Friday, March 29

Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans beat the crap out of each other in a lazy, boring movie


Netflix knows what people want. It has studied every form of consumption, every behavior of every user. It knows what minute you leave a movie or a series and uses it to create products -because that’s what they are, products- that are governed by exact mathematical rules. A twist in the script at minute 15, another at 45… They know that action movies are working for them in an extraordinary way. No one gave a penny for a film as mediocre and routine as tyler rakebut it became one of the most viewed.

The algorithm is perfecting its ways of creating successes, and if that was an action movie with an actor known for the Marvel franchise, what less than to continue betting on the same. this is how it comes The invisible agent (The gray man), which has just been released in a few theaters to do the same on the platform on the 22nd. An action movie starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans (Captain America) and Ana de Armas. In front, the Russo brothers, directors linked to the Marvel cinematographic universe, for which they shot the latest installments of The Avengers.

Netlfix put all those elements in its hit calculator and the result was positive. An action movie, full of stars, with the directors of the highest grossing franchise… it would be. What they forgot was to create a film with a soul, one that wasn’t a movie that had been seen a thousand times, long, boring and worst of all, lazy. There is nothing in it that differentiates it from any action movie that crams its catalog. Neither the stars contribute anything, nor the Russos bring their own visual style.


The story of a CIA agent who, in the middle of a mission, discovers that his boss is not what he seems and becomes the most coveted prey we have seen countless times, so we had to bring something more than pretty faces and popular. Or, at least, work hard to build ‘set pieces’ so spectacular that one forgets everything else. They don’t get any of them right. The action scenes want to be spectacular but the way of directing and, above all, of editing them, is so chaotic that one never knows what is happening. It is impossible to follow the action when the shots are ephemeral and innumerable. Rhythm is confused with speed and confusion.

Not even some strong visual idea is harnessed to create something different. The first scene, in Bangkok, contains an interesting proposal to create an epic moment, a hand-to-hand fight from a boat that launches fireworks. However, everything sounds digital, shot with a green chroma key behind it and again, with a montage so crazy that you could never enjoy anything. The first three action scenes also contain the same visual resource, playing with the lighting to make them ‘different’. The first has fireworks, the second on a plane has a pink smoke bomb, and the third is with flashlights in a dark house.

The plot, as tradition dictates in these films, and especially when you want to sell luxury, travels around the world, but no stage is used to create unique environments and moments as the James Bond saga has managed to do in its latest installments. . Prague and Vienna could be Madrid and Barcelona. It’s just an excuse to travel and show the checkbook of Netflix and the Russos, who are beginning to show signs that Avengers was a stroke of luck. His failed bets outside the Marvel universe begin to happen.

The film’s only draw may be in watching Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans beat each other to a pulp at the film’s climax. A scene of dry action, of physical violence that the montage destroys again. A pity, because it should be the highlight of the film, seeing two of the biggest Hollywood stars of the moment sewing each other with slaps. Gosling returns to throw hieraticism and Chris Evans had a golden opportunity to get out of the script where we usually see him. Captain America playing the villain, with a mustache, polo shirts and posh shoes. He makes her want to, but his character is so cartoonish and so exaggerated that it’s impossible. You can’t take seriously a character who is presented quoting Schopenhauer while he tortures a person and who says phrases like “Relax the raja”.

Both are saved by comparing themselves with Regé-Jean Page, the protagonist of The Bridgertons that here is a corrupt agent. All alarms are confirmed: he is an actor full of tics who can not even with a character as cliché as that of The invisible agent. Hopefully the rumors that he is the new James Bond are false or that he will soon show us that he is something more than the fashionable boy. The one who steals the function again is Ana de Armas, the only one who exudes charisma every time she goes out. As seen in the latest James Bond, she is worth a scene to become a magnet for the viewer. She will soon prove it in ballerinaspin off of the saga John Wick. It is, without a doubt, the best of a mediocre film made with a calculator to add hours of viewing.



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