The Killer (2024)

The Killer (2024)

3/10

 

Starring          

Nathalie Emmanuel

Omar Sy

Sam Worthington

Diana Silvers

 

Directed by John Woo

 

Growing up in the 90s, there was no escaping the John Woo’s 1989 movie, The Killer. Chow Yun-fat’s performance and the film’s shooting action scenes are forever stamped in my memory, even if the pacing of the movie back then wasn’t perfect. Fast-forward more than 30 years later, and Woo has decided to remake his classic. If he did, it shot for shot, it would have been better, this was a waste of view time.

I went into this with high expectations, hoping for the same gripping action and emotional resonance as the original. Instead, I got a bizarrely boring movie that completely missed the mark. Imagine a John Woo film, where there’s plenty of shooting and action, but none of it manages to hold your attention. I found myself repeatedly frustrated, especially by the cinematography. The movie was raving with strange camera tilts, unnecessary zoom-ins, and bad editing. All these made it hard to take any scene seriously and made me want to scream.

And then there’s the pacing. The original also had a pacing problem, but this one turned it up. Stumbling from scene to scene with no sense of rhythm. It’s as if the filmmakers were in a rush to get to the next poorly executed action sequence, forgetting that pacing is what keeps an audience invested.

The actors didn’t help matters. Everyone felt like they were miscast, struggling to fill roles that were simply too big for them. Nathalie Emmanuel as Zee and Omar Sy as Sey gave performances that lacked the intensity and depth needed for a story like this. Their characters felt underdeveloped, and their motives went completely over my head most of the time.

The plot is another mess altogether. When your main character, a brutal assassin, suddenly decides to spare someone for no discernible reason, you’re left wondering who thought this script was a good idea. It felt like John Woo had typed into ChatGPT: “Write me a script like my other movie, The Killer,” and called it a day. The predictability of the story was almost insulting. Finn, Zee’s handler who works for a drug lord, is cartoonishly evil and obviously set up to betray everyone.

I wanted so bad to like this movie. I really did. But between the bad editing, poor pacing, and lackluster performances, there’s just nothing to like. The original “The Killer” was iconic and this one just wish was not done. If you’re thinking about watching it, do yourself a favor don’t. Spare yourself the disappointment and rewatch the original instead.