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@ryan_the_nixon
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Jolt
2021
15
Director: Tanya Wexler
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Jai Courtney, Stanley Tucci, Bobby Cannavale, Laverne Cox, David Bradley etc
Jolt is about a bouncer with a slightly murderous anger management problem that she controls with the help of an electrode lined vest she uses to shock herself back to normalcy whenever she get’s homicidal. Jolt was an ok film, and definitely a guilty pleasure kind of film.
My first few positives would be the fun concept, character background and fun set up. As well as the fun tone, interesting elements and set locations. The film’s concept was delightfully absurd, and actually really worked throughout most of the first half. It was certainly a unique and fun idea, and despite the ridiculousness of it I have to praise the director for thinking of something outside of the box. I also thought the character background was good. The film explained a lot about the main character Lindy (Kate Beckinsale) it gave you good insight into her upbringing and how her character was perceived by others, and it made you understand her perspective due to people wanting to experiment on her, whilst also setting up the fun and absurd tone that was executed so well in the first half. I also thought the set up was great fun, I thought that the film set up the character of Lindy really well with her social awkwardness and her condition, whilst also establishing her relationship with Justin (Jai Courtney) it added a new layer to her character as she let her guard down. And for him to be mysteriously killed, and a police hunt for her due to her unstable condition was a fun set up and introduced a very fun element and good mystery to the film. There was also a lot of interesting moments, I think the worldbuilding in terms of explanation and detail into Lindy’s condition actually made it believable and plausible when watching. It was fascinating to see how her brain reacted when people annoyed her and the different methods, she used to control herself with the electrode vest and the control to shock herself being a fun element to the film. I also thought the films set locations were great. It made its budget seem much higher than it probably was. With some really interesting set locations that were visually stunning and fascinating to look at, whilst also being big enough in scope for some fun action scenes.
However, my first few negatives would be the use of exposition and voice over, the poor script. As well as the lapses in the logic and tonally the film for the most part being all over the place. This film really overelied on spoon feeding the audience into plot points that were honestly not that difficult to understand throught the action, it just felt like the film felt like it was more complicated then what it was. I also found the use of voice over at the beginning to be very frustrating. It was completely overused and ran on for too long. It set up things well, but then dragged on to explain Lindy’s whole childhood, plus the voice over just wasn’t needed for half of it. The script was also pretty poor, the dialogue was clunky and generic. The structure was very messy and slowly went more and more formulaic, it felt like they had the concept and about half of a good film in terms of understanding the absurdity of the idea and the characters, and then it just seemed to go off the rails slightly. There was a lot of lapses in the logic as well, the police officers in this film Nevin and Vicars played by Bobby Cannavale and Laverne Cox. In real life they wouldn’t have a job its as simple as that. There were so many lapses in the logic and illogical decisions that didn’t make sense and were too unrealistic. They were practically helping Lindy for most of the film, I can forgive a few illogical character decisions, but this was constant. Finally, the film tonally was all over the place. At first it was tonally focused and worked really. But as the film developed the film got tonally more confused and frankly just messy, bouncing far too often between the absurd, comedic, and serious and it just didn’t blend well together at all.
My next few positives would be the great cinematography, sound design and gore. As well as the main performances, chemistry between the cast and humour. This film was visually creative, it did a lot with its limited budget. With some visually stunning shots, in particular fun uses of colour grading that really made a lot of the scenes pop out of the screen excellently. It made it visually stand out a lot more then the script. I also thought the sound design was used very effectively, I thought the use of electric shocks with the sound design added a lot more impact to the film, it built tension and added an interesting element both to the film and to the main character. I also thought the humour and use of gore was excellent. I thought the comedic timing of the scenes were Lindy was trying to control her anger was excellent, it was clever to show what Lindy wanted to do to the people and what she actually did. They were hilarious to see and the over-the-top use of gore also made the scenes really stand out and were a lot of fun. I also thought the lead performance from Kate Beckinsale was great, she is an experienced actress and it really showed here. She made the film work more than perhaps it should have done. She delivered with the action as expected with her previous roles, but also delivered in making Lindy a fascinating character to watch. Kate also had fantastic chemistry with the rest of the cast and had some great back and forth interactions.
My final few negatives would be the rushed pacing, how generic and predictable the film became. As well as the underwhelming villains and messy final act. The film was extremely rushed. It never allowed anything to really sink in or connect, as it was just rushing from one scene to the next trying to cram as much in as possible. The film just slowly fell into the genre tropes that it was trying to avoid in the first half. In a formulaically plotted and predictable second half. The film made Lindy as a character just so much less interesting just making her come across as needing a man and nothing much more, and the attempted twists and arcs for the characters were predictable and could be seen from a mile away. I also thought the villains were very underwhelming, when you don’t reveal practically nothing about a villain and don’t put in the work to create a mystery about them its very easy to have the reveal fall flat, David Bradley as the villain was just not a good choice and he was hardly even in it. And the predictable twist with Justin fell flat for me and he got hardly any screen time and therefore was an ineffective villain that didn’t leave an impact. The final act itself was also a complete mess, the film just lost touch with what made it work for the most part, in a bland and forgettable final act that honestly didn’t really go anywhere.
My final few positives would be the development to the plot when transitioning from the first act into the second, as well as the fun action and partly entertaining moments of the final act. I thought that the plot developed well when Lindy was on the run from the police, her character went on a fun journey and really made her character interesting to watch, with the underground fight club scene a good standout. I also thought the action was pretty strong. It was entertaining and well-choreographed and pretty brutal in places, and the best of the action was definingly in the final act so that’s why it was still entertaining to watch.
Overall, Jolt is one of those movies that is technically very bad, but I still kind of liked it and it was a guilty pleasure film. Due to the fun and absurd idea. The charms of Kate Beckinsale and I was entertained throughout. But I am still scoring it low because it was tonally and structurally a mess. Not Committing to one thing enough in order to stand out from the crowd and frankly didn’t give me enough of a jolt to want to watch it again for a while.
Overall score 58/100
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