An average movie

Back in the 80’s-90’s, Luc Besson was one of the most successful French directors but, at some point, the guy became greedy and, instead of directing some interesting features, he spends most of his time producing some watchable but also terribly forgettable features aimed at the international market. With this in mind, I knew more or less what to expect and I didn’t get anything less. Indeed, it is a slick looking action flick with a solid performance by Zoe Saldana and some decent action scenes but not much more I’m afraid. While watching this, it reminded me of ‘Nikita’, by far the best movie directed by Luc Besson, but this movie never had the ambition to be that good. Apparently, this movie was actually supposed to be a sequel to ‘Léon’ following the character played by Natalie Portman but it didn’t work out and they changed the story with a new character with a South American background. Eventually, even though it does look good, there were just too many details and elements that didn’t work. For example, the way she is discovered by the FBI, the way she kills a guy with some sharks and then another guy with some dogs, the whole romantic relationship with Michael Vartan,… I mean, even when he was on the top of his game, Luc Besson didn’t deliver the best stories as a director but, as producer, the end-result is even more underwhelming. Still, all in all, it remains a decent action flick and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

6/10