Many people may not know the name Zoe Saldana. They might not even recognise her but she was one of the best things in James Cameron’s Avatar, even though she wasn’t actually seen. She was Uhuru in the revamp of Star Trek and for a while she has played second fiddle in other big budget action films. Well now she is brought forward and given the chance to shine in Colombiana. Will it, however, make her a star? Well…
Colombia in the early 90s and a young girl witnesses the murder of her parents by a gang belonging to a ruthless drugs baron. Escaping to the US to live with her uncle, she has one ambition…to become a professional killer in order to avenge their deaths. Years later, she has become a silent, hard to stop assassin that the FBI are desperate to stop as her total of bodies rises. Trying to keep her identity unknown, she gets ever closer to her goal but her relationship to an artist could be her downfall.
Scripted by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, who wrote Taken, this is a decent action film that ticks all the boxes when it comes to the genre. Unfortunately, what made Taken such a smash is missing…that of a super star performance in the lead. Don’t get me wrong, Saldana is very good. She’s smart, incredibly sexy and a perfect action star who holds the film together well. The only problem is, she’s not Liam Neeson. Without Neeson, Taken would have been just another run-of-the-mill kidnap thriller but he gave the film levity. Saldana doesn’t quite have that star quality yet but you can see it’s almost there.
Directed by the brilliantly named Olivier Megaton, the film is a non-stop, in-your-face explosion that zips through it’s very clichéd story at a break-neck pace. The action scenes are well executed, including a very violent fight scene in a bathroom where everything is used to beat the hell out of the two fighters, from bottles and towels to toothbrushes.
British actor Lennie James plays the man leading the investigation to unmask the killer and is perfectly fine. The trouble is, he must be the worst FBI agent ever. There are so many clues screaming in his face that he misses them. We have the usual stereotype baddies, living in vine-covered villas with their massive sunglasses and bad moustaches, armed to the teeth and yet unable to get a single bullet to hit Saldana.
Yes, it’s silly. Yes it’s explosive and while it’s on, it’s entertaining if you like this kind of film. It isn’t very memorable and once you have spend under two hours in the cinema watching it, you leave thinking it was fine but you may struggle to remember too much about it a few hours later.
A pity, as Ms Saldana does deserve to become a star and even take the position held by Angelina Jolie for years, as the top female action star. Unfortunately I get the impression that this will disappear without making much of a blimp on the box office and Ms Saldana will have to wait for something better to come along to get that position.