The Protege
Starring: Maggie Q, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson,
Director: Martin Campbell
After Moody (Jackson) rescues a young Anna (Q) from a massacre in Vietnam, he trains her to become an assassin and they begin to take on many high profile contracts. When she isn’t on a job, she runs a rare book shop. After Moody is murdered, Anna must return to Vietnam to find out who murdered her mentor and get revenge. Along the way she meets the mysterious Rembrandt (Keaton) who may or may not be connected.
I really wanted to like this movie. It has a great cast and Campbell has the capability to be a great action director as he has directed two of the better modern Bond entries (Goldeneye and Casino Royale). While the cast delivers, the action and mystery is very disappointing.
Let’s start with the positives, which hands down is the cast. It shouldn’t have taken this long to give Maggie Q her own action film but I guess later is better than never. It’s a shame the action scenes aren’t able to do her justice because while the action scenes themselves are boring, she kicks all sorts of butt in them. There also isn’t a ton of character development with Anna so the fact that we are still rooting for her is a huge indicator of how good she is. Also, her chemistry with Michael Keaton is electric. Their playful banter is intoxicating and sexy and their "will they, won’t they" interactions are the highlight. I’d watch Samuel L Jackson in anything and he makes the most of his limited screen time.
Sounds great right? This is where the positives stop because the rest of the movie is quite disappointing. A lot of the promotion for the film is counting on attracting the John Wick crowd and while the action is plentiful, the end result is incredibly unimaginative. There is one thing a movie about feuding hitmen shouldn't be and that is boring. As I said before, you have very capable performers who are giving the film more effort than it ultimately deserves and a director who has staged some clever and tense action scenes throughout his career. The opening foot chase in Casino Royale or the final action scene at the mine in The Mask of Zorro easily runs circles around anything presented in this film. This movie should have been more fun or entertaining than it was. Even the mystery angle to the film is predictable and anyone who is still awake should be able to figure it out well before Anna does.
I mentioned a lack of character development in the film and I think had there been more, I wouldn't have been as disappointed by the action scenes. I'm going to care about the lead character by default but when no more effort is made to expand on the characters or give them more depth, it's a huge whiff by the movie. That is the case here and even though it tries way too late to give Anna some depth by explaining what happened to her as a child in Vietnam, that effort ends up leaving an unpleasant aftertaste in your mouth. Ditto with Keaton's Rembrandt. He's such an interesting character but the fact that the film never dives into his character outside of what's on the surface is another huge misstep. It's almost like they were already counting on the sequel and would explain more there.
It’s a shame this couldn’t deliver. I would love to see an action franchise led by Maggie Q.
Grade: D+
A final nitpick: I hate that they listed Michael Keaton first in the credits. He isn’t the main character and this isn’t his potential franchise. Give Maggie Q her due and give her top billing in her own movie.
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