Ticketworthy! - Shadow Force

It’s understandable when a movie made by a novice filmmaker, on a shoestring budget, is a bit uneven. If it struggles with pacing, structure, or the action sequences, it has something of an excuse. One can forgive a lot when a film simply doesn’t have the advantages of money and experience behind it. When a movie like Shadow Force comes along, though, with its experienced director and reported $60 million budget, there is absolutely no forgiving it for being as messy and unenjoyable as it is.

Director Joe Carnahan has directed films like Smokin’ Aces, The A-Team, and 2020’s rather underrated Boss Level. The man has credentials, particularly when it comes to action movies. Shadow Force, which he also co-wrote, should be right up his alley. The story of a pair of former assassins turned parents now on the run from their old team and the U.S. government is exactly the kind of material that Carnahan seems to thrive on. Yet, he somehow manages to fumble just about every element of this film.

The action, arguably the most important part of an action movie, is downright terrible. It’s jumpy and poorly shot, with characters often getting lost in the camera movements, and that’s when it even happens on-screen. Several big moments take place off-camera, for some reason. It’s as though Carnahan couldn’t be bothered to make all of the movie, so he just had the characters tell us they did cool things. It’s very strange. When we can see the action, it’s uninspired and poorly choreographed.

When the action isn’t boring the audience, the rest of the movie doesn’t have much else to offer either. The story jumps quickly from place to place with little explanation of how or why characters got there. It introduces an entire team of elite assassins that I’m not entirely sure even have names, since we spend exactly no time fleshing them out. Worst of all, though, it just can’t figure out what tone it’s aiming for. Sometimes it’s a traditional shoot-em-up, sometimes it’s an intense drama, sometimes it’s a goofy family comedy, and sometimes it’s all three in the same scene. It’s trying to be way too many things and failing to be any of them.

Because the entire endeavor is so all over the place, it’s hard to blame the actors. They really had nothing to work with, so credit to them, I guess, for trying. Kerry Washington as Kyrah, the matriarch of the killer family, perhaps overacts a bit at times. However, I’m not sure how much of that is her and how much is a terrible script. To be fair, Omar Sy as Isaac, Kyrah’s husband, is probably the lone bright spot of the film. He does as well as one could expect as the protective father and doting husband who wants nothing more than to keep his family safe. His character makes sense, and Sy does good work.

Other than that, there’s not much to praise. Every aspect of Shadow Force feels like a misstep. I’m not sure if Carnahan is to blame for its failure or if something else went wrong, but either way this is the kind of movie that should make those involved step back and really consider what happened. For a movie about a family trying to vanish and be forgotten, that’s ironically the exact fate this mess is headed for.