REVIEW #28 American Assassin (2017)

American Assassin is a film directed by Michael Cuesta and follows Mitch, a man who loses his fiancé in a terrorist attack and for the next 18 months dedicates his life to avenging her death. However he is soon recruited by the CIA as an anti terrorist operative and transitions from a man on a war path to an agent having to follow orders.


CAST & THE ACTING (8.5/10)

The main character Mitch is played by Dylan O’Brien, an actor who I have credited for his great acting skills in previous reviews. This is no different, we see him transition into essentially three different characters in one film! He starts as a man of innocence, in love having just proposed to his girlfriend and upon her death soon becomes a man on a war path, hellbent on avenging her death, no matter the cost. Then finally a soldier having to follow orders. To portray these characters so well takes a lot of skill so I must credit his acting skills again, he is the underdog for my favourite actor at the moment! The other cast members include Michael Keaton, Taylor Kitsch and Shiva Negar who also perform well. So a strong score here.


PLOT & THE STORYLINE (8.5/10)

I liked this storyline, usually with this type of film we have a ready made soldier/agent and we see the mission being carried out by an experienced operative. What I liked about this is that the main protagonist starts so innocently and is moulded into a dangerous killer through the trauma of losing his fiancé in a terrorist attack. He doesn’t just join the army and do it that way, he actually tries to infiltrate the terrorist cell himself which is how he catches the CIA’s attention. So I feel the plot was quite unique, something I haven’t seen before. Which I believe justifies my score here.


CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS (8.5/10)

I think the combat choreography was captured very well, the camera work shows the chaos of the fighting but also highlights the skill and the training involved which I enjoyed. I also think the gore moments were really believable, usually with this sort of mainstream film we may see a bit of blood but we don’t see bones popping out of sockets and real gore but we did in this film. Which I respect because it shows the true nature of a soldiers skill set and the realistic consequences. So convincing. prosthetics and effects were important to keep the authenticity. So I have rounded off the review with another strong score in this category.


OVERALL (8.5/10)

I really enjoyed this film, Dylan O’Brian is, in my opinion, a very underrated actor and again he does very well in this film! I feel like the storyline was quite unique and packed with authentic action which was believable and kept me hooked from start to finish. I would recommend this film to anyone who loves an action flick because this is certainly full of it! I would like to see a sequel for this film, it has a lot of potential for one that’s for sure. Check it out and let me know what you think, I watched it on Netflix!


Thanks for reading.

Callan

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