Hunter Killer

Starring: Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, Common, Zane Holtz, Caroline Goodall, Michael Nyqvist, Linda Cardellini, Alexander Diachenko, Ilia Volok, Toby Stevens
Directed by: Donovan Marsh
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Thriller
2018

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A newly instated American submarine captain (Gerard Butler) is sent to the Arctic to investigate an encounter that led an American and Russian submarine to be sunk. There, he uncovers a plot that could threaten peace around the world.

Review:

Tim: It proved impossible for Hunter Killer to break out of the perception that it was just another run-of-the-mill, forgettable movie. I tend to enjoy submarine movies and I suppose this one was okay, but it's never as effective as it needed to be. The script is too weak, asks us to suspend disbelief too significantly. I wouldn't say I strongly disliked this movie, but it's hard to feel much excitement about it.

I'll give the script credit for delivering action sequence after action sequence. Once the story gets going, they throw a lot at us. It's a fairly unrelenting script. On the one hand, this is positive- it's somewhat exciting to see so many perilous situations encountered. On the other hand, it does have some drawbacks. There's not much time to focus on the characters. There's not much breathing room. The story does start to get a bit ridiculous- it feels increasingly farfetched that this much would happen in sequence to these characters. Many of the more intense moments- especially later in the film- feel illogical and too convenient. For example, this might be a "bad guy" deciding not to climb a series of stairs where the good guys are hiding, where they would certainly be found, choosing instead to just fire his weapon and turn around and leave. There were a dozen of these moments where you just had to shake your head because it didn't make a whole lot of sense. The film certainly prioritizes action and thrills over any kind of logic. That hurts the film significantly.

The cast was a bit hit-or-miss, but overall felt decent for a movie like this. Gerard Butler is fine in the lead role. He has his moments. It felt like he was really comfortable making this generic kind of action movie. He's made so many forgettable films like this- it felt like he knew exactly what to do. Show up, bring a little bit of charisma, act tough, and collect your paycheck. I wish Butler made better movies, but I'll give him some credit for making movies like this a bit better with his presence. I actually felt quite disappointed Gary Oldman took this role. He doesn't have anything of real substance to do and certainly didn't contribute enough to be second billed. It felt like his presence here was to slap his name at the top of the poster. He's a great actor, but his role here was mostly pointless. I like Michael Nyqvist- he does seem like a talented actor. His performance here is restrained, but there's no doubt he was effective. Common didn't make much of an impact. The supporting cast was fine- I can't say anyone really emerged as anything special, but they played their roles decently enough.

This whole movie just felt like a substandard effort. The visual effects weren't anything special. They were never so bad that it completely took you out of the movie, but there were a bunch of moments when it was obvious you were watching computer graphics that didn't get close to real life. Practical effects would have lent this film more credibility but there didn't seem to be a second's thought spend on this approach. The underwater scenes required a lot of suspension of disbelief. This is true for the story as well. There were so many illogical moments, so much that made no sense. You really had to just throw logic out the window and go with it. I tried to embrace the story, but the more outlandish ones proved too difficult for me to accept.

Hunter Killer (man, that's a generic title, too) is a pretty lackluster film. There's some level of guilty pleasure to be had from the film, but it's minimal. Submarine movies always have some amount of excitement to them, but this is certainly one of the more forgettable, ridiculous ones.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Hunt for Red October, Geostorm