‘The Gray Man‎’: One doesn’t look like a killer, one doesn’t look like a villain

2022 American action film ‘The Gray Man’, IMDb rating of 6.6. This film is NETFLIX investment, said to cost $200 million, is Netflix’s highest investment in the film, more than the previous investment record ‘Red Notice’.

But big investment may not equal good word of mouth, the $200 million blockbuster did not generate much buzz. Considering the serious decline in Netflix’s earnings, it is estimated that Netflix will not invest so much in the film.

The Gray Man’ plot is very cliché, nothing new, the agent to be silenced by other agents such a story as a lot of cattle, 2022 also shot such a story, really no appetite.

And in order to kill Ryan Gosling as ‘Six’, the villain mobilized the world’s top assassin teams of various shapes to round him up, this plot how to see how like ‘John Wick’.

The film’s cast is very strong, the director is the famous Russo brothers, the star is Ryan Gosling, the villain is “Captain America” Chris Evans, but this combination of hammering effect is very bad.

The Russo brothers do not seem to take this film seriously, it seems to be burning Netflix’s 200 million investment, the film does not feel the seriousness of the big director.

The post-editing of the film is very bad, so many images are edited perfunctorily, the foreword does not match the afterword. As we all know, the post-editing is done by the editor and the director together.  

The director took Netflix’s big investment in some fancy action scenes, such as the opening fireworks battle, and the flare battle, are clearly in the deliberate showmanship and show off.

Although the idea is good, but shallow, not shot out of the unforgettable action scene visual effects.

My summary of the film’s casting is – one does not look like a killer, one does not look like a villain. It seems that Ryan Gosling, who has never acted in an action movie, is not a tough guy at all, although the muscles are okay, but it is not convincing that this is the world’s top killer.

If you are not an action actor and you act in an action scene, the result is self-explanatory and the action scene is unexciting.

It seems that Chris Evans, who has never played a villain before, is not villainous at all, even if he deliberately plays cool and hates, but he cannot make people shudder.

Poor casting directly led to the film’s good versus evil dramatic conflict is not intense.

Multi-country locations are often seen as standard for blockbusters, but excessive multi-country locations that don’t serve the plot are selling out and burning money.

‘The Gray Man’ is just that, it feels as if Netflix is not burning through $200 million of Netflix’s big investment, the plot has to change countries in a few minutes, messy and unnecessary.

Wouldn’t it be better if the money for multi-country locations was saved for a few more blood-curdling action scenes? I am very disgusted with the so-called “blockbuster” does not tell the story properly and play with multiple locations.

Michael Bay’s latest work ‘Ambulance’ uses a lot of fast drone footage, and it’s no coincidence that the same year’s ‘The Gray Man’ also takes a lot of fast drone footage.

This can only be described as coincidental, because the two films were released in the same year, there is no case of who borrowed from whom and who was inspired by whom.

But the effect of fast drone shots, ‘The Gray Man’ is weaker than ‘Ambulance’, the Russo brothers for this novel way of camera how to integrate with the film narrative, obviously in the state of fumbling and exploration, fast drone shots and the main narrative shots of the articulation is not smooth enough, the sense of fragmentation is obvious.   

Related Post: “The Gray Man‎” premieres in London, Russo brothers with Ana de Armas, Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in attendance.

Related Post: Netflix announces ‘The Gray Man‎’ will have a sequel, and create “The Gray Man universe”.