As a comic book reader, I’ve found an appreciation for the work of Valiant Comics. They do superheroes in a style distinctive of their own, often with more moral gray areas, and with a high degree of entertaining quality. And given how big superheroes are at the box office these days, it was only a matter of time for someone to try and bring one of their characters to the big screen. Heck, I was going to see Bloodshot before my home state went into lockdown before I decided, on my own, to pass for now. That said, I wasn’t going to pay $20 for a movie I was probably going to only watch once and alone.
But the price did come down to something a bit more reasonable for someone like me, and quite frankly, Bloodshot probably is a good character to introduce this universe with, so why not check out a movie I was going to see a couple weeks ago before the world went into lockdown?
Soldier Ray Garrison (Vin Diesel) is one of those unstoppable fighting machines, a tough guy who may get more than his fair share of scars but always comes home to his wife Gina (Talulah Riley). But then something happens and Ray winds up in the hands of Rising Spirit Tech, a company that rebuilds soldiers from the worst possible injuries. Ray was dead, but now he has a bloodstream full of nanites, tiny robots that can rebuild Ray from even the deadliest of injuries as well as a few other gifts. But is there more to all this than Ray knows?
Here’s the thing: this movie probably works better if you don’t know much about the Bloodshot character, and even that very vague description above makes me wonder if I said too much. I do know Bloodshot’s origin, so the movie’s smarter plot developments were a wee bit more predictable for me. Much of what happens in the first half or so of the movie seems rather cliche, but then something comes along that makes it a bit smarter than I would have thought.
The problem is, as clever as the overall story goes, it’s still a very Vin Diesel sort of action movie. Diesel is a good choice for Ray/Bloodshot at least visually, given he looks rather indestructible even under normal circumstances. But outside of his voice work with the likes of Groot or the Iron Giant, I tend to find Diesel a rather one-note actor. That’s fine enough if all you want is lots of action and stunts, but it does make the man seem a bit limited in his range. As a movie, Bloodshot doesn’t really ask Diesel to stretch his acting chops much. Meanwhile, there’s actor Guy Pearce as the head of Rising Spirit, and I am reminded how I never recognize Pearce in a movie when I’ve seen him so many times and always think he looks vaguely familiar. He doesn’t do much more than the standard stock character for this sort of role.
What life there is in the cast comes from Lamorne Morris as a hacker who knows a bit more about what’s going on than Ray does. Between that and the clever story, there’s a rough outline of a good movie here. As it is, the direction and much of the cast aren’t quite talented enough to get it there, so it comes across as decent. nothing bad, but nothing all that memorable either. Perhaps Valiant can get some better offerings out there, but Bloodshot is basically an average if somewhat forgettable superhero action movie.
Grade: C+
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