Bloodshot

A pretty good sci-fi plot idea is mostly ruined by mindless action sequences, vacant characters, and a need to completely wring the life out of whatever cleverness the movie might once have had. Based on a popular comic book, Bloodshot doesn't really feel like a superhero movie as much as it does one of the lesser Fast & Furious movies. It's all dumb swagger, chaotic fights, and slo-mo explosions. Both the heroes and the villains are so tediously one-note that it almost doesn't matter who wins. Given the basic skeleton of the story and its potentially interesting twists, it could have really been something. In other hands, it might even have been as good as Memento (which, coincidentally, starred this movie's villain, Pearce).

But first-time director David S.F. Wilson, whose previous work has largely been in video games, takes the easy way out, going for spectacle, traditional plot arcs, and a tidy wrap-up rather than using the idea of identity and memory in any kind of interesting way. Wilson does manage one fairly interesting fight sequence in a blocked-off tunnel filled with powdery clouds of dust. And there's an amusing supporting character, coding genius Wilfred Wigans (Lamorne Morris), who brightens up a few of the later scenes. But for the most part, Bloodshot is wearingly empty entertainment.