Since the debut of Taken in 2008, action films centering on parents reducing their kidnapped children have become so common that they formed something of their own subgenre. Taken proved that audiences are more than willing to watch a determined parent tear through an army of criminals to save their child, a formula that Hollywood has reused again and again. The end results, however, have proven to me extremely variable. Sometimes, a Taken-inspired action thriller feels like a slick revenge thriller, such as INSERT MOVIE. Other times, perhaps the majority of the time, these films feel like a hollow imitation of better stories. The new film Protector, out this weekend in theaters, faces the same test – does it reinvent this newly formed subgenre or does it repeat the mistakes of so many that have come before it? Unfortunately, Protector falls firmly into the latter category, delivering a familiar premise with very little imagination behind it.
Protector stars Milla Jovovich as Nikki, a former member of the U.S. military who, after leaving her career in the armed forces behind, is now raising her daughter, Chloe, in peace (or so she thinks). Their quiet life together quickly disappears when Chloe is kidnapped, forcing Jovovich’s hero back into the world that she thought she had left behind. Nikki faces a race against time to find her daughter and secure her safety amidst a deadly pursuit by both the police and the military, as well as crossing paths with the criminal underworld. Joining Jovovich are Matthew Modine, D. B. Sweeney, and Arica Himmel in supporting roles.
The issues with Protector begin with the premise alone. Even on paper, it feels as if the film faces an uphill battle, such is the sheer unoriginality permeating from the basic storyline. It’s a battle that ultimately proves too difficult to win, as the film only has a few moments in which it threatens to break out of its dull, run of the mill story. These are mostly down to its star, Jovovich, and her role in early chase sequences and bursts of hand-to-hand combat that come throughout. Jovovich has appeared in these kinds of films before, and it shows, for better and for worse. Her presence is a reminder that there are far superior action thrillers for audiences to watch, some of which feature Jovovich.
Perhaps the biggest problem with Protector is that it feels like an AI-generated story pieced together with elements from a number of familiar, and far better, action movies from the past. Not just that, Predator makes little to no attempt to make these ideas interesting, meaning that not only is the film unoriginal, but it’s frustratingly lazy at the same time. The screenplay follows a trajectory that is so inherently predictable that almost every single plot point can be telegraphed long before it actually happens. This then rips the film of all suspense, as the story is so generic that its t simply moves from one violent encounter to the next with no sense of escalation or stakes at all.
The story isn’t the only aspect of this film plagued by mediocrity. The characters are subpar at best, with Nikki being a distant lead hero that fails to ignite any sort of emotional connection with the audience. The supporting players don’t fare much better either; the villains are laughably weak and often appear and disappear without much, if any, sort of character development. By the time the movie reaches its climax, there is no emotional investment in these characters from the viewer, so much so that the credits are likely to be greeted by sighs of relief more than anything else.
The film’s struggles seep into its visuals, too. The action sequences are crafted with a muddy, gray palette that is often hard to look at. The editing of these scenes is also chaotic to the point of confusion, completely taking out any thrills. It makes the action more akin to Taken 3’s iconic moment of Liam Neeson climbing over a fence, which takes 15 cuts in just six seconds, rather than the first Taken, which this film is trying so hard to be. So many of Protector’s action set pieces feel almost the exact same as the last, making them inanely repetitive.
Redeeming qualities are hard to come by in Protector, but there are flashes of a better film buried deep underneath all of this mediocrity. Jovovich is a convincing lead hero and clearly has a commitment to the role that helps keep the audience somewhat sane while watching, even while the story and overall execution both falter time and time again. There are, in brief moments, flashes of a darker, more emotional story, centering on Nikki’s role as a mother and the trauma that she brings with her, that threatens to break through all of the noise, but never quite does so.
VERDICT: 3/10
In the end, Protector feels like a movie that is made to remind audiences of their fondness for Taken, and a few other successful and similar films, rather than trying to do anything original. Despite a capable lead performance, the story settles for the most basic of action movie tropes and predictable storytelling. Even for die hard fans of the ‘save your child from bad guys’ subgenre of action movies, the thrills here are few and far between.
