Director: Oliver Megaton
Starring: Zoe Saldana, Michael Vartan, Lennie James, Cliff Curtis, Jordi Molla
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 107 minutes
Synopsis: A young girl, after witnessing her parents’ murder as a child in Bogota, Columbia, grows up to be a stone-cold assassin.
Having directed a female led assassin movie with 1990’s Nikita himself, Luc Besson hands over similar themed duties to Transporter 3 Directer Oliver Megaton. Megaton must have impressed producer and writer Besson somehow to get a shot at directing another script by him and his writing partner Robert Mark Kamen, the two seem to keep churning these action screenplays out by the bucket load. Hoping that the next one may turnout to create an ongoing franchise to go with his box-office hit Transporter series, has Besson hit the pay-load again and found his female Jason Statham in the shape of AVATAR’s Zoe Saldana?
Opening in Columbia in 1992 with two supposed friends discussing a shady deal involving some computer discs then saying their goodbye’s, one of these men we soon learn is the father of ten year old Cataleya, this soon erupts into an action-packed chase through the crowded streets of Bogota after a rival kingpin has young Cataleya’s father killed in front of her (we never see this but only assume through her facial expressions) by his gang of henchmen lead by Marco (Jordi Molla), who was sent to retrieve a computer chip given to Cataleya by her father before his murder. This chase scene is filled with the free running stunt work we have seen many times before in these Besson produced action films like THE TRANSPORTER and DISTRICT 13, only done a lot better and more spectacular in those movie’s. After escaping the clutches of these henchman, Cataleya arrives at a US embassy where the information on the chip gets her to the safety of US soil only for her to vanish from the authorities at the airport, to the sanctuary of Emilio (Cliff Curtis giving his best Tony Montana impression). Swearing Emilio to train her in the art of contract killing to avenge her families slaughter just as Natalie Portman’s Mathilda did with Jean Reno in Besson’s US directing debut LEON.
Once grown up in the form of Zoe Saldana we catch up with Cataleya fifteen years later smashing into a police car and landing herself in prison which not wanting to give any spoilers features the movie’s best set-piece when we realise the crash was a elaborate ploy to get her closer to her next hit.
The cast do their best with what they are given, Saldana fitting the bill well as the cool as ice assassin, only showing the right amount of emotional depth at the right times in the scenes with her adopted family. Lennie James ‘(THE WALKING DEAD) too does a decent job as a crusading FBI chief but the rest of the cast particularly love interest Michael Vartan are not given enough screen time with his character feeling shoehorned in, as if the writers realising last minute we need a man for Cataleya to long for but unable to get close to. The back story of Kingpin Don Luis, an important character to Cataleya’s mission seems missing and is barely on screen until the finale, never really giving the audience enough detail to relate why he was so important for the US government to protect.
Being a fan of some these action themed Besson productions, TAKEN, KISS OF THE DRAGON and the first TRANSPORTER being particular favourites of mine. The ridiculousness of the action scenes being a joy to watch weather its a middle aged Liam Neeson taking out a room full of French beefcakes single-handed, Jet Li kung fu kicking a billiard ball to the skull of a bad guy or Jason Statham making full use of a bicycle and a barrel full of oil in an attempt to deal with dozens of martial arts trained goons. These films are not to be taken too seriously. COLUMBIANA lacks the fun of these films and never has an action set piece that blows you away, even the finale feels rushed and tacked on . So fans of these films may feel let down if they are expecting an all-out action extravaganza of that ilk. Disappointing and very run-of-the-mill.
COLUMBIANA is released 9th September
