American Assassin - Review
This review of American Assassin is spoiler-free!
Action movies have been dominating the movie landscape for years now. This shouldn't come as a surprise, people love to go see a movie they can sit there and shove popcorn in their face and enjoy. I'm even guilty of it every once in awhile! "But Dwyer you're so supposed to be critical of film!" Well, while looking at films from a critical aspect, I can also still find enjoyment as purely a fan. This allows me to enjoy films such as American Assassin even though I know there are quite a few problems with them. So as you can probably tell off that opening statement: this isn't exactly a great movie.
American Assassin is the story of Mitch Rapp (Dylan O'Brien), who suffers a personal tragedy at the hands of a jihadist cell. Rapp decides to take matters into his own hands and attempt to infiltrate the cell and eliminate everyone and anyone who had a part in that tragedy. After being caught in a compromising position by United States intelligence, Rapp is recruited to join a black ops unit by the name of Orion. Orion is headed by Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton), a man with a dark past. I'll be right up front when I say this, the story isn't very unique in any way shape or form. It's a generic action film with a lot of flaws. But, one thing that I believe this film does absolutely right is Dylan O'Brien.
I'm one of those people who sometimes creates an opinion about something and it takes quite a bit to shake me down off that opinion. Dylan O'Brien has a future in Hollywood, and while he hasn't really been given many chances to shine as of late, I see the potential in him. His character of Mitch Rapp, while having a rather generic backstory and a bit of a shoddy arc, is one of the bright spots of the film. I could see a world where O'Brien becomes an action star in the vein of someone like Jason Statham. He most likely won't be a part of any huge films with Oscar considerations, but these are the films he will thrive in. Michael Keaton also can't do wrong in any film he is in. While his character is a bit generic and does nothing special for the movie, he's Michael Keaton and that's all that really matters.
As I mentioned previously, American Assassin does A LOT of things badly. From the very beginning, Rapp isn't a man with any true military history as we are shown in the film. Within 18 months, he somehow has infiltrated a jihad cell and plans to meet them. Right away this is a jump in judgement that you are expected to make as an audience. This happens quite often throughout the film, where you are simply expected to accept what happens throughout the course of the movie and not to ask questions. Along with this, it also uses multiple themes that are common throughout spy and action movies such as betrayal and having a bad past. I struggle to find a way this film succeeds even without these usual traits of action films, but I'm sure a different story with similar elements could have created something much better.
I continue to stand by Dylan O'Brien as a future star actor, but when he continues to be put in roles where he is set up to fail, it's hard to keep supporting him. American Assassin isn't a very unique film, and for many that is OK. It does quite a lot of things wrong, but does manage to create an exciting action movie that many would call a popcorn thriller. I am OK with that classification for this movie, as it doesn't provide anything new and groundbreaking to the genre, but is a good time. Check out American Assassin if you want a fun action movie, but don't expect a stellar story. Truth be told, it's rather forgettable.
