Professional The new wonderful action with Jason Statham in the title role appears as a whole what you expect from him - a well-coordinated and fascinating picture, with good dynamics and the main character of modern fighters. “Defender” Boaz Yakin is a good thematic product, kept within the requirements for such films and successfully entertaining its target audience.
During his career, Statham managed to save and protect many women of different types and nationalities, and this time becomes a protector for a little girl, building a successful friendly tandem with a young genius. Well, against their duo is a huge number of powerful forces-antagonists: the Chinese triads, the Russian mafia and corrupt police, representing the elite detachment.
But the main character, of course, not at all. A real professional in his field, a former cop of the elite unit, who caught colleagues in venality, and himself walking on an honest path. Now, due to the loss of a beloved woman, who is in a severe depression on the verge of suicide, he comes back to life when he watches the killers of his beloved try to catch a little Asian girl, and she gives him a new incentive to live. He undertakes to protect her at all costs, famously eliminating dangerous mafia and other villains.
There are enough shootings and corpses in the film, but the most memorable action scene is still the first meeting - an episode on the train in the first half of the picture, which was released full of tricks and successfully staged fights. In the future, the action episodes will lack the expressive style and beauty of shooting, plasticity and dynamics, which generally affects the overall entertainment. It turns out a favorite dish, prepared from not the freshest and quality ingredients, but the desire to look to the end remains significantly strong, thanks to an excellent plot.
But the one with whom the film was not lucky is the villains. No matter how hard casting specialists try, the Chinese mafia boss is nothing interesting, as well as the gangster appointed as the girl's guardian - a character more than passable and not memorable. The same can be said about the head of the Russian mafia, and even about the mayor of the city. Of all the antagonists, only the charismatic Robert John Burke and Igor Zhizhikin, who acted in the first half of the film, managed to show himself clearly, but seemingly without a single line for the film.
Speaking of lines. The film is definitely worth reviewing later in the original, Jason Statham here amazingly funny speaks Russian (which can be observed in excerpts and trailers, in the film itself, alas, dubbing ...), and this spectacle is truly unforgettable!
As for the girl-heroine, Catherine Chan played quite brightly and skillfully, although she remained essentially a child played by her, rather than demonstrating the makings of a skillful actress. But the naturalness of the image and the palette of emotions can not be blamed.
The entertaining thriller-fighter “The Defender” perfectly keeps in suspense, pleases with shootouts and moves richly in the development of the screen action, presents an excellent plot with Statham, who again appears in a beautiful heroic role and protects a little girl from hordes of selfish villains. It’s pretty much what you expect from a movie like this.
8 out of 10
Original