun to see different aspects of the world as we globetrot between Da Nang, Vietnam, London, England, and Bucharest. The cinematography is also very sharp. It’s nothing that would be awards worthy by any stretch, but the movie does engage in some interesting lighting techniques and unique camera tracking shots. The action is also framed very well. The effects that accompany the action are done in exceeding fashion. I give it bonus points for many of them being practical in nature.
So, when we look at the big picture, this is absolutely not the start of the Martin Campbell revival tour. But it is assuredly a better effort than Green Lantern. He’s at least back on the right path and I wish him the best while hoping Hollywood won’t continue to shun him. While The Protégé won’t go down as an action classic like the John Wick team would’ve loved to see, it’s at least enjoyable. When all is said and done, this film is likely to get lost in the shuffle and wind up just feeling like a generic action thriller that you’ve seen many times before. It will inevitably become one of those movies lost to time that a year from now when someone mentions the movie The Protégé, you might’ve forgotten that you’d ever even seen it. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth taking in, in the meantime.
Grade: C+
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