The Brave One.

Finally! A movie review, back to what this blog is all about. And a revenge movie, nonetheless. Enjoy!

Now what we have here though is a very different sort of revenge movie (than the ones I'm used too). The vigilante is female (even if they look like a cute middle aged boy), the vigilante is just a nobody really, the vigilante isn't really a hero, the cops aren't dicks and the vigilante never truly transits into a killing machine in the name of justice, deep down she's just having a breakdown, giving this a much more politically correct and realistic feel to the vigilante revenge movie.

The story however is a pretty average revenge movie story. Some scum of society wrongs someone else who follows the law in society, they lose the person they love (and their dog) and want revenge thanks to mainly the incompetence and lies of our police forces and courts and their lack of care for the average joe. Then of course one cop stands out as the caring figure on the side of good and then the cop and her revenge become like the angel and the devil on her shoulder. As mentioned above, what sets this story apart is that Erica Bain, our 'hero', is just a voice on a radio show most of her listeners have never seen her face. She never used to be in the military, she was never wronged by the government in the past and locked away for allegedly killing her unit, she isn't a celebrity or a rich somebody of some kind, just a voice. And after she is wronged the movie doesn't suddenly turn into an action flick either, it becomes an emotional journey for Erica as she questions her life, justice and the world around her. It has this air of pretentious metaphors, but it makes for a much smoother (albeit more boring) movie.

But was it good? Well, I was ready to cast this off as a boring politically correct experiment but you soon realise that all this was done on purpose to provide a huge 'FUCK YEAH!' ending that'll make you smile from ear to ear (unless you're a heartless cunt) and deliver truly what a revenge movie needs to deliver. Revenge! And revenge you cheer for, not feel bad about the morals (like the film wanted you to so far, I guess this shows just how right wing I am because I cheered all the way). It's very clever but I think the execution leaves much to be desired, honestly.

The main problem in this movie, aside from how insanely boring it is for a majority of it is just how fast the cops catch onto everything. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be like the movie saying, 'WOO COPS THEY ARE AWESOME!' or just simply bad writing. But they can from two seemingly unconnected murder scenes, see that they are both connected by the same gun (a gun I would guess is very common and crops up multiple times every day) and then soon create this idea of a vigilante and the case falls into place almost like clockwork, it's truly ridiculous there is just no way they could have connected everything together that fast and easily unless they were Sherlock Holmes, the murder scenes were too random. I think I'd rather the asshole cops who like to stand back and tut rather than these superhumans.

So should you watch it? This isn't really action orientated like a lot of revenge movies, deaths are more key points to the narrative rather than fanservice. But the experimentation gives it at least a 'worth watching' at least once I guess and true to be said, a great ending doesn't make an average movie good, but it helps.

Think about it!

-Locke.