Those Who Wish Me Dead stars Angelina Jolie as survival expert and firefighter, Hanna Faber, who runs into a child in possession of a smoking gun that can put away a very dangerous criminal. This criminal is willing to kill everyone in their path to find this kid, and even starts a massive forest fire in the process. Can Hannah protect the child and get evidence to the proper authorities before a pair of expert assassins finds them first? Only time will tell.
So, this was one of the few newer releases that, even though I heard some things about it, it was never one of the releases I was personally gearing up to see. Not that it looked bad, per se, just that it looked rather average. I’m also in the boat that isn’t always impressed by Angelina Jolie and nowadays, I often think she looks a tad too sickly and needs to add on a a few pounds, but that’s just me. As an actress, she’s often touch and go with me, and it all depends on the role she ultimately chooses. How was she as Hanna Faber? Well, I think she was fine. She gave it her all, but this was also a character that was just indistinct-enough that a number of other actresses could have played the same role just as easily, which means I didn’t think she felt born to play it. I don’t think anybody could have felt born to play it, but that’s to be expected in a film like this, that, for a lack of a better explanation, feels familiar. A cat-and-mouse thriller where assassins are gunning after somebody that has evidence against them...I mean, that’s usually the plot behind, say...a witness protection film, for instance. The aspect that differenciates this film from those...is the setting of the forest fire.
I’ve seen a few other forest fire features in my life, though granted, those aren’t a dime a dozen, and usually, the forest fire itself is the plot. It’s what our heroes of the story are attempting to put out. In Those Who Wish Me Dead, it serves as the backdrop or setting; an additional obstacle for our heroes to overcome before they can finish their mission – and I liked that, because that’s the one element of the film that mostly feels fresh, and it doesn’t hurt that the fire itself feels real. Sure, there are a few shots here and there where it feels like the fire is produced or CGI or something, but I got pulled into the story just enough to believe that the fire was another threat in addition to the killers.
I didn’t, however, believe there was enough exposition to explain what it was that the killers wanted so much. You know by watching enough of these films that it’s probably evidence against them, but specifics or details were kind of blurry for me, so while there was a lot of character development for the “good guys”, there wasn’t as much development going on for the bad guys, or explanations as to who they are, other than just...bad guys. If there was, then there wasn’t enough of that to stick with me after watching it. Either way, it wasn’t preferred, as I like a villain to be at least somewhat understandable and even relatable, and this kind of felt like disposable villains.
All in all, there isn’t a lot to talk about with the movie, I think for the most part, what you expect the film to be...is exactly what it ends up being, which is fairly decent. You can kill time watching it, but it’s not going to change your life, nor is it something that I feel like many people will care to include in their personal library of films. It’s a good...one-time viewing that you’re not going to feel like you wasted your time on, but I doubt many people will immediatley feel like revisiting, but maybe I’m wrong, let’s go ahead and look at my final score for a second.
From a technical level, I can say that some of the cinematography was nice, especially in the area where they shot this film, which often looks really pretty. Some of the visuals with the fire was decent, but other than that, everything was what I’d consider to be business as usual. This score is 66%.
My biased score, or how I felt about the film in general, is pretty similar. I thought it was fine, but again, I doubt I’ll rewatch this anytime soon, I won’t be asking for this film on any kind of wishlist. I probably won’t really be recommending it. It’s fine. It’s totally fine. Nothing wrong with it. Just not anything super new. This score is 64%, and when we average out the two scores togethr, we come to the final rating of 65%, 65 out of 100 possible stars, or a D letter grade.
If I could review this film in one word, it would just be “fine” and perfectly acceptable for a lot of folks, but if you’re like me, and you WANT crazy good films that knock your socks off or make your jaw drop, this won’t be it.
...PEACE OUT
