American Assassin – Bourne TNG

I have to confess to not knowing that much about ‘American Assassin’s’ roots, i.e. the series of books it was based on, and generally sat down to watch it due to it having Michael Keaton in it, following his cultural resurgence of late.  Without knowing any more than the title hinted at, I was pretty much shocked right off the bat.

It’s actually quite a lot more violent than I was anticipating.  There are some scenes that are scarily realistic and really do go a long way to convey the sense of terror the victims must be experiencing (and this is just in the opening ten minutes!).  A young man loses a loved one in a terrorist attack and sets about seeking revenge on the group responsible.  Only, somewhere along the way, the CIA decides to recruit him for a more ‘traditional’ method at dealing with the ‘bad guys.’

I found I had mixed feelings about the film.  The opening is certainly not for the faint-hearted and I thought I was in for one hell of an ‘adult ride.’ However, it kind of slows down after that and descends into one suspension of disbelief after the next.  I could sort of buy that the most organised espionage agency in the world would feel the need to recruit a completely ‘self-taught’ protégé, but the fact that he quickly becomes more trusted and powerful than the entire organisation put together seemed a little too much.  I felt you had to take so much of the story with a pinch of salt that only cinema-goers who weren’t really familiar with the genre could believe what they were seeing, i.e. teens.

However, just when I was settled into the mindset that I was destined to spend the next couple of hours watching ‘Jason Bourne for the next generation,’ that initial violence cropped up again and I was left wondering who this whole film was aimed at.

Overall, it’s not a bad film if you’re into yet another spy vs terrorist movie.  There’s action, the young star will probably go a long way and Michael Keaton was as good as I expected in the grizzled CIA trainer responsible for turning our young protagonist into the best killing machine in the West.  I think I need to watch it again and put my mind completely ‘on hold’ to begin with – that way I can completely overlook the fact that the head of the CIA keeps putting this untrained kid back on missions despite him ‘going rogue’ on almost every one.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights