American Assassin

"Assassins aren't born. They're made."

Filmology Rating: 2.5 out of 4

American Assassin follows the rise of Mitch Rapp (Dylan O'Brien). After watching his girlfriend get shot in front of him on vacation, he wants nothing else but revenge. Needing guidance, the CIA put him in a training program under the Cold War veteran Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton).

I didn’t have too high of hopes for American Assassin purely based off the trailer. I thought it would be an average spy/CIA thriller and that is what I got. This film is not as bad as some critics ...or the Rotten Tomato meter has been saying but it is also far from perfect.

To start with the positives, I thought that Dylan O’Brien was great. I really believe that he will become this generations Tom Cruise. While Mr. Cruise is still very much a big name star, O’Brien reminds me of him very much. Both action stars, both know how to lead and have a presence in the film, both attractive guys, but most important comparison, is their physicality. Both insist on doing as many of their own stunts as possible. O’Brien hurt really hurt himself during filming of the second Maze Runner film; similarly, Tom Cruise recently broke his ankle in multiple places jumping from building rooftops filming the new Mission Impossible film setting production back at least 4 months. Anyway! O’Brien was really great and made you invested in this film even when some aspects tried to take you out of it.

Pairing with O’Brien, Michael Keaton was good as well. Not great however but that was not his fault. He had some of the only funny lines during the film. While it was a relief, the dialogue just wasn’t there at all times which leads me into the biggest issue that I had.....

This film is based on Vince Flynn's 2010 novel American Assassin and you could tell the dialogue was copied and pasted but sloppily. With a novel you can explain so much more and go into depth but a film has to be concise. This transferal was missed and that is where the film missed its mark. The conversations felt really forced and the emotion and feel of the film was missed.

The biggest issue with this film is its dialogue and sometimes poor editing. It doesn’t ruin the film by any means but it lessens its enjoyment at times. That being said, this film does have a VERY impressive finale sequence with some incredible special effects.

Overall, don't expect too much from this film and you should enjoy yourself.

Rating: Rent It

-Nick