Should you watch this if it’s free? OK.
Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? No.
Score: 2.0/5
Secret ending? No.
Running time: 92 minutes (~1.5 hours)
“I Am Wrath” is a revenge thriller about a man who’s out for blood after a loved one is murdered. He soon discovers that a sinister plot lies behind the murder, one that has far greater implications than he first thought. It stars John Travolta (Stanley Hill), Christopher Meloni (Dennis), Amanda Schull (Abbie Hill), Rebecca De Mornay (Vivian Hill), Sam Trammell (Detective Gibson), Luis Da Silva (Charley), Patrick St. Esprit (Joe Meserve), and Asante Jones (Detective Walker). It is rated NC-16.
For an NC-16 film, “I Am Wrath” isn’t all that visual or violent. It feels like a Frankensteined version of a hundred other revenge films, rather than being an original piece in its own right. While it’s inevitable that films in the same genre have some things in common with each other, it’s not right that an entire film feels like parts of another film. And that’s the key problem with “I Am Wrath” — it’s almost wholly derivative of other movies.
Highlights
Christopher Meloni’s Dennis revels in the hokeyness of the film
The one character who doesn’t take himself too seriously, and understands how silly the entire film is, is Dennis, Stanley’s (John Travolta) partner. He’s the only one who has fun in the film and enjoys his character, rather than trying to be a brooding, misunderstood individual gunning down other brooding, misunderstood individuals. Sure, he starts off like a regular stereotype, but by the end he’s just revelling in the chaotic madness of the movie. If “I Am Wrath” had been about Dennis, it would have been “I Am Having Lots Of Fun.”
Letdowns
Derivative
The biggest problem with the film is that it’s all derived from other films. From Biblical quotes in “Pulp Fiction” to single-minded vengeance in “Taken,” there’s virtually no originality in the film. These aren’t tropes that they’re using, they are cliches. The wanton use of stereotypes makes the film a walking bag of stitched together homages, and that’s putting it politely. What’s unique about this film?
Everyone has superhuman reflexes
The protagonists react faster than a gun. Multiple times. They can be held at gunpoint and their whole arm reacts faster than a trigger finger. Later, their old bodies are so flexible that they can contort their way out of deadly swipes. Clearly, they’ve been taking steroids, but it’s ridiculous to see how quick they can be. Nobody ever gets the drop on them unless they intend to be ambushed. And even then, it just takes five minutes to escape again.
Dated filmmaking techniques
Copious use of slow motion, slow cries of pain and smirking villains who get away with one last laugh — what is this, the 90’s? It makes the derivative elements of the film stick out even more because they copy the same moviemaking methods of the eras that the source films were made in. It’s cheesy and awkward for contemporary audiences, and amplifies everything that’s wrong with the film.
Odd violence
There’s shooting and stabbings, but you don’t see the consequences of severed appendages and multiple stabbings. You just see the reactions of bystanders and perhaps some unoriginal sound effects. It’s like the film wants to be edgy and dark but is too scared to actually show you such scenes. “I Am Wrath” wants to be violent, but ends up just pretending to be violent.
“I Am Wrath” will incur your wrath if you expect too much from it, so don’t.
“I Am Wrath” opens in cinemas 12 May, 2016 (Thursday).
This review was also published on Yahoo!.
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