Bloodshot

Now for another film I could have seen last March. It's Bloodshot, a sci-fi thriller based on a 90s comic book superhero. Last week, Xfinity, my TV provider, had free movies to watch. Also last week, Bloodshot became one of ten films shortlisted for this year's Visual Effects Oscar. Last night was the last night for the free movies. So I watched it last night.

Our hero is Ray Garrison (Vin Diesel), a US Marine happily married to Gina (Tallulah Riley). One day, on vacation, the two are seized by bad guy Martin Axe (Toby Kebbell). He kills them. 

The End?

No. 

Ray is brought back to life as a super-strong cyborg. Dr. Harting (Guy Pierce) replaced his blood with nanobots that fix his injuries. Ray can't remember his past; when he does, he goes after Axe. Once Harting gets him back, Ray awakens as a super-strong cyborg. He later gets revenge on the man who killed him and his wife...

What?

Turns out his past was a computer simulation. Harting's techie Eric (Siddharth Dhananjay) plugs in a new motivational nemesis for Ray on each mission. They then reset his memories and the process repeats. It's an ingenious plan that screenwriters Jeff Wadlow and Eric Heisserer came up for them. It's amazing that the villains aren't sick of it by now. Naturally, Ray isn't happy about it and he goes after Harting to make it stop.

The film was directed by Dave Wilson, a visual effects supervisor for Age of Ultron and a cutscene director for several Star Wars games. He helps make the most of a $45 million budget. Ray's self-repairing nanobots swarm around him to repair anything from a cut to grievous face disfigurement. The nanobots also give him an eerie super mode. The other visual highlights come from the conjuring of "real" digital environments. It's a stunning display of CGI that certainly earned the film its shortlist citation.

The evil scheme seems to acknowledge how cliched the film is. The first obvious sign is "Axe" playing Reservoir Dogs with Psycho Killer. See if you can spot some other references in my summary. But it's still a decent motivational plot for Ray. We're invested in his quest for justice, and then, answers. We're surprised as he is when he finds Gina. Overall, it's a good performance for Diesel.

At first, Pierce as Dr. Harting may seem unremarkable. But his villainy hits you like a ton of bricks when the conspiracy is revealed. His cyborg henchmen, Dalton (Sam Heughan) and Tibbs (Alex Hernandez), are decent bad guys who do better playing nice. The highlights of the supporting cast are KT (Eiza Gonzalez), a cyborg who turns good, and hacker Wilfred Wiggons (Lamorne Morris). These two characters are great support for Ray.

Bloodshot is a fine action film with an outstanding villain plot and visual effects. Its overall premise is basic but it gets the job done. It's a good way to spend a slow day in-doors. Don't spend too much on it, though. My next film review is on another shocking contender for this year's Visual Effects Oscar. It's coming soon: