Haywire (2011)

Genre

Action | Thriller

Director

Steven Soderbergh

Country

Ireland | USA

Cast

Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, Michael Angarano, Mathieu Kassovitz, Eddie J. Fernandez, Anthony Brandon Wong, Tim Connolly, Maximino Arciniega, Aaron Cohen, Natascha Berg, Fergal O'Halloran

Storyline

Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world. After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency. Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who know her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive.

Opinion

Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Trilogy was good stuff overall, right? So was "Eric Brockovich". Then, why shouldn't this film be good? Because it fails on a lot of levels, at the end "Haywire" is nothing but just another action flick, that doesn't do anything special to stand out or to remain in the memory of the viewer.

It is the typical revenge story carried up by the super professional who is framed by his superiors - no, it's not "The Bourne Identity" -, and completely lacks any depth or originality. However, there still is something original, the protagonist is a woman. 

Anyway, the story is also not really appealing, and a bit hard to follow - if you look away for one second you might not understand the whole film.

When an action film has so little to offer in terms of plot, one would expect it to have great action sequences. Well, sorry to let you down, but this is just not the case. The few action scenes seem amatorial, and most of them are utterly pointless. Like when the protagonist chases a "bad" guy because she doesn't like to leave things halfway, and when she finally catches him, she just beats him.

Sure, Gina Carano can fight - she indeed moves with ease in the fighting scenes - but her smiles and facial expressions are a little random aka they have nothing to do with what is going on in the movie. The other characters are so superficial, I guess the only reason they casted Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas and Michael Fassbender is to make people pay to watch the film.