Netflix’s most recent effort at an action hit is Frankenstein’s Monster of past movies that misses the mark on what made them successful.
Like the Die Hard ripoff was a decade or two ago, the honourable John Wick ripoff has evolved into a sort of action subgenre. Josh Duhamel’s time in the fancy black suit is in Blackout, which manages to combine the two while adding an amnesia narrative for colour.
In action movies, amnesia is a fascinating recurring theme that is both overused and underutilised. Because the story’s events are only compelling if they are recounted out of chronological order, far too many action stories rob their heroes of their memories. However, amnesia is among the most terrifying things that can occur to a person, and Blackout is a fantastic illustration of how action movies frequently fall short of its inherent horror.
Storyline
In the movie Blackout, John Cain suffers from a traumatic brain injury after running away from the scene of an unspecified crime. Cain wakes up in a hospital in Mexico with no memory of his previous experiences. He has no memory of the woman who is seated beside his bed and who is claiming to be his wife. A team of cartel enforcers claims that Cain has something of theirs as he slowly recovers. Evidently, Cain grabbed some cash and hid a briefcase that was valuable to both criminals and law enforcement. Cain wills himself back into action and begins killing people as the cartel starts endangering lives. From then, the movie gradually shows its aimless mess of a plot, intermingled with the action scenes that are characteristic of the genre.
Blackout is primarily a ripoff of John Wick. Just take a look at the poster for the third movie next to it; it’s almost amusing. With a different performer in the protagonist role, several movies follow the unstoppable assassin formula of Derek Kolstad’s wildly successful franchise. There are many better options on the same streaming provider for viewers who are just searching for something to pass the time while they wait for Chapter 4. A movie like this really only has to nail the action, and Blackout falls short in this regard. Its shootouts and martial arts fights are often ridiculous, slow, awkward, and unconvincing. Although blackout is hardly the greatest scenario, it pales in comparison.
Blackout is produced by a member of the crew who worked on many other John Wick-like films. The film John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum lists director Sam Macaroni as “Additional Crew.” In his past as a director, internet shorts predominated. The 2020 Pauly Shore comedy Guest House served as his previous motion picture. So, while Macaroni’s background wasn’t quite David Leitch’s, he could have been a good action star. This isn’t it, and it shows that there isn’t even the slightest uniqueness in it. None of the participants in Blackout seem to be working on it out of passion. It has the impression that the movie was created to cash in on every action movie craze of recent years. As if you were to construct a car from a variety of engine components without any slightest knowledge.
When broken down into its component pieces, Blackout has four or five side tales in addition to its main plot, which is about an amnesiac who kills his way through the cartel. The story only emerges in the movie when it’s convenient, repeatedly drip-fed information in tedious moments. The only aspect of John Cain’s life that he appears to be interested in understanding is whether he is a DEA agent or a drug dealer. If the woman following him is indeed his beloved wife, he would be considerably more concerned with whether he is “the good guy or the evil guy” than with anything else. Contiguous memory is what defines a person, therefore Cain’s preoccupation with whether he is the movie’s hero is understandable.
Direction lacks creative flair
Blackout is one of many films that routinely release yet do little to change the world. Even if someone does watch the movie, they probably won’t remember it. Ironically, nobody will remember it. This is most likely the best possible outcome. There isn’t much to make up for the film’s flaws: the narrative is weak, the editing is bad, the direction lacks any kind of creative flair. Blackout is one of the worst Netflix movies because some individuals think that terrible is simply the absence of good. This is probably going to let down those looking for some simple dumb action fun. In Blackout, everything that is worthwhile has already been done; everything else is either boring or gloomy.
Let this serve as a warning to the untold number of future attempts to cash in on the success of the largest thing happening. Either contribute anything to the discussion or be sent to the same pile as Blackout and forgotten.