I can forgive this film for it's derivate nature. I have no real concerns with it pinching elements from a myriad of films. (If you see it you'll know which films) What annoys me is even with the blatant plagiarising going on it could have been so much better than it turned out to be. Three main factors murder the film in cold blood. One is the sorry excuse for a script. Just because the premise was unoriginal didn't mean they had to throw in every cliche in the book. It's awful, awful writing. Plain embarrassing. I squirmed on many occasions. Secondly the soundtrack. What a mess. Bouncing from heavy rock to dance fused rock to serene piano and strings all within a few scenes. It's one of the worst soundtracks ever and seriously disrupts the film. Lasty are the character inconsistencies. Our hero flits from being an unstoppable, brutal, emotionless killing machine with no fear to a scared kid getting freaked out by a fire alarm. It just doesn't sit right at all. His character arc is all over the place. All these factors, not the story itself, contribute to dragging Returner down to straight to video hell. A shame as the production values ain't too bad. One last thing. The director handles the action well but seemingly has no idea what type of film he wants to make. The tone of the film zig zags from one extreme to the other leaving you completely bewildered. If you can ignore the poor writing and the messy structure then you may get some enjoyment from this little flick. The action scenes ain't too bad after all. Don't expect too much from the film itself though.
5/10
5/10