Thought like the summer streaming blockbuster, The Gray Man is the new creation of the new kings of the world, namely the Russo brothers, directors of Avengers: Endgame... It is above all a bitter observation that action cinema has now become.
Action cinema is dead
It was a time when action films were thought of as a genre in its own right and where filmmakers could flourish. Directors such as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Walter Hill, Michael Mann and John McTiernan have proven that the blockbusters of authors have a place in the film landscape.
From now on, the slightest blockbuster is reduced to its simplest expression: the eye to the detriment of history. And it's not that Gray Man which is going to refurbish the previously stimulating coat of arms of the heavy seasonal machinery.
With a budget of $200 million, The Gray Man Tells how a former CIA agent, who became a hit man for the government, turns out to be the target of his former employer.
A script we can no longer boat, the Russo brothers manage to draw only very few things... Because it is not by flying cameras on certainly cinematic landscapes, but, o how meaningless, that the film will prove to be unavoidable!
Morose action
Because the big problem of the film (and of the action cinema of recent years) is that he is absolutely not interested in his characters, simple silhouettes crossing the narrative without any conviction. The scenario is thus built through its action scenes and not the reverse.
For fear of annoying the spectator, more inclined to dive his nose in front of his telephone screen rather than on a large screen, the Russo brothers multiply the batons, shootings and other chase races on a plane, a tram, a mansion, but forget the essential: his characters. It is not by wearing glasses and a three-piece suit to Regé-Jean Page that we will make him a bad bureaucrat. Nor is it by gluttonizing the hair of a Chris Evans carrying a ridiculous mustache and a wardrobe from Devred that we will make him a bad psychopath. And I'm not talking about the beautiful Ana De Armas, reduced here to grief. As for Ryan Gosling, his blind eye speaks volumes about his involvement. Just see Drive and The Nice Guys (films thought and written upside down staged) to convince himself that he could have been a real hero of action with a real background (not an explanatory flashback sent at the beginning of the film).
« We don't make omelettes without breaking people. »
Nth production without any stake or vision, The Gray Man is not even worth viewing in beer and pizza mode. Hopefully the next blockbuster of Netflix, Day Shift, a horror comedy with Jamie Foxx and Snoop Dog, will be much more entertaining (what the trailer looks like to show). Wait and see...
This espionage actioner with sustained tempo and easy auction comes out heavy artillery so that the invincible « 00Six » It's all around the world. The Netflix blockbuster!