BLOODSHOT – A Review by John Strange
Valiant Comics is a brand that I was acquainted with before hearing of this screening. In the early 1990’s I read two of their original titles Magnus, Robot Fighter and Solar, Man of the Atom. They were well written and well worth the price I paid for them. I never came across Bloodshot in my perusal of the racks at my comics store.
Bloodshot is the first of what Valiant Comics and Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) / Columbia Pictures hope will be a long-running series centered around Marine Ray Garrison (Vin Diesel) who is murdered along with his wife. He is brought back by scientists using nanotechnology.
He is used by those scientists, led by Dr. Emil Harting (Guy Pearce), to do their dirty work otherwise colloquially called “wet work”. He is “reset” between hits and his memory reloaded thus aiming him at the next target.
Who the hits are and why they are ordered is at the center of the story and the action. But they are only are a part of why people are going to get into this movie. They are going to be blown away by some of the best CGI effects I have ever seen. I know that I was personally blown away watching Ray/Bloodshot in the battle sequences taking bullet strikes and weathering explosions!
The supporting cast is first rate. The two gentlemen who play Dr. Harting’s muscle pull off great CGI-driven characters. The techs/hackers are the source of a great deal of the film’s humor. Eiza González as KT is a character that is tough as nails with a strong morale center that nearly gets her killed.
I didn’t know what to think about this movie when I first heard about it but I have to say that I was totally surprised by how well this comics/sci-fi/action movie turned out! It has a couple of flaws in the plot that bothered me just a touch. Just enough to reduce my rating from 5 to 4.5 stars. But I will definitely go see any sequel movie they make with this storyline and cast.
Directed by: David S. F. Wilson
Cast: Vin Diesel, Eiza González, Sam Heughan, Toby Kebbell, Guy Pearce
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence, some suggestive material and language)
Selig Rating: 4.5 Stars
Runtime: 109 Min.
Movie Site: www.bloodshot.movie/
The Selig Rating Scale:
5 Stars – Excellent movie, well worth the price.
4 Stars – Good movie
3 Stars – OK movie
2 Stars – No need to rush. Save it for a rainy day.
1 Star – Good that I saw it on the big screen but wish I hadn’t paid for it.
