Vanquish Review: Morgan Freeman's Stylish Action Film

Release date: April 16, 2021
Running time: 77 minutes        
Starring: Morgan Freeman (Se7en) and Ruby Rose (“Orange Is The New Black”)
Directed By: George Gallo
Written By: George Gallo and Samuel Bartlett 

 A mother, Victoria (Rose), is trying to put her dark past as a Russian drug courier behind her, but retired cop Damon (Freeman) forces Victoria to do his bidding by holding her daughter hostage. Now, Victoria must use guns, guts, and a motorcycle to take out a series of violent gangsters — or she may never see her child again.

Vanquish has an all star cast and I went in really hoping for an exciting movie.  I loved the idea of Freeman in an action role and seeing a badass female lead in Rose was another plus. However, Vanquish just doesn't feel like it has the production values to justify the all star cast.  The film doesn't get off on the right foot, with an opening involving newspapers and screens that feels more like it was out of a television program than a feature film.  And although the film has some interesting ideas and some beautiful shots and locales, overall the movie just doesn't catch your attention.  The main conflict--Victoria trying to save her daughter--doesn't have much gravity after the initial shock.  And the film is billed as an action film, with a Stallone or Schwarzenegger type poster, but the action itself just isn't that exciting.  Gun battles generally do not last nor do they have the quick camera work and loud effects to really draw you attention.  

And Vanquish has this blue tint to most of the scenes, possibly because it takes place at night, that just gives it a lack of variety despite the film moving to various locales.  It feels like the tint was meant to give the film a near future, cyberpunk type of style but it just causes the movie to feel like it doesn't go many places.  It doesn't help that the film has a sameness to the scenarios; with Rose going into these dangerous locales, having some issue come up, and then quickly dispatching of whatever shows up.  And along the lines of movie magic effects, the overall effects in the film just did not feel up to snuff.  And even a scene involving snuff just felt cheesy.  The movie has noticeable CG for the gunshots and some very obvious cuts during the action scenes.  There is a motorcycle scene that takes a noticeable cut right after the stunt to try and imply that the rider landed the trick.  But the audience never sees this so doesn't get a sense of excitement and wonder; to the audience it just looks like the rider slid on their bike to a crash.  Overall, I wished that Vanquish could have been more and was excited after seeing the poster.  But despite this, the movie just did not live up to the cast and hype.

Vanquish has an all star cast and some beautiful shots, but is brought down by action that doesn't live up to the star power and effects that take you out of the film .  

Pass on it.

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Vanquish is available in select theaters on April 16, 2021, on Digital and On Demand on April 20, 2021 and on Blu-ray and DVD on April 27, 2021.  For tickets, click here.

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