Vendetta review: Clive Standen- Bruce Willis’ action movie is as lazy as they come

2/5

Story:

William Duncan seems to have the perfect life, grounded by his loving family. In a tragic turn of events, William’s daughter gets murdered in what seems to be an initiation ritual for a young man from a vicious gang. When the grieving father realises that courts cannot help him in getting justice, he takes matters into his own hands.

Review:

After the brutal murder of her daughter, a grieving father with a dark past goes on a rampage to avenge her. Vendetta’s plot is reminiscent of the plethora of action movies which have made their way to the silver screen over the years. To make a film with such a done to death storyline, one would expect that the makers would have at least something new to offer, especially since the film has roped in the likes of Clive Standen, Theo Rossi, Mike Tyson, Thomas Jane, and Bruce Willis as part of its cast. Unfortunately, Vendetta makes little to no effort to rise above its mediocre plot, and even the star cast’s performances seemed to have been affected by the mundane writing.

After Clive Standen’s William Duncan goes on his rampage, the story does however have a few surprises in store for viewers, but in no way are they enough to make up for the painfully lazy writing. The writers seemed to have put little to no effort in creating anything original at all, and seemed to have haphazardly borrowed elements from a string of action films. Even the way that was done is not elegant in any way, and getting through even the first half of the film becomes a tiresome affair unless one switches one’s brain off.

Loopholes, inconsistencies and paper thin plotlines galore throughout the film, not to mention one dimensional characters.Cliched dialogues and trigger happy characters fail to hold one’s interest in any way. Some of the interactions between characters, intended to be serious, end up being nothing short of comical. The number of close shaves Duncan has ends up being caused by his rivals’ gross incompetence rather than the protagonist’s skill and spunk.

There are no glossy or well done action sequences that come as a saving grace for the film either. It seems that the sluggishness of the writing seemed to have weighed down on the film’s action as well. Save for a stylish montage where Duncan tries to sharpen his forgotten skills in his pursuit of revenge, the rest of the action in Vendetta is as forgettable as its story.

Verdict:

Vendetta finds its place one of the laziest action films to come out of Hollywood this year. Uninspired writing, shallow characters and weak performances, even with a strong cast, lead to a forgettable action flick that seems to be a mish mash of overused tropes.