REVIEW: Kathryn Ryan

When you are making a movie, you must focus on creating a story that is captivating and characters that are believable. Once you have those two things solid, then you can move on to create other parts of the film such as lighting, a list of shots, and things of that nature. Aside from story and character, it could easily be argued that lighting, music, and shot lists are imperative to nail down properly. For the movie Haywire, Director Steven Soderbergh does create a solid story and interesting characters, but much of his effort in those departments were thrown off by uncreative lighting, cliché shots, and out-of-place music.

When black ops super soldier Mallory (Gina Carano) is sent on a rather routine mission in Barcelona, she is teamed up with agent Aaron (Channing Tatum) to rescue a reporter held hostage. All goes well and they part ways to do other missions, or so Mallory is lead to believe. While acting as a hired bodyguard, she is betrayed by her own agency boss, Kenneth (Ewan McGregor). On her own and no one believing her story, it is up to Mallory to clear her own name by any means necessary.

Haywire could easily be broken down into three segments, but that does not mean Soderbergh should have done that. There is a lot of jumping around in time that causes viewers to wonder, “what part in time are we in now?” When it came to the music, it felt completely out of place. The scenes were intense action, but we got a soundtrack that is more suited for Oceans Eleven than this flick. I expected George Clooney to walk across the screen at any moment with Brad Pitt following behind eating a sandwich. It just did not click and caused some of the action scenes to appear contrived. The lighting throughout the film was very typical and did not add anything to the spy-against-the-world story. I know this might seem as a silly little complaint, but you begin to notice it about halfway through the film that, whoever was in charge of lighting, did not really try to be adventurous with it. Finally, the camera shots and angles did not seem too unique or groundbreaking for the genre by any means. Of course this type of work is Soderbergh’s playground, however he did not try to change up the game with this work.

Aside from those, there were plenty of things that really worked for this film. The story was unique and keeps the audience engaged. While there are a lot of names to remember, it definitely packs a punch plot-wise. The fighting scenes were very well done. You can tell that Gina Carano has been a fighter in MMA for quite some time. The acting was well rounded; no one was horrible and no one stuck out as the best in the group.

The film is rated R for some violence. There are a LOT of fighting sequences, but you only see a little blood. Thankfully, this is not the kind of film that has sexuality and cursing left and right. While I would not say that you thirteen year-old should go see it, I would say it is safe for a fifteen year-old and above to go see it.

I give Haywire a two and a half out of five dropkicks. While there were many aspects of the film that were out of sync, Gina and the cast know how to pack a real punch.