The Gray Man is a chaotic copy of the Bond films that has no merit
Miscellaneous / / July 22, 2022
Neither Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans nor beautiful locations save the picture from Netflix.
On July 22, the Russo Brothers' new film (Avengers: Endgame) was released on the streaming service Netflix. About $200 million was invested in the spy thriller The Gray Man. In addition, the authors assembled a star cast and filmed in different countries of the world.
It seems that the directors wanted to create their own analogue of films about agent 007. Such a desire is logical and expected: cinema now lives in franchises, and Netflix, along with Russo, probably represents the Gray Man as part of a larger series.
But they forgot that the viewer is not yet aware of their plans and is still looking at unfamiliar characters and a completely new story. Because of this, the plot of the picture seems to be as slurred as possible. And even the congestion of the tape with action does not save - it is delivered chaotically and not very attractively.
The heroes of the "Gray Man" behave as if they have long been familiar to the viewer
Imagine the next part of the James Bond franchise or Ethan Hunt ("Mission Impossible"). Since the viewer turns on such films knowing in advance the basic information about the hero and his work, the authors can afford not to waste time on explanations. In the first minutes they show the seed, and then immediately go to the main action.
This is exactly what the Rousseaus do in The Gray Man. In exactly three minutes, they explain that the hero of Ryan Gosling is a former prisoner who was recruited by the CIA to perform secret missions. And then the plot shifts eight years forward, when this character, codenamed Six (that 007 is taken, they will joke in the film), changes his mind about employers. It takes another five minutes of screen time. From that moment on, the hero is on the run, and the most inadequate and evil former agent Lloyd, played by Chris Evans, is hunting him.
The introduction is reminiscent of a retelling of the previous season of the series, although the viewer is looking at new characters. It's as if the Russo brothers never realized they weren't working in the MCU anymore (their previous work "On an oblique” and turned out to be a compilation of three different films, which spoiled the impression). But even this is not the worst: in fact, in two hours the characters will remain flat masks. Even the actors were selected as if not in terms of matching the image, but simply through requests on the Internet.
A tough, but very controversial lone hero - yes, this is the driver from "Drive", played by Ryan Gosling. He will be the sixth. And we'll bring back the toothpick, too. A beautiful and dangerous girl who will help the super agent - Ana de Armas just played in the movie "No time to die”, she is trained and knows how to handle weapons. The mean but charming boss is Rege-Jean Page of the Bridgertons.
Witty treated only with Chris Evans. But here, apparently, the long-standing acquaintance of the directors with the actor played a role. He appears in the most unexpected way for himself - a sociopathic villain who can easily shoot both witnesses and his assistants. It just won't let him open up.
There is no logic in the plot of "The Gray Man"
In the Mission: Impossible and 007 franchises, many parts are built on roughly the same principle: the heroes receive some kind of task or, conversely, run away from the enemy and, because of this, move to different countries. This makes it possible to show many beautiful locations and diversify the plot.
"Gray Man" and here follows the standards. But the problem is that it is quite difficult to understand the motivation of the heroes and the reasons for their movements. Everything happens here simply because the authors wanted it that way. About a dozen new characters are introduced literally into one scene so that they fulfill their function and disappear forever (usually they just die).
Lloyd's obsession with capturing Six is understandable. He is a mercenary who stops at nothing. But with each new scene, his line becomes less and less logical. At first, the character is shown as a loner, but then it turns out that he has a whole army under his command. He hunts Six personally and then just sits in the office and watches. And at the same time, Lloyd goes against his employer. Or not. What kind of relationship between members of the secret service, and will not explain.
And it seems that every single detail does not look criminal and does not ruin the story. But all together they turn the "Gray Man" into complete madness. The characters, about whom the viewer knows nothing, perform some actions based on motives known only to them. How to feel at least some sympathy for any of them is a question that has no answer.
And even the action looks slurred
But maybe the movie doesn't need it? After all, Christopher Nolan in "argument"Definitively abandoned the study of heroes, letting them go on a crazy journey through the countries. And, in the end, the pictures of Michael Bay, who can only blow up and smash everything in the frame, steadily gather an audience.
Alas, Rousseau failed here as well. They seemed to have spied on the production of fights and chases from the said Bay, but they took the worst parts. For example, directors are clearly learning how to use drones. It’s just that their camera pirouettes at random moments: in one scene, you get the feeling that the characters are flying away in a car. But no, if you reconsider, it's just an artistic device.
The most significant in terms of staging skirmishes was the great massacre in Prague. Firstly, the directors clearly enjoy the scale, forgetting that they need to make the scene more understandable for the viewer. They randomly bring different extras into the frame, and after a few minutes it is generally impossible to see who is shooting at whom. Everything just rumbles, cars explode and people fall.
And secondly, Lloyd himself will utter the main phrase: “Is it really so difficult to kill a person who is fastened to a bench.” Yes, it's no secret that in such a movie, the characters are endowed with incredible vitality. But still, it's hard to believe that a crowd of the coolest mercenaries with machine guns and grenade launchers can't hit the unarmed Six, who hardly moves.
The rest of the scenes are a set of cliches, which were also collected from popular requests. There is a fight in a falling plane. Jumping out of windows and an exploding house - there are. The final dramatic fight with the villain (who sits still for a third of the film) is the same. Only there is no life and originality.
The only original joke in The Gray Man is an ironic reference to the future role of Ryan Gosling. Otherwise, the film consists either of too boring clichés, which are also poorly staged, or of inexplicable scenes in which there is no logic at all. And more often from both at the same time.
At the same time, watching the movie causes rather not irritation, but bewilderment. The Russo brothers once filmed The Other War about Captain America - a good example of a spy thriller within Marvel. But in a strange way, given complete freedom of creativity, a huge budget and cool actors, they could not deliver something really exciting.
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