Mission C review: Nonsensical writing, questionable acting make this thriller an exhausting watch

1.5/5

Story:

After robbing a bank and murdering a guard, a group of criminals scrambles to escape as police are hot on their trail. In a desperate attempt to get rid of the police, the cons take a bus full of touring college students as hostages, forcing police to stop giving chase. The authorities are now saddled with the challenging task of nabbing the criminals, while making sure no harm comes to the innocent hostages.

Review:

By sheer virtue of the nature of its premise, hostage dramas offer a lot to move a thriller forward in a way that can leave viewers at the edge of their seats the whole time, depending on how well the story around it is written. Mission C successfully manages to wring every atom of entertainment value out of such a promising premise with its inane writing glaring with plot holes at every turn.

The story seems simple enough; a group of college students finds their vacation plans go horribly wrong when their tour bus is hijacked by bank-robbing criminals trying to escape the police. The police are faced with a tough situation, where they have to outweigh the risks and act carefully to bring the criminals to justice while also making sure that the hostages are rescued safe and sound. The makers fail to capitalise on the inherent intrigue that the high-stakes premise gives off, and it feels as though they went out of their way to make the story as bland and uninspired as possible, with very little going on to hold viewers’ interests. Couple that with some very substandard performances, and you get a so-called thriller, which will have you clench your teeth with how lacklustre the whole film is.

The story is frankly, all over the place and executed quite poorly. The prosaic script is even laughable at times, making even the perilous instances in the story seem comical. Realism is thrown out the window as we see police carefully plot their move on how to handle the situation without things getting out of hand, only to act as recklessly as squabbling children do to escalate and worsen the plight of the hostages. But it gets even more unbelievable and jaw-dropping as the story progresses, and not in a good way either. A stupid decision that cost them gravely one time, turns out to be a life-saver in another. The inconsistency of the story is only trumped by how far-fetched and unrealistic it all is. The implausibility of the plot is made much more exhausting to witness by the film’s erratic pace. Plot holes and loose threads also weigh it down.

Be it the characters of the police, the trigger-happy criminals, or the quivering students, not only are they written to be terribly one-dimensional, but they also become caricaturish at times, which makes it hard for any viewer to find them likable. The common thread between them all seems to be their propensity to make stupid decisions that no logical human being in their situation would ever do. Stiff acting and melodramatic performances by the cast do not help either.

If there’s one thing the film does have going for is its cinematography. Aerial views and wide shots fully capture the scenic beauty of the locations, one of them being Munnar in Kerala.

Verdict:

Mission C is a badly written, uninspired crime thriller with a story that is as implausible as it is mundane. It also features unremarkable performances by its cast, with its only saving grace being its decent cinematography.

Mission C is available to stream on Neeestream.