Ignoring a few exceptions (Boiler Room, Saving Private Ryan) Vin Diesel has mostly starred in action movies, which often can’t be taken very seriously.
Think of the XXX films (Diesel as “extreme sports” super spy), the Riddick films (in which he is an alien superhero) and the Fast and Furious franchise (in which he also plays a superhero who can survive the most impossible situations). Based on a series by Valiant Comics, Bloodshot also takes on the role of a superhero. Does that make for an entertaining movie?
Vin Diesel is Ray Garrison, a former soldier who died and was brought back to life. The big difference is that now, thanks to the work of Dr. Emil Harting (Guy Pearce) he has super powers. His body is full of nanobytes, which means that his body can be repaired extremely quickly. He is therefore able to survive direct gunshots to his body. When he wakes up he wants to get revenge and soon finds out that there is more going on.
Vin Diesel does little else here than in his other films: look very serious and beat everyone in various action scenes. Now these action moments are at times very original (like a motorcycle chase later in the movie), but there is too much missing to make it memorable or good. The story tries to do something original, but does not succeed to pull the viewer in. There is not enough time for the very limited number of characters. As a result, you learn almost nothing about them and you are not aware of their motives. The end result is a film that is too generic, does not impress and in which only Lamorne Morris is fun to watch. Although the idea was that more sequels would follow, the question is whether or not that will happen (the film did not make a lot of money before the pandemic broke out). However, looking purely at the quality of this film, I wouldn’t mind if this is the only movie in the “franchise”.
[score4]