Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

Sporting some pretty were-wolfish facial hair, Dylan O’Brien has levelled up in the action game. His goal to destroy the wicked hasn’t changed but he is plunged into the real world armed with a grimace and a gun and is ready to run mazes around anyone who gets in his way on his path to vengeance.

Graduate student, Mitch Rapp’s (Dylan O’Brien) life turns to hell when his fiance is murdered while the two of them are holidaying in Ibiza. Broken and alone he trains and bides his time, kept going by his mission to hunt down and kill the man and the jihadist group that killed his fiance, even if that means he goes down too.

Tracking Mitch and his obsession with the jihadist cell, CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) recognises his potential and recruits him as part of a black ops unit. Along with a group of other potential operatives, Mitch is trained to be a ghost under tough nut, ex-Navy SEAL Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton). Having seen his type a hundred times before, Hurley is weary and warning of Mitch’s disregard for orders and his often selfish and self pitying attitude.

When Plutonium – formally classed as missing – surfaces and starts exchanging hands, Mitch is pulled into the field, and must learn to keep his recklessness in check as they join the ground team in Istanbul.

No longer on a one man mission the stakes are higher and Mitch has to try to look past his personal vendetta and think about what’s best for the mission.

When was the last time we had a younger action hero? Someone serious who didn’t get involved by accident and who doesn’t later brag about his adventures to disbelieving friends? Mitch Rapp is a breath of vitalising fresh air from the Chan, Stallone and Neeson veterans of the action adventure genre that dominates (not that I’m complaining!).

In fact as a whole I’m not complaining at all (though I probably will later) as American Assassin was a solid movie. The story line progressed well enough to keep me intrigued throughout as locations and agendas kept changing. Plus as you would expect, a number of action sequences had me either at the edge of my seat or holding my breath, including one very sexy stealthy move that was utter perfection.

All that being said, I’m not exactly raving about the movie as you would do to every Tom, Dick and Hardeep when you see something that’s just that good… or bad. It was a nice average action movie with nothing conventionally out of character to individualise it. That is not to diminish Dylan O’Brien who did an amazing job of playing Mitch Wrap (though his running was a little comical) and I for one am at least curious to see where the story will lead.

As a quick note, as we know I am obsessed with timings; I am glad to report that American Assassin had a commendable running time of approximately 100 minutes.

I promise I don’t have much to complain about…but… One thing I found a little questioning was Mitch’s ability to take situations into his own hands to a mostly dangerous degree and still have everything work out a-okay. He had the drive but he didn’t have any noted superior skills and I think it would have been good to see him mess up at least once, after all he is meant to be a newbie no matter how much of his own time he put in at the gym beforehand.

Lastly his character doesn’t really progress. Yes the death of his fiance triggers the ultimate personality change blah blah blah, but he remains the same angry boy with a chip on his shoulder throughout.

There is a lot of room for growth in both character and story for Mitch Rapp, and as there are fifteen other books that chronicle his journey the powers that be are spoilt for choice. Hard to say how American Assassin will be received (as I write this it hasn’t broken even in the box office), but I for one wouldn’t mind seeing at least a trilogy expand from this youthful new world.