Bloodshot Plot: When he and his wife Gina (Talulah Riley) are murdered, ex-soldier Ray Garrison (Vin Diesel) is given another shot at life. After he is injected with nanotechnology into his bloodstream, he becomes the super human mercenary named Bloodshot. However, as he begins to learn about his past and what it really means, he questions his former life and the state of his future.
Bloodshot had the unfortunate timing of being released just as the world went into quarantine mode. This rendered the adaptation of the popular Valiant comic book into a box office bomb — as it made back a little more than 50% of its budget by the time theaters closed down. So, with the theater not being an option for the movie to find an audience, Amazon grabbed it for Early Access viewing, at the purchase rate of $15. Sorry to say, but rental is not an option on this, so tread lightly if you even have a remote interest.
Bloodshot is pretty much a bunch sci-fi action movie cliches wrapped up in a superhero flick. Vin Diesel’s titular character is composed of Iron Man, Captain America, Deadpool, and Wolverine traits and features, except with none of the charm of any of those characters. Diesel doesn’t really have a great acting range as he just grunts and yells and flexes and … that’s his character. To be fair, Diesel isn’t even given much to go with as far as a character, either. There’s no learning curve for Ray when he is injected with the “nanobyte” technology and turned into Bloodshot. He just hits the ground running without any problems and the movie points him at whoever they can to serve as the bad guy … even if the bad guy isn’t real.
The movie takes on aspects of Black Mirror with our hero’s history and it is the most intriguing part of the movie. However, these threads never go anywhere really intriguing or astounding. The world of Bloodshot just “exists” and we are along for the ride. Side characters exist solely to just move the plot along. The best of them is Bloodshot’s technie nerd friend Wilfred, played by Lamorne Morris (New Girl). Wilfred actually serves as one of the true aides to Ray’s confused alter ego but sadly, he’s just there as a plot device to get Ray from A to B. This movie is a lot of getting from A to B, but sometimes the B is never really explained or has a payoff.
The CGI utilized in the film is not bad for a $45 million movie. However, there’s an elevator fight sequence that looks like something from a PlayStation 3 game cutscene. The physical attributes of how characters move in the battle are definitely not based in reality, and yeah, I know they are supposed to be superhuman. But it still feels off.
This is not to say Bloodshot is a terrible movie. It’s … fine. Much like last year’s Venom, if you understand what you’re heading into — a “blah” film with a certain charm that keeps you engaged — you’ll somewhat enjoy it.
Bloodshot’s lack of time proper movie theaters may not have made a difference in how much it made at the box office. It might actually have a bit of a better chance on the Amazon platform for those who don’t mind spending $15 on a mindless movie. Maybe I’m being optimistic.
To conclude, Bloodshot’s not a bad movie but I just don’t think it’s going to have a franchise going forward, which I think was the plan. I doubt Hollywood will take “byte” on this one. Yeah, I went there.
