Interceptor Finds Some Fun But Fails To Capture A Solid Story
I felt compelled to write this review of the movie Interceptor because I don’t think the IMDb score of 4.5/10 and the Rotten Tomatoes score of 45% was fair for the directorial debut for Australian author Matthew Reilly.
Don’t get me wrong — it’s not great. Some of the fight scenes are unrealistic, or unlikely. Some even make you question if it’s possible to get a certain object through someone’s skull, but I highly recommend that you don’t Google it to find out.
You’ll hear many complaining that the plot is bad and … it’s a little bit true. Interceptor is full of the most improbable incidents; when one of the interceptor stations gets taken over, missiles get stolen from the Russian military, just a badge gets you through the door, and somehow a ceiling panel and a floor panel can be popped out. They really didn’t seem to put much effort into how or why things happened, which I think is where people are getting the “poor plot” idea from.
The acting seemed bad because the characters, their backstories, and their motives weren’t captivating enough. If you pick a random scene to watch before you sit down and judge the acting, you’ll see the actors are doing their best to try and make their character believable. They can only do so much with what they were given from the writer and director.
JJ (Elsa Pataky) is a female soldier who has her reputation ruined because she reported a sexual assault against a man in the upper ranks (which, not to derail this review, is probably the most believable thing about her character). She somehow manages to travel to one of the very top secret, very important interceptor bases. How did she get that assignment after all the “scandal” she’s been involved in? She gets introduced to what appear to be the only three other people on this base, other than the exorbitant amount of janitors, and then the takeover begins. The story is a little rushed, but it’s not that weird or that unheard of in filmmaking. I would comment on the performances by Luke Bracey, Aaron Glenane, Mayen Mehta, etc., but it just felt like they were doing the best with what they were given. There’s no reason to blame them. Also, a certain famous actor has an uncredited appearance in this movie.
The biggest credit I’m giving goes to the stunt department. The choreography for these stunts was done really well. If you get bored with the story, watch the film muted. Interceptor had a decent-sized stunt department filled with people who have worked on Marvel movies, X-Men, The Hobbit, Mad Max, Suicide Squad, etc. As a film production nerd, I was impressed by what a solid stunt team Interceptor had, all of whom did some pretty cool things in this film.
Final thoughts: Interceptor tried to be the edgy female-driven action movie we need; however, it doesn’t satisfy story wise. If you have a random night where it’s raining and you don’t really want to pay attention but want to see some cool stunts, give it a watch. If you don’t have time, just brag about the stunts and say everything else was boring. People will think you watched it or they literally will not care.
I give Interceptor (Ambience Entertainment, Foryor Entertainment; TV-MA; 1hr 38mins) a 6 out of 10
