Spy thrillers are a dime a dozen at the minute, and if you're going to set out to make a movie that hinges on it's ability to deliver an engaging and action packed story in such a crowded genre, then you're going to have to start with a script that is smart, polished and fresh. Unfortunately Survivor is none of those things.
A cast including Pierce Brosnan, Milla Jovovich, Dylan McDermott and Robert Forster are squandered in this flat, cliched and needlessly contrived tale of assassination, terrorism and international politics.
Jovovich stars as Kate Abbott, a foreign intelligence officer in London who ends up framed for a terrorist attack, forcing her to go on the run and in the process try to clear her name and take her life back. As if that wasn't enough, Kate has information about an impending attack that only she can prevent, and all the while she's being hunted by Brosnan's ruthless assassin. On paper this should be a tonne of fun. The problem is, the characters are so one dimensional and wooden, after a while the audience loses interest in them, and the whole affair becomes contrite and tedious.
Director James McTeigue hasn't delivered here, and Survivor is a real let down. There's very few redeeming aspects, with even the production values only on a par with some of the better tv thrillers that are out there at the minute. The most intriguing part of the movie is the internal squabbles and shifting alliances of the global politics as the story progresses, but the film only scratches the surface of the backstabbing nature of the business that intelligence agencies and their staff find themselves embroiled in.
Brosnan, to his credit, looks like he's enjoying fleshing out a character completely devoid of morals but that sense of fun is sadly missing from the rest of the movie. If Survivor didn't take itself so seriously it could have fallen into the category of "films so bad they're good" but as it is it's simply just bad.
A cast including Pierce Brosnan, Milla Jovovich, Dylan McDermott and Robert Forster are squandered in this flat, cliched and needlessly contrived tale of assassination, terrorism and international politics.
Jovovich stars as Kate Abbott, a foreign intelligence officer in London who ends up framed for a terrorist attack, forcing her to go on the run and in the process try to clear her name and take her life back. As if that wasn't enough, Kate has information about an impending attack that only she can prevent, and all the while she's being hunted by Brosnan's ruthless assassin. On paper this should be a tonne of fun. The problem is, the characters are so one dimensional and wooden, after a while the audience loses interest in them, and the whole affair becomes contrite and tedious.
Director James McTeigue hasn't delivered here, and Survivor is a real let down. There's very few redeeming aspects, with even the production values only on a par with some of the better tv thrillers that are out there at the minute. The most intriguing part of the movie is the internal squabbles and shifting alliances of the global politics as the story progresses, but the film only scratches the surface of the backstabbing nature of the business that intelligence agencies and their staff find themselves embroiled in.
Brosnan, to his credit, looks like he's enjoying fleshing out a character completely devoid of morals but that sense of fun is sadly missing from the rest of the movie. If Survivor didn't take itself so seriously it could have fallen into the category of "films so bad they're good" but as it is it's simply just bad.
Survivor is an underwhelming and weak example of a genre that has so much more to offer. It commits the worst of crimes for an action thriller; the movie is dull. When the best thing I can say about a movie is that the running time is mercifully short, take it as gospel this is one to avoid.
