Audiences likely know what to expect form Jean-François Richet's Mutiny and he doesn't waste much time setting things up. Jason Statham plays Cole Reed, a Bangkok billionaire's bodyguard who witnesses his boss' murder and quickly finds himself implicated and on the run. Reed (who naturally is a former elite cop and marine) follows the evidence and boards one of his former employer's cargo ships where he uncovers more than he bargained for while getting to the bottom of the murder. It's hardly the most original premise but it serves to get the film where it needs to be and where it excels—Reed's unrelenting campaign of brutal vengeance.
Most of the film is set on the cargo ship where Reed finds a sympathetic 3rd Mate (Annabelle Wallis) and eventually the sinister captain (Roland Møller) alongside a host of anonymous crew members who are essentially fodder for the cyclone of violence Reed unleashes. The setting provides a tense, claustrophobic backdrop that often finds Reed shimmying through narrow ports and vents like a maritime Die Hard. This confinement helps define the gnarly close-quarters fight choreography but also lends a unique feel to the shoot-outs. Rather than open air sniping from behind cover, the gun battles often play out whipping around stairwells and hallways and at extremely close range. It's an electric and lethal way to stage the action.
The dialog is perfunctory at best and Statham eschews action movie one-liners for an unwaveringly granite faced performance. Cole Reed is less of a heroic everyman who persists despite taking a beating than he is an unstoppable force of steely vengeance. There's very little suspense in whether he'll overcome improbable odds and instead Richet rewards the audience with innovative ways to inflict bodily trauma. Likewise the characters are paper thin and the chemistry between the actors is minimal. The only relationships that are truly important in Mutiny are various bodies' relationship in physical space. How close they are when a bullet rips through a cranium or a cargo hook tears through a hand. In a potent (if less inherently savage) moment Reed and Madsen (Møller) clock each other across the deck through binoculars. Though separated by several hundred yards, it's clear their inevitable and bloody collision is imminent.
There's nothing especially novel in Mutiny and the writing is as leaden as a sea anchor, but it also could have been far worse. Mutiny largely delivers on its base promise to Statham fans and does so in a refreshingly tactile manner, avoiding becoming an unremarkable digital smear of weightless action and nowhere locations. Richet's genre filmmaking expertise and Statham's screen presence hold everything together well enough to allow the unrestrained bloody set-pieces to shine.
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