Hunter Killer - Movie Review

This film is a 15, was released on October 19th 2018, and this review will contain NO SPOILERS

Introduction 

In this modern age, there are plenty of films which are so good they're good, as well as so bad they're bad. But we also have many which are so bad that they're good. To me, I'd always take a good bad film over a good good film if I enjoy the former more. Most of these bad films include Olympus has Fallen, London has Fallen, and even though I haven't seen it but I'm sure it'd be included in this list, Geostorm. What all these films have in common besides being so laughably terrible that they're hilarious? A man named Gerard Butler. 

Thoughts Going In 

I didn't go out of my way to see Hunter Killer, but I thought it'd pass the time just fine and perhaps bring a few laughs with how stupid it was. Plus, Gerard himself is enough to make me know I'll enjoy a film. But regardless of how much I thought I'd enjoy the film, I had super low expectations.

The Story 

Gerard is a tough, but sensitive guy named Joe Glass. He's brought on to a mission to go to Russia where a submarine was recently attacked. After taking a few suspected criminals from the crash, the submarine he's in is called into save the Russian president after a series of convoluted events. Meanwhile, Gary Oldman is the admiral, shouting at a control room of people.

What I Liked 

In all fairness, this film isn't as poor as I thought it'd be. There is a lot of competence on display here from the director and the performances. The actions scenes are well crafted and do make you feel some basic form of tension. One involves the big, long submarine trying to carefully manoeuvre its way around sound-sensitive sea mines whilst everyone on board has to stay dead silent. It doesn't have you biting your nails, but you do feel what the characters are going through. There are other various ones torpedoes and missiles heading towards the sub as well as some mainland combat with soldiers. All do show this isn't the worst quality of film on display.

The best thing about the film is by far Gerard Butler himself. He isn't genuinely one of my favourite actors like Chris Pratt, Benedict Cumberbatch or Taron Egerton, but he's definitely a lot of fun to watch, especially in films where he plays the generic tough guy who shouts a lot. That is exactly what you have here. It isn't as entertaining as London has Fallen simply because the direction and script for that film was complete rubbish, but here he is trying to be the same character again and it was quite fun to watch and laugh at.

What I Didn't Like 

The film is too long. Not only is it too long, but it jumps back and forth from several groups of people we're supposed to feel tension about. But the way it jumps isn't consistent because it spends too long on one groups that when it has cut back to another one, you either forgot they were in the film or didn't want to cut back because the other group was more interesting. I don't think any groups could've been emitted from the film because they're all necessary to the plot, but if 20 minutes at most were cut, it'd be beneficial.

The film is also surprisingly dull. There's a lot of boring scenes where it's either an overly long tracking shot which adds absolutely nothing, or bland talking between characters which isn't as engaging as it thinks it is. Gary Oldman tries his best to make these more interesting by shouting at the top of his lungs in most scenes, but it doesn't do the job. I don't quite think this film knows that its audience are not going to be people that saw Darkest Hour, but rather those who saw every Gerard Butler film on Netflix. As a result, it lacks the guilty pleasure which I get from other good bad movies, and instead just feels like a poor attempt at a gritty action drama. 

Conclusion 

Hunter Killer is just bland, forgettable action. It has one or two neat scenes with Gerard doing his very best, but it doesn't do anything outrageously bad that's funny or serve as a guilty pleasure. Instead, it's a film I can imagine popping up on network television very soon. And it's also one I don't think I'll be rewatching soon. Hopefully Geostorm will do the job this film didn't. 

I'm going to give Hunter Killer an A