Here’s my Bloodshot review courtesy of Columbia Pictures Philippines; its now showing and stars Vin Diesel, Eiza Gonzalez and Guy Pearce. Its also directed by David S.F. Wilson.

Bloodshot was created by Kevin VanHook, Don Perlin, and Bob Layton during a wave of popularity for Valiant Comics. The character’s name was suggested by artist David Chlystek.The character first appeared in three panels on the last page of Eternal Warrior #4 (November 1992), before making his first full appearance in Rai #0 (November 1992) a week later.

So we have our first foray by Valiant Comics/ Valiant Entertainment into the world of comic book movies and they start off with a decent start. I thought the movie was good; had a lot of things that could have been improved but as it stands, and as part of this Bloodshot review, it was a decent popcorn flick.

Vin Diesel is Ray Garrison a soldier who has been brought back to life by the corporation known as RST

Action Scenes

This is a Vin Diesel movie so you should expect a lot of punching and beatings. To some extent, I’m satisfied with all the violence given in these scenes. Its also very obvious that they didn’t put Diesel in a car chase because that would really be another derivative or spinoff of the “Fast and Furious” franchise. I did get a kick at those several moments where they made it believable that Diesel is a walking death machine.

The (anti)climatic scene also shows promise for fans of the source material, fans of comic book movies in general and the people in between who are also fans of the muscle-bound Hollywood A-Lister. Without spoiling much, let’s just say that there’s this big possibility that Diesel’s version of Bloodshot has the chance to evolve if and ever they decide to make a sequel.

Also a HUGE markdown for me for the shaky camera. You know how much I hate these things and this movie is full of that.

Villains

Don’t expect too much from the villain here. Most of the baddies here are as flat as a pancake. Very two dimensional villains with little to no character development. These chumps are stinkers for me because they already sucked in terms of characterization and plot development. They could have redeemed themselves with some great fight scenes but that too was weak. This part I’m not really sure whether its due to lazy writing or poorly contrived beats; the bottom line is these characters are WEAK.

On a side note, this would be the second time that Guy Pearce is involved in nanotechnology and he really needs to fire his agent for getting him another role that’s very similar to his take as “The Mandarin” aka Aldrich Killian in “Iron Man 3”.

via GIPHY

If there’s anything good about these villains though is the fact that they were original with the concepts. A blind soldier who gets 360 vision upgrades sounds promising but sadly, they were horribly written.

Eiza Gonzalez

I’ll stop myself from turning this Bloodshot review into a Eiza Gonzalez glory-post but I really thought she was that shimmering light in the film outside of Diesel. She’s not sexualized or treated like the love interest here. She’s written as a competent partner for Ray Garrison; albeit a trapped and cornered partner. Having a beautiful lady like Gozalez may have given directors a chance to show some skin but I’m surprised that the actress who was once in line to play Catwoman, was clothed properly.

Take that David Ayer in Suicide Squad…

And while they wrote a good fight sequence for Gonzalez’s KT in this flick, its good and merits strong female characterization. So for that kudos.

So to recap, the female supporting character:

– Is not in it for sex or love but pure friendship and kinship

– Is not shown in scenes where she’s exposing too much cleavage or butt cheeks or anything that can turn fanboys to fapboys.

– Is not dependent on a strong man to solve her problems or get her out of trouble.

I’d say that’s a great deal.

CGI and Costumes

Good call on making Bloodshot’s trademark red circle in a black shirt a more integral part of the movie. Too bad its inconsistent but its got a backstory for that making it a forgivable sin. The designs for Tibbs and Dalton towards the end were also great too bad its not showcased so much either because of sucky camera movement or bad CGI; like early 2000s CGI scenes here and there.

Bloodshot Review – Verdict

8/10

Bloodshot is decent and fun. It does suffer from predictability and tired tropes. It also shares A LOT of themes from past cult films like “Universal Soldier” and “Robocop”. But this is a positive step towards a bigger shared universe using characters from Valiant Entertainment/ Valiant Comics.