Starring: Vin Diesel, Eiza Gonzalez, Sam Heughan, Guy Pearce, Lamorne Morris
Director: Dave Wilson
When brought back from the dead, Ray Garrison (Diesel) has had his body improved by a scientist (Pearce), and finds himself in a facility with other soldiers like him. At first he can’t remember anything, but then the memory of his wife’s death and her killer come rushing back to him and he heads out to get revenge… But all is not what it seems.
I went into this not knowing much about it other than that it’s an action movie and that it has Vin Diesel in it. That’s kind of enough for me. I like to see an action movie in the cinema, and I like Vin Diesel. He’s fun, and he seems to have fun. In a way, I wasn’t expecting much.
I was pleasantly surprised.
Bloodshot is based on a comic book, and there really are too many comic book movies out there. I can’t speak to fans of the comic, because it’s one I’ve never read and know nothing about. But I really liked the premise of this film. I forgot what I’d seen in the trailer months earlier, and so I had that nice feeling of wondering where it was going. I thought, he can’t get the bad guy this early on? And then the concept kicks in. It’s definitely a lot like Memento, and amusingly, both films have Guy Pearce. But this is more action, less thriller, more entertainment, less cerebral.
I think this film works because it’s well directed. There’s not too much backstory for characters to bog you down, and yet you get a sense of individuals, even if they kind of fit into archetypes. It works. Guy Pearce is the mad scientist trope, but he isn’t cartoonish. Diesel is the hulking unstoppable, but he’s given moments of humour. He’s kind of playing himself, but he’s given enough to do that you’re invested in the story and the outcome. He’s really likable. His foil is Sam Heughan’s character, who is salty and jealous, which is kind of hilarious, but also has a nice sense of foreboding or foreshadowing. He cracked me up, he was so pouty. The love interest is played by Eiza Gonzalez, who is perhaps the most one dimensional, but the way she’s shot in this film makes her so watchable that I really didn’t mind. I loved seeing what cute cropped jacket she’d wear in the next scene.
I think the balance of action to plot is really good. And the sense of humour is worked in well too. The film kind of takes itself seriously, as comic book movies do, but not overly seriously. And there’s plenty of humour, especially from scene stealing Lamorne Morris, who feels a bit more alive than anyone else in this film.
Where this film really shines is in it’s action sequences, of course. These are so so good. The choreography in the fight scenes, and the speed of them is amazing. And they’re shot beautifully. There’s an early scene involving flour of all things that’s fun, fast, and has these incredible shots. It’s really creative. There’s also a great sequence in an elevator shaft, which is a trope I personally love. Garrison and the other characters have been augmented to be killing machines, so the fight scenes are epic, big, swift, and the moments where we see what our hero’s body can do are so watchable. I loved these. They’re so well done.
I went into this film expecting to have a good time, but not expecting a really good action film. It really was better than I thought it would be. Everyone in this film feels invested and like they’re enjoying being there, but are not just posing for the camera. The visuals are amazing, the fights are so well put together and shot, and the characters are fun to watch. I really enjoyed it, especially watching it on the big screen.
See It If: you like action films. It’s solid and entertaining, and Vin Diesel and co are really good.
Wildfire Movies 
Great overall take on content that is outside of your comfort zone! You took a movie that you were unsure of and gave a stunning review! I would love to repost this on NuRevue. You keep all credits and it’s reblogged and unaltered. What do you say?
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Vin Diesel movies are never outside my comfort zone…. 😎 Joking, I know what you meant. Tell me more about this site?
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We are a video game movie tv and lifestyle media. We do reviews, trailers, discussion pieces and more. We have access to a plethora of press assets and our vision is to attend media events such as comic-con, move screenings, tv series previews and much much more. Staff is Volunteer only at this time but.. anything you post on NuRevue can be reposted on your blog, and vice versa. Come check out the beginning: http://NuRevue.com
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Sweet, I’ll take a look. Xx
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Wonderful review!! I don’t like these kinds of films for the reasons you stated actually but i think when I don’t feel like thinking and when I feel like being entertained, I will enjoy it 😛.
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As an aggressive follower of (rebooted, at least–I’ve got 90+% of the original run from the early 90s, but haven’t read it) Bloodshot–this isn’t at all disappointing.
Well, okay, I hoped for a little “fan service” nudging at other characters (even news update banners or whatnot), but otherwise I was very, very pleasantly surprised with the end result.
We do lose some of what makes Bloodshot “Bloodshot” (once he is augmented, his skin is default chalk-white with bright, solid red eyes), but not so much that it feels anything like a betrayal of the spirit of things, and that it was indeed quite well put-together was a great relief.
I wasn’t sneaky enough to make it a selection for my socially distanced film club or anything, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this one.
https://fangsfirst.wordpress.com/2020/05/24/bloodshot-2020/
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It’s nice to hear your thoughts since I don’t know the comic at all. Thank you!
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Thanks for writing this up, it was definitely interesting to discover someone totally unfamiliar came to a similar end conclusion, as basically all of my feelings totally matched yours, down to each of the characters being mostly well-drawn overall
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I’m a bit of a sucker for a Vin Diesel movie. 😂 I don’t know why. But yeah, it did exceed my expectations. Have the Bloodshot comics been around for ages? Do you think this will become another movie franchise?
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So, Bloodshot is from Valiant Comics, which first started in the early 90s. The company was sold to Acclaim (the video game company) in the late 90s, and then collapsed.
Dinesh Shamdasani and a few other investors bought the rights and rebooted the Valiant universe in 2012–it’s been running generally consistently since 2012 (through a few odd series: Bloodshot, Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps, Bloodshot: U.S.A., Bloodshot: Salvation, etc). So, kinda-sorta around for about 30 years-ish now, but with a long break in the middle.
I know Valiant Entertainment is hoping to expand further–as far as I know, Harbinger also got movie development started (which opens up a lot of avenues), and I believe one or two others. Of course, what developments actually amount to anything remains to be seen–it could be a franchise! It’s a very interesting universe for sure–heavily interconnected and some very interesting ideas floating through it. If they pull it off, it could be pretty great.
We’ll see, I guess!
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Sounds pretty neat. 😄
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