Doin' too much

I wanted this movie to be good. I like Patricia Arquette and Zazie Beetz, and this looked like the kind of fun, over-the-top action film built around showcasing great fight choreography.

Can the stunt coordinator convince you that Beetz is a trained fighter?

Can those fights be staged and blocked well enough that you can actually follow the action?

Yes and yes.

Where the movie stumbles is in its need to over complicate the plot. As with all of my reviews, I try to avoid spoilers, but this film twists itself into a messy knot trying to raise the stakes. Had the story remained simpler and more focused, I think I would have enjoyed it more.

In the end, the movie feels like the product of studio notes scrawled across the script: "More!" "Explain this!" "But why?"

Ironically, those impulses only make the film less.

Still, the movie does enough right that I can't bring myself to hate it. It delivers some genuinely entertaining action and strong fight choreography, but it ultimately fumbles a concept that should have been relatively simple to pull off.