Overall Score
Rating Summary
Should anyone be surprised by a film like Bloodshot at this point? Any of the film’s promotional material should be a dead giveaway though in the end, another film based on a comic book like this would have been better served if it had been released somewhere in the early 2000s and not 2020, at least it would be considered somewhat original back then. Suffice it to say that the film is incredibly dated among other things. Audiences can probably find countless other films like this one across home video or on television and most of those films are probably better than this one. Meanwhile, the term “so bad that it’s good” has been thrown around a lot to describe questionable films that provide entertainment based on their perceived flaws. In this case, some may use that term to describe Bloodshot but that would be a reach as its ridiculous nature is tough to fully wrap one’s mind around, however, is required in order to fully enjoy it.
Bloodshot features a truly ridiculous story that saw a formally-deceased soldier named Ray Garrison (Diesel) come back to life under mysterious circumstances by Dr. Emil Harting (Pearce) and his advanced technology that transforms him into a super-powered killing machine. Hell-bent on revenge against the man who killed him and his wife Gina (Talulah Riley), Garrison stopped at nothing to get even. Unsurprisingly, there was much more to this story as the flood of memories of his former life would start to complicate things as were not necessarily what they seemed because obviously. From there, the film never really cleared up that part of the story, leaving plenty of holes in its wake, but who cares though it never gives us any reason to. Also from there, the story takes a rather predictable path as the action ramps up because obviously.
This was where Bloodshot‘s incredibly dated nature showed. As mentioned, the story is dated and the mediocre special effects are just as dated. The action is unsurprisingly equally as over-the-top and derivative as everything else but is also reeking with those mediocre special effects and was so haphazardly shot that it was hard to follow at times. Meanwhile, breaking up the ridiculous story and derivative action was unfunny moments of humor because why not at this point? It should come as a surprise to no one that the point of all of this was to establish a new franchise in the laziest of ways instead of making sure this film was the best it can be. Whether or not it succeeds remains to be seen as this uncertain time arguably isn’t the best indicator, however, it doesn’t do nearly enough to set itself apart in an already crowded genre.
The snowball of mediocre that is Bloodshot of course included the acting, however, the mediocre script didn’t exactly do them any favors. That being said, expectations were not that high to begin with. Diesel is who he is and it would be wrong to expect anything different at this point. The role of Garrison asked for some range but that’s something he clearly can’t provide which was painful to watch here regardless of everything else. While Pearce and González as KT were just sad to watch, Heughan and his weird accent as another another enhanced soldier named Jimmy Dalton was absolutely cringe-worthy. At least Lamorne Morris as Wilfred Wigans, the de facto comic relief was sort of fun to watch.
At the end of the day, Bloodshot is what it is for better or worse, another forgettable comic book film that may find an audience but whose ultimate destiny is to disappear amongst the noise.
*still courtesy of Sony Pictures*
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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.