hypnotic

Hypnotic Review

Cast: Ben Affleck, Alice Braga, JD Pardo, Dayo Okeniyi

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Genre: Action, Mystery, Thriller

Release Date: May 26th

 

Determined to find his missing daughter, Austin Detective Danny Rourke (Ben Affleck) finds himself spiraling down a rabbit hole while investigating a series of reality-bending crimes. Aided by Diana Cruz (Alice Braga), a gifted psychic, Rourke simultaneously pursues and is pursued by a lethal specter, the one man he believes holds the key to finding the girl.

When weighing up the films of Robert Rodriguez in terms of having a somewhat good reputation, they are quite different and diverse. Sin City (2005) and Planet Terror (2007) have always been his most highly rated and admired pieces of work. In contrast, he has ‘Delighted’ us with other offerings such as The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl (2005) and Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World (2011) (exhales a loud sigh and shakes his head in disappointment). So it is already common knowledge, that Rodriguez likes to dabble in different genres that get his creative juices flowing, which is commendable. But, Hypnotic is such a gigantic mess, it doesn’t know how to untangle itself from what it is trying to achieve. What started as a promising opening sequence, quickly comes to a halt, like when you dangerously slam on your car breaks. The first act had me intrigued, with some good tension-building sequences and then it gets so ridiculous with cheesy one-liners and poor dialogue. At times, it was so hard to keep up with what was going on, I wasn’t really invested in the film. Dellrayne’s (William Fichtner) mischievous persona gives us that tiny pinch of life and something to cling to, as we desperately find something positive to keep us mildly interested.

hypnotic

The film tries to be complex but is let down by a convoluted plot in which nothing really happens, or even exhilarates us. The idea of using Hypnotism as a defence mechanism is an interesting concept, but here it becomes extremely complicated and stupidly unpredictable. The visual effects give this movie a very cheap and amateur-looking filter and eliminates that core element on which the plot is dependent, little is achieved to resurrect this disaster piece back to life.

YAWN YAWN, I felt physically drained and found it hard to keep my eyes open while watching this movie, it also struggled to keep me engaged with the boring storyline. Question marks hang over Ben Affleck on his decision to take on this role because he had as much interest in being in this film, as I would have had if I was asked to go to school on a Saturday morning. I am no trained actor, but I’m almost certain that you might need certain qualities to practise the craft. Affleck shows none of these traits, he shows no charisma or energy and I did not find him remotely interesting. If he did it for a quick paycheck, his lazy performance might land him an award for being the next Razzie Recipient. The film most certainly did not even leave me with the slightest inkling of enjoyment and could be on the verge of being one of the worst films of the year, in addition to also being a box office flop. As a whole, Hypnotic scrapes the barrel in attempting to embarrassingly try in becoming the next Inception. Filled with unenergetic performances and an unaspiring recycled concept, it becomes an insult to Christopher Nolan, instead of a homage. Robert Rodriguez gives us his latest offering that involves a non-sensical bore fest with a poor attempt at leaving us with non-lasting memorable impressions that will make you feel SLEEPY SLEEPY SLEEPY.

Overall: 2.5 / 10

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