Sommerleigh Pollonais – Senior Writer
I’m gonna do a Top 5 on Female Assassins in movies soon, but after watching Ava, I’m not sure if she’s gonna make the cut.
Ava tells the story of an elite assassin who travels the globe, carrying out hits for a black-ops organization. When one of the jobs go wrong (like they usually do) the eponymous Ava has to fight for her survival.
Let’s start with the positives. This movie has a solid gold cast of A-listers in front the lens. Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) leads the pack as our titular female badass, Ava. I’ve had a crush on this woman since seeing her in Lawless as she’s one of those actresses who can pull off any role she’s in. We also have John Malkovich as her handler Duke, Colin Farrell tapping into his Bullseye persona (Daredevil) but with less cheese on this sandwich (thank goodness) Common, and freakin’ Geena Davis herself as her Mom. For those who may have forgotten Davis was one of those actresses back in the day, who also picked up a gun or ten and played an assassin in the truly underrated The Long Kiss Goodnight.
So basically we have a list of actors and actresses who could do these roles in their sleep! Hell, I was surprised to see Joan Chen pop up here as well. The last movie I saw her in was Judge Dredd but I loved her in 1995 action/thriller The Hunted.
The fight choreography is well shot and well executed,and when the story focuses on the action it’s at its best. Sadly, this movie has WAY TOO much drama in it and chooses to focus on the sub-plot of Ava’s family issues and struggles with addiction for much too long. So what starts off as a potentially fun action movie slides into a slog fest of unnecessary drama that drags it down.
The french film La Femme Nikita (or its equally good American remake, Point of No Return) did a much better job of this, and I get the feeling that’s what they were going for but maybe they should’ve paid closer attention to that movie as it did a much better job of balancing those two genres.
Ava is by no means a bad film. It has its strong moments (the assassin stuff) but sadly, lacks intensity in pacing and focus on what really matters (THE ASSASSIN STUFF) to make this movie stand above others like it.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
For more of my thoughts on Ava you can watch my video review here. For my review of Gangsta Flick The Tax Collector you can click here.
Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.
Double Tap Baby!
You can also follow me as Moviejunkies Cont’d on Facebook and watch my movie review videos on YouTube.