I had said before in a previous Neeson action film staring Liam Neeson that he is becoming less and less convincing in his titular roles of being a badass hitman / assassin / warrior of any sort. While I recognize what father time has done to my own self, it is increasingly evident in these films that Neeson isn't really an intimidating or capable combatant. Creative camera angles have to be used and a lot of the pursuit sections are just skipped and this results in Neeson just teleporting wherever he needs to be.
This doesn't mean the movie is bad though In fact, I think that if you are watching this film with this sort of idea in mind, it can actually be kind of fun to identify the things that Neeson wouldn't be eligible for in the first place.
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There's no reason for this poster to be in Korean here, I just thought it looked cool
We get started off with an improbably bang as Neeson's character Alex Lewis is able to sneak into a hospital in Mexico to hang out near the bed of the mother of some sort of gangster and wait for him there in order to off him. This is believable enough until we start to realize that the mother of a gangster would definitely have extra security and the fact that Neeson is one of the whitest people on the planet would certainly make him stand out like a sore thumb. At least it is brief and it kind of rockets the film's trajectory off at a good pace. We are slowly introduced to the fact that Alex is a contract killer and there are subtle cues that he is slowly succumbing to Alzheimer's in that he is forgetting more and more things.
For anyone with any sort of history in action films, the stark similarities of this concept and the classic film Memento will immediately be evident to the point of it being a bit cheesy. I think that director Martin Campbell was likely aware that this criticism would come his way and decided to book the main actor of Memento in the co-star role opposite Liam Neeson. In case you can't remember his name from Memento it is Guy Pearce and he plays the FBI agent that is eventually going to butt heads with Alex in this one.
Just for a moment I am going to get a bit nostalgic and say that if you haven't seen Memento you should do so. It kind of put Christopher Nolan on the map so to speak and it was an innovative, although a bit far-fetched of a film that most people enjoy. Now back to Memory.
Despite Neeson's physical limitation in pulling off the role of a top-tier hit-man, his ability to act hasn't diminished and because of this he is able to pull the role off even though it is quite obvious throughout the film that he probably isn't physically capable of doing the things that he does. A lot of the various traps he sets are just magically there and we are not privy to any of the setup that occurred. I just have a hard time believing that someone that looks like him would be able to crawl under cars setting up detonators without being detected but if you can suspend that belief for a little bit, you can still enjoy this movie.
Now a lot of critics out there are correctly calling Memory a "retread of a half dozen other Neeson films" and I can't argue with that because that is exactly what it is. However, I don't think that the world has tired of this yet and believe that the direction and high-quality actors in this one will offset any boredom that could arise from repetition. The problems that Alex has throughout the movie not trusting his own brain and memories is an interesting approach and this extends to the audience by us questioning if what we see on screen is actually happening. For example, we SEE Alex put the keys in a certain place in a car early in the film only for him to later return and realize that the key is in his pocket. So the director is playing tricks on us because we were never shown where the keys (or other items later) were actually put. In that regard we are shown the sequence of events only as Alex remembers them - and this is a far more effective take than if we saw one set of things, and Alex remembers something different.
Now here comes the bad news for this film and why I think it could be the final gamble that studios are willing to take on Neeson as an action star: The film lost nearly $20 million at the box office. Since they recently sold it to Netflix, there is a decent chance that they will break even but when studios make a movie with over a $40 million budget, they do not want to break even. The fact that they only brought in $14 million in global ticket sales does not bode well for Neeson moving forward.
Should I watch it?
First off... what a trailer! That is one of the best I have seen in a while and it doesn't actually deviate from the pace of the movie at all.
While this movie is in fact something that has been done many times before including with the same star in the lead it is still entertaining and there are a few twists that could only be included given someone being in the health that someone Neeson's age could expect to be. Therefore, even though you've seen it before this stays entertaining all the way through and I didn't feel compelled to turn it off at any point. If you can make it through the roughly 30 minute lull that happens right after the opening sequence I believe you will enjoy the rest of the movie.
The global audience believes otherwise because they elected to stay home instead of going to theaters. However, I think this is one of the better movies that I have watched in the past month or so and recommend it to action fans.
