2020. First we had >Extraction. Then we had >The Old Guard. Now, here it is. The "next step" in the string of mediocre Netflix blockbusters: >Project Power. Ordinary as they go just from the title. To put it plain and simple, this movie is basically the zenith of dejà vu. Everything it shows we have seen before (>Limitless being the most obvious source of "inspiration").
So, the realm of originality is somewhere far beyond reach. Anyway, when you have taken into account the ordinary and derivative nature of it all, you can almost enjoy yourself. Almost.
Because, given its somewhat good premise, the movie could have been much much better and very much more entertaining.
But, being the end result as it is, it's just a matter of a pretty sad list:
- The plot. Well, the plot is just as much predictable as you could imagine and it's furthermore just a pretext;
- The script. It doesn't seem to know where to go at times, it "gifts" us with wanna-be funny one-liners and with a series of never-so-much one dimensional characters (especially the bad guys);
- The direction. It's simply a drab and can't quite manage to handle the action scenes, which are always messy or standard;
- The acting. It seems rather listless. There certainly are good actors like Foxx and Gordon Levitt here, but they don't seem all that interested (and given the material they had to work with you can understand why).
There you go: the zenith of deja vu coupled with the apotheosis of the generic and sometimes stale.
>Project Power seems at the very least intriguing at first (in the beginning, till the "Human Torch" scene), but the more it goes on the more you can't help yourself but wonder what it may have been if it had been written and directed by a better director and a better screenwriter. In that case maybe a 6 or 7 could've been reached.
But - as the saying goes - you don't make history with the "ifs". As I already suggested, being the movie as it is, it's just mediocre. "Watchable" if you want, but mediocre nonetheless. And a tad little bit nonsensical if you ask me (and maybe it's really just me, but I'm thinking right now: why the hell would anybody want to take a pill that they don't even know if it's gonna work, how it's gonna work and that could pretty much disintegrate them right away?).
