American Assassin
Everyone wants to have a movie franchise these days. From Bourne to Bond to all points in between, a franchise is something that keeps the crowds coming in and the money flowing into the pockets of its producers. Since most franchises are dependent upon the strength of its lead character, one must choose wisely when it comes to the casting process. For every successful casting choice such as Hugh Jackman as Wolverine where Jackman was expected to and succeeded in gradually growing more comfortable and confident with the role, there are instances where a risky pick doesn’t quite work out as one would hope, like with this 2017 release with its already outdated post 9/11 concepts and which was based on a series of fifteen published books about one Mitch Rapp, a civilian whom after witnessing his girlfriend get brutally gunned down by terrorists, completely self trains himself with the intent of infiltrating a Jihad group as a white American “traitor” and once inside, killing as many of these Islamic militants as possible before he is “intercepted” by The CIA (having kept a close surveillance on him from day 1), who are so impressed by his singular drive, determination and self taught skills that he is offered the chance to join a legitimate elite paramilitary counterterrorism unit and to go on actual missions where millions of innocent lives are potentially at stake. Of course, this entire premise comes across as completely ludicrous (unenlisted civilians would NEVER be considered for this line of work) and with the world’s perspective at the time of the film’s release already turning away from Jihadists as being an actual threat (and looking more at the types in real power who enable and / or frame them) and also now viewing the CIA / Mossad (the Israeli intelligence mentioned by name in this movie) agencies as being more in line as the perpetrators of mass media propaganda rather than actually overseeing any kind of military operations that would keep people safe (although such an elite unit theoretically could operate under either The Pentagon or The Department Of Defense) with the punchline being when we see media outlets in the film reporting on various events of the story and the CIA bosses act completely dumbfounded about it. All of that can be overlooked if the casting of the Mitch Rapp character had been nailed down concisely, but instead we get the little known Dylan O’Brien placed in the role, and while O’Brien certainly appears to have decent acting chops, an action hero he is not, with his slight build and lack of presence contributing to a less than stellar outing that all but extinguished any future plans to continue on with this franchise. But sometimes we should appreciate other unexpected pleasures, since once recruited Rapp is sent to train with the legendary ex SEAL in charge of the unit, played to the hilt with amazing intensity by Michael Keaton. Given the role of a hardass military trainer / operative to sink his teeth into, Keaton gives a fearsome performance that quite literally promises to elevate the movie from its myriad of obvious issues and make it somewhat watchable, which at times it does despite a muddled storyline (including the fumbling of a subplot involving a mole in the group) and the sloppy handling of what could have been the story dynamic that would have pulled the whole thing together. Apparently, there is a rogue operative who has been codenamed Ghost (Taylor Kitsch) who ironically enough is also a former protégé of Keaton’s and not that all dissimilar in terms of his attitude and mindset as that of the new golden boy Rapp. Keaton knows this of course and purposely keeps it from Rapp in order to keep him focused, even as Ghost brazenly and singlehandedly has gotten his hands on weapons grade plutonium and is in the process of having a nuclear bomb built so that presumably he can sell it to some more Islamic terrorists and they can go blow up Israel with it. With such tired and conventional plot devices (this was all that CNN would ever talk about 15 years prior to this film’s release), one might overlook the fact that Kitsch (best known as Gambit in the X Men franchise) as Ghost is actually quite effective in the role and certainly more charismatic than O’Brien as Rapp. When it turns out though that Ghost’s true motive is that of direct revenge on his old mentor Keaton for an apparent betrayal in the field, things seem to get interesting enough so that when we get down to the final showdown between Ghost and Rapp, we almost wonder if it should be Keaton (as much of a badass as either of these two if not moreso) taking Rapp’s spot in the final battle instead. The bad news is in the literal tiptoe process through which the Ghost character is developed, not telling us enough about his backstory and also not fully exploiting the mirror images dynamic that he shares with Rapp. In the end, an outdated concept which could have done huge business if it was made 10 years prior and with better casting for its would be franchise star who needed the great Michael Keaton to carry him all the way through here…
5/10