Blacklight – A Dull Action Thriller

The Action-Neeson subgenre is the gift that keeps on giving. Despite getting up there in age, Liam Neeson has not let that stop him from cranking out more or less the same film over and over again. To his credit, those films continue to find success in spite of that. His character with a special set of skills is at it again in Blacklight, a film that sees him do more Liam Neeson things, this time in an incredibly dull and convoluted political action thriller that takes too long to get going and only gets in the way of those Liam Neeson things. That being said, it could still be enough for a lot of audiences, that’s arguably why these films keep getting made anyway and probably won’t stop after this one. One can’t help but feel short-changed and want more or maybe it’s also wrong to expect more because Neeson is getting up there in age. In the end, it definitely shows. This film does little to nothing whatsoever to set itself apart from all the other offerings out there. This films had essentially been played out countless times before in countless better films.

Blacklight follows a man named Travis Block (Neeson), a secret US government operative on the tail end of his career. As he approaches retirement, Block was forced to come to terms with past and his actions while working for a government that he dedicated his life to. Little did he know what that government and the person who he thought to he his friend, FBI Director Gabriel Robinson (Quinn), were really up to. From there, Block found himself in the middle of a conspiracy alongside a reporter named Mira Jones (Raver-Lampman) for whom their paths aligned. With a target on each of their backs, it was up to them to do what was right before it was too late as Block vowed to make it right with his family and Jones simply fighting for what she believed in. The contrived and generic, not to mention convoluted, nature of the story made it hard to care as Block and Jones were merely running around aimlessly. All of this made for an overall dull watch.

Amongst that dullness were flashes of what the film could be with Block doing Liam Neeson type things, however, those moments were unfortunately few and far between as it straddled a middle ground between action and thriller without doing either particularly well. The thinness of it all was underwhelming and lazy to say the least but not particularly surprising. Most audiences are likely to find themselves waiting for something to happen that never comes. As a whole, Blacklight doesn’t work. The highlight of the film was certainly the action. Though it is mindless, watching Block use his wits more than anything else was at least somewhat interesting to watch. Ultimately, that alone doesn’t quite make a film.

As with most Action-Neeson film, Blacklight sees Neeson once again do just enough to get by as Block. It’s still sort of cool but it’s also hard to argue that he’s simply going through the motions at this point as another character primarily made up of brooding. Though these kinds of films were never going to be deep character studies, his shtick does get old as the film exposed his lack of range, making for some tough moments. As far as the rest of the cast were concerned, they were simply there for the ride while also doing just enough to get by, going through the motions while doing the best they could with the mediocre material. Quinn, in particular, was miscast and served as little to no competition whatsoever to Neeson’s Block.

At the end of the day, Blacklight is just more of the same but on the lower tier of the Action-Neeson genre.

still courtesy of VVS Films

If you liked this, please read our other reviews here and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or Instagram or like us on Facebook.

Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.