Gray Men But No Silver Linings

Netflix has blown 200 million dollars on one of the year's worst movies.

Robotic. No originality. A terrible imitation of Jason Bourne.

Intro

The Gray Man is based on the same-titled novel by well-known author Mark Greaney, but the plot seems to have been ripped from ordinary action movies. Filled with boring, cringe dialogues, a weak story, and an ineffective setup, this high-budget film is like a yacht filled with leaking holes. With the exception of two hand-to-hand fighting sequences, the bouts are a dark, choppy chaos of flying bullets that seem like a video game. High-budget, crowd-favorite actors like Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, and Chris Evans only serve to add insult to injury, as the plot was dim and pale, letting the audience down immensely. However, Chris Evans portrayed his character splendidly, portraying an oddly likable and humorous villain.

But there is no twist. There is no actual drama. There is no suspense. It reeks of a movie series production, in which every effort is made to generate one more lackluster, formula action film. So, is the movie not good at all? Don't worry. Ryan Gosling and his completely absurd action sequences with rocket launchers and tank hits should keep you entertained.

Plot

Here's the storyline in two lines: "Six" is a CIA assassin who kills people. Six is forced to flee the CIA when a mission fails, and they are now attempting to assassinate him. Will he make it? Duhhhh! There are various location titles in this movie. Thank God they can all be identified even if there are too many. Moving quickly from one place to another after starting with a violent murder in Bangkok doesn't advance the story. As has already been stated, Ryan Gosling is the only thing that keeps the movie exciting. However, I think relying only on his and Ana de Armas' established star power falls short of providing a comprehensive introduction to each character.

Let's not even get started on the utterly random and pointless inclusion of Indian superstar actor Dhanush for 15 min. They attempted to target the Indian audience with this move but failed. Naturally, like many others, I wondered who stole the money Netflix invested in this production, but like with so many other large-scale productions nowadays, the problem is with the story, not the CGI, actors, or staff travel costs.

Closing Critiques

The fact that The Gray Man is utterly ordinary is tremendously disappointing given the directors' enormous budget, cast, and prior ability. An action thriller that plays the best hits without offering anything fresh or memorable. I have a question for significant corporations like Netflix and Disney: Do you guys spend your budget on CGI and employ children to write? Or maybe it was just that you wanted to continue your tradition of producing lousy material with a ridiculous budget of $200 million.

Raving Rating: 5.9