Wait, Shooting ...Blood? What?

Conditions: Bitter Bitter

Film Review: Bloodshot

Aka the only new film available at the moment.  We're in a time of needing comfort food-type films, and Bloodshot tells a story that basically is a bunch of chocolate and nuts in a shiny new package.  Vin Diesel is a soldier with regenerative super powers who is after the man who killed his wife, but in reality he is actually being manipulated to think he's a soldier who is after the man who killed his wife.  In fact the man is a different man each time.  Guy Pearce is the evil scientist who wipes and resets Vin's memory after each mission.  He wants to kill off the various other scientists who could rival his plans to put the Bloodshot technology onto the open market and sell to the highest bidder.  The plot repeats a couple of times while setting up the side character who then finally steps in and breaks Vin free of his repeating missions.  Vin then fights the minions before going on to fight Guy himself.

In fairness the effects are very good, fight sequences and digital sets are all looking top notch, and Vin's nano tech super powers are very convincing.  Ultimately the film sets out a fairly simple premise, does the shallowest of jobs defining it's hero and what the stakes are, then rolls us through one action sequence after another as our hero fights, regenerates, fights, regenerates, and so on.  In the end a brand new character is introduced, a Deus Ex Machina of sorts, who is another programming genius and is able to "take over" Vin's programming, whatever that means, after a long and incredibly laboured "keyboard typing" duel between the geniuses.  He therefore "saves" Vin so he's then able to ...well frankly no one here is enough of a character for there to be a viable "and then" once the film ends, so it doesn't really matter. 

Is Vin the right character for this kind of film?  Probably.  His character is a tough guy who exists to punch people while growling.  It's not really a stretch.  I feel the minions represent wasted potential - three ex-soldiers with a mix of terrible injuries that have been repaired and even enhanced with robotic technology.  The one with robotic legs has a real hatred for Vin's character, but it's never explained and only explored through a big fight sequence at the end.  Still, the point of this film is to watch Vin terminator his way through a bunch of bad guys, and in that I guess it delivers.  One dead bodyguard out of five.

- Peace out