Martin Campbell was also a fairly successful commercial director, making a number of blockbuster entertainment films.
And he has twice brought the 007 series back to life (i.e., "007: Casino Royale" and "007's GoldenEye"), but unfortunately a "Green Lantern" made him unable to turn over.
Following the "British Showdown" starring Jackie Chan, Pierce Brosnan, Liu Tao and others, he made this "Disciple".
Starring Maggie Q in collaboration with Samuel Jackson, Michael Keaton and others, plus the old story, it is clearly the pattern of B-rated action movies.
Even if I have such a mentality, it is still difficult to hide the embarrassment of this story.
As a revenge story of a female killer, countless movies have been filmed with similar themes.
Even Li Meiqi herself has starred in the TV series "Nikita", basically there are actions and then a little bit of charm, the audience does not need to have too much surprise to be satisfied.
The story of "Disciple" is originally quite simple, but it is complicated, and the plot is constantly reversed, resulting in the chaotic relationship between the characters behind it.
After all the digressions, he also treated the audience as idiots and fools, and finally had a great anti-climax, and suddenly ended in an inexplicable position.
Even Luc Besson's previously critical "Anna" is better than this movie.
Coincidentally, the heroine played by Maggie Lee in this movie is also called Anna.
Since this is an action movie, and Martin Campbell has also made many action blockbusters, I think there should be some painful action scenes.
But who knows, the action scenes in the movie are extremely fragmented, and basically the best part has been shown in the trailer.
In the summer of 2021, there are many super action films, such as the Chinese film "Fury Serious Case" starring Zhen Zidan, Xie Tingfeng and Qin Lan, which is an excellent action film, so the mediocre action fight of "Disciple" really can't find anything to see.
Anna's family was wiped out when she was a child, but fortunately she was saved by the killer Moody, and the two relied on each other for their lives, and when they grew up, they became good partners and friends, performing many missions.
One day, Moody tells Anna a new mission and is killed by a mysterious man. Isolated and helpless, Anna found that all this was related to her own life.
Before she knows the truth, the mysterious rembrandt appears and develops an ambiguous relationship with Anna, which makes the case more complicated...
01. The story is out of focus
I've watched most of the movie, but I still haven't figured out what Disciple is trying to tell.
The movie is a typical story of the revenge of the female killer, and I have not yet seen it and can basically guess what will happen, after all, everything is not different
But looking at it, I always feel that something is wrong, what is the focus of the movie?
This is indeed a revenge story of an orphan girl who has been destroyed and has a difficult life to become a killer, but the first half of the paragraph is also inserted into the master-apprentice relationship with no end.
It also explains the complicated relationship between the intricate villains and the constant black eating black.
Every time I thought it should be the "ultimate big guy", but there will be multiple "ultimate big guys" again.
Who is the "mysterious person" that the protagonists want to investigate, and why?
Most of the film is constantly pulling and pulling, and it has not yet entered the main topic, even if you want to create suspense, it is not so centerless.
When the plot has no room to advance, the screenwriter also arranges a relationship line, and the location is quite abrupt, and the plot starts to get out of control from here.
02. The character setting is a mess
The creators of the film deliberately changed this cookie-cutter story so that it did not fall into the cliché, and this starting point is good.
Unfortunately, the power is not captured, and the plot eventually becomes a constant and unexpected reversal.
The plot reversal must also be reasonably filmed, but the last paragraph is constantly inserted with a large number of plots that are "reversed for the sake of reversal", and finally the "reversal" cannot be explained.
In particular, the finale of the battle was carefully laid out, and the final "infiltration" method really made me want to complain.
In fact, this kind of story is enough to focus on a character, but it complicates the simple plot, so that the story is constantly reversed, and finally the heroine's personality becomes very blurred.
After watching most of the day, I was almost like the heroine, I didn't know what was happening, the plot progressed slowly and weakly, and in the end it was better to have a "big riot".
When the heroine has been blurred by the chaotic plot, the script suddenly has to make a backstory for all the villains.
In this way, the later plot is completely out of focus, and the character's personality can change at any time.
There are many ways to shoot some "romantic" or glamorous plots, but they can be done back and forth, so that the characters have no positioning, and finally it is not clear whether the heroine wants revenge or what she wants to do, and the ending is still in the most nonsensical moment.
03. The action scenes are quite bad
Don't misunderstand Maggie Lee's female killer style, the movie is not an action movie at all.
I was thinking of "The Disciple" as if it were Luc Besson's, not expecting any major developments in the plot, but wanting to see a series of action stunts.
Even if Martin Campbell does some "animated stunts" like "Green Lantern", the good guys can still watch a little exciting, but unfortunately, the movie even the action scenes are quite bad.
Although the trailer looks hot, the best action scenes are almost all seen in the trailer, and even the trailer has to cut some fights that have nothing to do with the "action scenes" in the main film to attract the audience.
There are not many action scenes in the movie, and at best, only the smallpox gunfight scene in the middle of the dragon pond is more beautiful.
The rest of the time is dispensable, not only is the shooting fragmented and incoherent, not to mention the tension and excitement and the like.
The scene and momentum of the finale battle is obviously a "fake big air", originally thought that there would be a big fight, but the result was like a limited amount of funds, and it was over in a hurry.
All in all, the whole "Disciple" is definitely saying more and doing less, and I am quite embarrassed to see it.
Friends who want to watch action movies should watch "Task Force X: All Assembled" starring Margot Robbie once more or Chen Musheng's "Fury Serious Case".
After all, the action scenes of the whole movie don't have anything to watch or excitement.
In addition, the plot is chaotic and simple, and a story that can be completed in less than an hour and a half has dragged on to 109 minutes.
A lot of meaningless details, emotional lines, and self-righteous reversals are all superfluous, and I am quite depressed to see it.
In the end, not only is the heroine's mental journey very vague, but even the plot of the main line has become indiscriminate.
Li Meiqi struggled for many years, and thought that she could finally have a correct role in Hollywood, but it turned out to be comparable to the vase female role of a B-grade action movie.
It seems that Martin Campbell "has to accept defeat", and since the fiasco of "Green Lantern", it seems that he really can't turn over, and it is difficult to restore the name of the blockbuster action director of the past.