American Assassin (2017)

American Assassin is a thriller/action movie starring Dylan O'Brien as self-trained assassin Mitch Rapp. His fiancee is killed by Islamic terrorists and he is recruited by a secret black-ops unit. Where Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton) reluctantly trains him, until they receive an assignment to find and stop a nuclear bomb.

If you've read other reviews on this movie, you'll notice that,  at least, 90% of them are negative. Some referring to the book it was based off, others to the poor script, inconsistent tone, and noting there is a lack of logic in the movie. They just roasted it until it became ashes.
So, I feel the need to say it wasn't that bad. It really wasn't. I didn't regret watching it, it kept my attention, and Dylan O'Brien did save the movie. I'm not going to do a negative review because there's generally enough out there if you want to read them. What I am going to say, is that most of the people watching movies aren't experts (like myself) and will enjoy this movie. It's not the best action movie and the genre isn't my favourite to begin with, but I am so glad it wasn't another James Bond cliche.

The movie takes off immediately, with no messing around. Rapp was just enjoying his holiday, proposing to his girlfriend, and then a bunch of terrorists kill literally everyone. Even shooting his fiancee twice, even though she was pretty dead from the first shot. Rapp witnessing this, it skips ahead 18 months where he's grown a beard and learned to fight. In my opinion, this was a compelling introduction. It threw us right into the blood and gore, and ruthlessness of the writers. We immediately get character development in less than 20 minutes and even introduced to how badass Rapp is (even though he may be slightly too angry and is definitely psychologically screwed).

Okay, I'll say one negative thing. The antagonist shifted often, making it confusing to me (short attention span) who was the main villain when it kept switching to Islamic terrorists, then to other terrorists, and then to someone who was the cliche James Bond abandoned-agent-now-getting-revenge. But to balance that, I really enjoyed that this film used so many locations. They were in Rome, Budapest, and so on, and it finally wasn't just an American spy movie that seemed to only chase villains in Russia or Asia.

The movie did have a few cliches, but it also surprised me more than once. I'm always trying to guess where the plot is going, the character development, and the ending. The characters had so many human flaws and it's so good to see that, compared to James Bond (yes, him again) where he's just this boring agent that has no mental health issues and his generally perfect apart from his age finally catching up to him. I'm on guard, and it reaches the part of the movie where a female agent is introduced to the team and I just mentally groan, convinced they're going to take it in that direction. I won't tell you what happens, but I did not expect it.

The ending (spoilers, sorry), was a surprise. But we finally get a movie where the protagonist has a bomb and doesn't know/can't diffuse it. I am so sick of those endings. Even though I didn't particularly enjoy this one either- a nuclear bomb goes off and it's unknown if it's killed anyone. They didn't really clarify that part. But we do see a happy Rapp, maybe, finally getting his revenge as the last scene.

I was a bit worried about Dylan O'Brien, I absolutely loved him in the Maze Runner, and Teen Wolf, but this was a different genre and he is relatively young compared to other movie competitors. But he definitely brought the movie together, and I'm not sure that anyone else playing Mitch would have done the role justice. They seem to cycle through the same kind of actors for action films, so it's refreshing to see him on screen and bring the character to life.

Would I recommend this? If you like an action movie that's mostly hand-to-hand combat and somewhat gorey, then yes. It's not even 2 hours, so if you're bored or with a few friends, I'd say watch it. I'm not going to say it's awful because it isn't, there have been worst movies, but it's not a game-changer either- it's just average.

Any chance of sequels? I read that there are 15 books in the series, and all I can think about is- what are they about? What is the need for 15 books? From other reviews, it looks like there's no chance. But I would watch them, as long as they kept Dylan O'Brien.




Sources:
http://www.cbsfilms.com/american-assassin/