The Protégé review

 THE PROTÉGÉ: 

MAGGIE Q KICKS ASS IN THIS FLAWED, BUT FUN ACTION FLICK! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

LIONSGATE

Maggie Q in The Protégé

 

            An assassin travels to Vietnam to confront her past in The Protégé, the new action film directed by Martin Campbell (Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro, Casino Royale), best known for breathing new life into the James Bondfranchise (twice) as well as the Zorro franchise, and one of the most infamous comic book movies of all time with 2011’s Green Lantern, thankfully, this film isn’t like the latter. This type of film is nothing new, the trained assassin who goes on a hunt for blood to find the people responsible for a horrible thing that happened (You name it, John Wick, Taken, and even another movie I just talked about, Don’t Breathe 2!), we’ve seen this a million times, but once in a while there comes a film that’s kind of a mess, but manages to find ways to be entertaining despite its flaws, this is one of those films. 

            The plot is extremely disposable and standard, and the action sequences are pretty much John Wick meets Bourne and Daniel Craig Bond. However, what glues this movie together is the acting from the cast, particularly from Maggie Q (Mission: Impossible III, Live Free or Die Hard, Nikita), Michael Keaton (Batman 1 and 2, Birdman, Spider-Man: Homecoming), and Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, Shaft (2000), Marvel Cinematic Universe). 

            The film follows Anna (Q), an assassin who was raised by Moody (Jackson) after being discovered as a child in Saigon, Vietnam in the aftermath of a massacre, and became a fierce killing machine. However, when Moody is (supposedly) murdered, Anna must return to Vietnam to track down the killer, which leads her to the mysterious and enigmatic killer, Rembrandt (Keaton). 

            The film also stars Robert Patrick (Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The X-Files) as Billy Boy, Patrick Malahide (The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, Minder, Game of Thrones) as Vohl, David Rintoul (Is Anybody There?, The Ghost Writer, Game of Thrones) as Edward Hayes, Ori Pfeffer (Munich, Dig, Hacksaw Ridge) as Athens, and Ray Fearon (Coronation Street, Beauty and the Beast (2017), Red Dwarf) as Duquet. 

            Overall, The Protégé doesn’t do anything new with the action movie genre, but those looking for a mindless but fun action movie with really solid acting from the cast, this might be your flick. Yeah, I’m not kidding, the performances are the best thing about this movie, everything else is very standard and borrowed from other films, but the cast kept me invested from beginning to end. 

            Maggie Q is great as this dry, stone-cold assassin and her performance made me think back to Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde where I was like “Yeah, this is mostly a John Wick clone, but I am behind this character throughout her journey!), same goes for Maggie Q in this and despite her violent and mysterious ways, she works incredibly well with the supporting cast. Samuel L. Jackson, while not present for most of the film, the few scenes with him are funny and even a bit heartfelt, and Michael Keaton is excellent as this scenery-chewing villain who is intimidating and at times funny when he needs to be, but never to the point where he feels like a cartoon. 

            The action sequences aren’t anything spectacular, but they are nice and gory which warrants the film’s R rating, and at times exhilarating. One scene in particular involves Anna escaping a building filled with goons by jumping out of a stairwell using a fire hose, it’s quite a thrilling moment especially on the big screen…but seriously, did we really need to see the decapitated head of the protagonist’s mother during a flashback? 

            The Protégé isn’t really a must-watch movie as there are other, better films of the genre to choose from. But, if you decide to watch it, you’ll get a moderately entertaining action movie that you probably won’t remember afterwards but has some excellent acting by the cast to appreciate while in the moment. 

            However, if you’re looking for a really clever take on this formula, I’d suggest watching Nobody with Bob Odenkirk instead.