Welcome back to the blog readers. I *begrudgingly* saw the newest Liam Neeson action thriller Retribution, and wanted to share my thoughts. Do I even need to say anything more? Those are my thoughts. Good night, everyone. All kidding aside, Liam Neeson's career has really faltered over the last decade or so. His films have declined in quality for the most part, and it is a shame to see, since this is the man behind Taken (2008-14) and Qui-Gon Jinn. It really has made me not interested in seeing his films. But would Retribution be a return to form, or a rehashing of the same old, same old? Stick around to find out.
Retribution is directed by Nimród Antal from a screenplay by Chris Salmanpour, and was based on the 2015 film El desconocido directed by Dani de la Torre from a screenplay by Alberto Marini. The film stars Neeson, Noma Dumezweni, Lilly Aspell, Jack Champion, Embeth Davidtz, Matthew Modine, and Arian Moayed. In the film, a man learns there is a bomb under his car seat and races against the clock to save his children who are in the car, and himself.
Like I said, I did not have a lot of anticipation for this film. And I really wanted to enjoy this film because I like Liam Neeson, but unfortunately I was left feeling underwhelmed. And in certain points, I was actually bored. And that right there is the criminal sin of an action thriller. The acting was wooden and stiff for the most part, the writing was poor in places (but not nearly as bad as Meg 2: The Trench), and, well, there really was not a whole lot of action. In fact, there was no action at all.
First I will talk about the acting. Unfortunately, like I had said, most of the acting was stiff and wooden. For the most part, Liam Neeson feels out of place in a film like this. I am afraid though that he is taking the Bruce Willis approach. And no, not the decline in health, I am not an asshole. I mean the approach of making a lot of forgettable films at the end of his career. Matthew Modine was probably the weakest link of the film, as I could not care about his character at all, even coupled with the predictable twist. The only person who I thought actually had some decent acting (aside from Lilly Aspell) was Jack Champion, who played Neeson's stepson. I have quietly become a fan of Jack Champion over the last year. His roles in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and Scream VI earlier this year have solidified him as a solid actor in my eyes, and this film is no different. I found his performance magnetic and commandeering. He absolutely commands attention whenever he is on screen.
The writing is what I want to talk about next. Normally with a film, I am not looking out for good or bad writing, instead I am looking for coherency. It is good or bad writing that will rear its head. And the writing is not great. At least it is better than Meg 2: The Trench. But the issue is that is not a very high bar. There are things in this film storywise that just do not make sense at all. And some dialog choices absolutely made me scratch my head. I may have said it in a previous review of something, but if a film does not have good acting or writing, it is a loser in my eyes.
And then we go and move over to the action, or lack thereof. Almost all the scenes in the film take place in or around the car, and it can be easy to lose focus. That is the case especially when there are films that have taken this concept more seriously, like Ambulance (2022), a film that I very much enjoyed despite a more mixed critical response. Single-location films really need to get a lot right for me to enjoy them, and this unfortunately was not one of them. Do better Lionsgate!
One final thing I want to point out is the glaring similarities to another film with the same sort of premise. I know you know what film I'm talking about. Come on, you don't? Damnit you guys, you are killing me. Fine, I'll tell you. It's Speed (1994). You cannot tell me that the two films aren't at least somewhat similar. In Speed, it's a bus and in Retribution, it's a car. It's basically what would happen if a child was in school and cheated off one of their classmates, but made the answers look different so teachers would not suspect cheating. But then the answers are worse than the original and the child gets no credit anyway. Ridiculous.
In conclusion, Retribution is a by-the-numbers action thriller that bores more than it does excites. With poor acting and writing, it is one of the more forgettable entries into a forgettable back catalog for Liam Neeson. Thank you all for reading and I will see you for the next review.
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