Survivor (2015) Reviews

• Boring and not believable

  lily_vdk2016-02-24

  I couldn't even finish the movie. She is supposed to be a security expert and doesn't know anything about keeping herself safe. I'm certainly not a security expert by any means but I do have some common sense. She doesn't put the scarf around her head to mask her face, she knows cameras are there but looks straight into them. She goes to predictable places, finds her friends to help her making them targets. She doesn't get rid of the tracking chip that's in her ID. She doesn't show an ounce of actual emotion throughout any of the movie. After running from the Ambassador, almost getting shot and then almost getting killed by the Pierce's character, she runs home and then cuddles with Sam. She seeks him get killed and barely reacts other than running away. Sure she can make the phone jiggle when she's "scared" but that's as believable as it gets. Yikes.

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• Even with a stellar cast, Survivor defies all logic from its story to its execution.

  LloydBayer2015-05-27

  No one ever said that a film has to be Nolan era cryptic to be appreciated. But that doesn't mean there should be a critical lapse in logic either. In the wake of increasing terror attacks around the world, Survivor might have timing on its side but precious little else when viewed as a straight-up action thriller. A bulk of that problem lies with the severely disjointed story of a girl that cried wolf. That girl is Foreign Service Officer Kate Abbott (Mila Jovovich), newly stationed at the American Embassy in London. Abbott comes with an impressive resume but despite her commendable experience in profiling terror suspects, can't seem to convince her boss and Ambassador to the UK (Angela Bassett) that certain visa applicants to the United States have diabolical motives. One such applicant is a Romanian doctor who calls The Watchmaker (Pierce Brosnan), an accomplice and hit-man, to eliminate Abbott. Their plan – bomb a restaurant she's dinning at. Of course, Abbott survives, and just minutes later, appears to have killed an embassy official thanks to social media. It's the first of several laughable face-palm moments. Now going from the frying pan into the fire, Abbott is targeted by British authorities, American authorities and The Watchmaker himself, before trying to single-handedly foil a massive terror attack on US soil. By now you must have noticed a string of inconsistencies that are not only illogical but absurd. Why would a skilled hit-man blow up a restaurant just to kill an unarmed office worker with no field experience? With CCTV coverage at every nook and cranny in London, why would the US Embassy implicate one of its own without a shred of evidence? As an Embassy officer with diplomatic immunity, why is Abbott hiding? Even if there are justifiable theories to those questions, nothing can prepare you for the ludicrous nature of how the entire story is penned. Pacing is an even bigger issue coming from James McTeigue, the same director responsible for the fantastic V For Vendetta. Except for Abbott's unbelievable escapes every time The Watchmaker strikes, the rest of the film comprises of time filling goose chases from one plot point to another. It doesn't register and neither does Brosnan's villain who goes from brutal to clumsy in direct reference to the title. Documenting a movie experience is never easy when you have certain expectations, only to be let down by poor execution, lazy scripting and wooden performances. At best, Survivor is a film with a bunch of talented actors struggling to bring out an honorable tribute to law enforcement agencies thwarting terror attacks since 9/11. Although that message is intrepid, the film isn't and anyone watching this film won't remember what it stands for.

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• So many good ingredients but the flavour is bland...

  admtech692015-05-30

  I was really looking forward to this film, Director James McTeigue had made me an instant fan with "V for Vendetta". Pierce Brosnan did an admirable job with the material that he was given, evoking the same ice cold villain persona that he had perfected in such films as "The Fourth Protocol" and "Don't Talk to Strangers". Milla Jovovich is a decent actress but much of her role involves reacting to situations with close ups of shock/surprise. It was not a good fit. Supporting actors including Robert Forster and Angela Basset round out the impressive cast but they are largely wasted. I see 2 main issues with this film: 1) The storyline is very clichéd, especially the predictable 3rd act and much of the dialogue is very stilted. 2) The CGI in many parts is sub par and takes you out of your suspension of disbelief. Having said all this, I still found it to be a competent thriller worth watching with these caveats.

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• Not sure if I should be yawning or laughing

  pachrick2015-08-31

  It's difficult to put time into writing a review of a movie that the writer/ director didn't put time into doing basic research. My first hint that this would be incredulous was the very first scene which was a pre-dawn raid in Afghanistan at '05.02 UTC'. Well, that's actually 9:32 Afghan time and the sun has long been up. The next scene took place sometime in the morning in London and gave the 'GMT' timezone. Hmmm.. GMT and UTC are the same thing for practical purposes. OK, enough about timezones... However, the rest of the movie was full of the same type of nonsense - it would have been enjoyable if the writer/ director had at least some sort of clue about government protocols and procedures (I'm no expert, but I at least have a clue): Visa clerks are relatively low-level employees that don't warrant expert international terrorists to try to kill them because they denied a visa to someone. Senior embassy staff don't give the OK to host countries to kill their staff because of shallow and questionable evidence. Host nationals cannot demand that a US embassy gives a visa to anyone. Ah... enough already. I didn't finish the movie it was so bad.

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• Survivor

  Argemaluco2015-09-26

  Under the guardianship of the Wachowski siblings, director James McTeigue made the excellent V for Vendetta and the very entertaining Ninja Assassin. However, on his own, his career considerably decreased with the mediocre The Raven, and more recently, the awful Survivor. And the worst thing of all is that Survivor counted with some ingredients for a solid action film: good actors and enough money to shoot in various countries and bring a cosmopolitan atmosphere to the film. Unfortunately, those elements are wasted due to a bad screenplay with no rhyme or reason. Or maybe, the fault was mine for having expected a dynamic and stylized film from McTeigue, supported by two solid actors (Pierce Brosnan and Milla Jovovich) in the leading roles. Instead of that, I found a bad episode of Covert Affairs (I even feel I'm insulting it; my apologies to the fans of that series). It wasn't a bad idea to focus on the proceedings of an embassy; however, the logic of the screenplay of Survivor (let's not even talk about credibility) immediately crumbles when the affair of the visa unleashes a major assault whose only result is drawing the attention to the terrorists' plan. And things go from bad to worse when we find out the fact that said plan makes no sense, besides of the fact it could easily be avoided if the heroin didn't make such absurd decisions while she tries to solve everything on her own. On the other hand, we have "the best assassin in the world" with an awful aiming and null physical aptitude. And the least I say about the "tense" conclusion developed in a huge public event with one million of people, the better. And don't expect to find the attractive visual style displayed by McTeigue in V for Vendetta and Ninja Assassin; Survivor never overcomes the appearance of a TV movie. I wish McTeigue better luck with his next film; I just hope he hasn't missed the telephone number of the Wachowski siblings.

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