Sommerleigh Pollonais, Senior Writer
Plot: One Army captain must use her years of tactical training and military expertise when a simultaneous coordinated attack threatens the remote missile interceptor station she is in command of.
Review: Did the 90s come back and nobody told me?!
Interceptor is the directorial debut of Matthew Reilly who also co-wrote this ode to old school action movies. At least I HOPE that’s what he was going for, otherwise Interceptor isn’t an action movie but a comedy about action movies.
Starring Elsa Pataky (Fast Five, Tidelands) as Captain J.J. Collins, a woman who is extremely good at her job. But due to a traumatic encounter with a superior officer she is sent to man one of two interceptor stations the United States uses to protect the country from possible nuclear attack. Before she can even settle in the station is attacked by a man named Kessel (Luke Bracey) and with the other station already overrun it’s up to J.J. to keep the terrorist out of the main control room or take them out and prevent America going night-night.
From the dialogue that had me bouncing from cringe to laughing out loud, to the characters that felt like they were pulled from a Steven Seagal movie, everything in Interceptor plays like an old-school action movie. Elsa Pataky definitely sells the badass heroine with her attitude and her biceps that could probably bench press Thor himself (wink, wink) and if you’re a fan of films like The Expendables or even older action movies from the 80’s that probably would’ve starred Chuck Norris or in this case, Cynthia Rothrock, I think you’ll find Interceptor to be fun. Personally, I couldn’t get pass how awkward the entire thing looked and felt.
From the villain who seemed to represent the right-wing types that think America should just go back to the “good old days” to the action sequences that require a TON of disbelief to digest, this is one of those movies that people use as examples for why Netflix is awful. Even the cameo by Elsa’s real life husband Chris Hemsworth came across as cringe-y instead of funny (which I think is what they were going for) and the fight scenes are all uninspired, with the final showdown between J.J and Kessel concluding way too fast and leaving no real impact.
If you saw Elsa Pataky in her small but meaningful role in Fast Five or her Netflix series Tidelands, you’ll know the lady has range. It’s just a shame the ridiculous dialogue and embarrassing one-liners littered throughout this movie does her such a disservice. Interceptor is a movie that I think would’ve been a huge success if it came out ten years ago. But in an age where we have movies like Atomic Blonde, Salt or What Happened to Monday, this one just left me wondering how it got greenlit.
Sommer’s Score: 4.5 out of 10
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.
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