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Haywire (2011)
Feb. 9th, 2012 12:33Haywire. Dir. Steven Soderbergh, 2011.
I went to see this movie with my awesome roommate N. We were not the only pair of women in the theater who saw the movie at least partly because of Michael Fassbender, as was made clear by the woman in front of us jumping into our geeky conversation pre-previews, and the women behind us squealing when he first showed up on screen. Ah, fandom.
But Haywire! I cannot quite recommend the movie whole-heartedly, for reasons upon which I shall elaborate, but I can recommend that you see it. It is well worth seeing, because the female protagonist, Mallory, is an absolute BAMF. And, as probably a lot of people know, Gina Carano, who plays Mallory, has the martial arts background and training to pull off all the fights with complete realism. Complete realism, actually, is the hallmark of this movie and its treatment of Mallory and her way of getting things done, and I very much liked that about it. MALLORY IS AMAZING.
The thing about Soderbergh is that his movies are so very often rather sardonic--this plays very well with some of his movies, such as the Ocean's films, but in this film the decidedly sardonic tone sat rather at odds with the actual plot of the story, in which Mallory, a former Marine now working as an independent security contractor, is set up for murder by her ex-boyfriend and current boss, and doesn't take kindly to it.
( Spoilers are keeping their eyes open )
Many awesome parts, but in the end, as a whole, a bit too bloodless--compared with Salt, which whatever else you want to say about it had people cheering in the theater when the female protagonist killed her worst enemy, everyone's just a bit too professional for their own good, except when they're not and it gets them what they deserve, and ironically the extreme competence of everyone involved winds up working against the movie's impact.
I went to see this movie with my awesome roommate N. We were not the only pair of women in the theater who saw the movie at least partly because of Michael Fassbender, as was made clear by the woman in front of us jumping into our geeky conversation pre-previews, and the women behind us squealing when he first showed up on screen. Ah, fandom.
But Haywire! I cannot quite recommend the movie whole-heartedly, for reasons upon which I shall elaborate, but I can recommend that you see it. It is well worth seeing, because the female protagonist, Mallory, is an absolute BAMF. And, as probably a lot of people know, Gina Carano, who plays Mallory, has the martial arts background and training to pull off all the fights with complete realism. Complete realism, actually, is the hallmark of this movie and its treatment of Mallory and her way of getting things done, and I very much liked that about it. MALLORY IS AMAZING.
The thing about Soderbergh is that his movies are so very often rather sardonic--this plays very well with some of his movies, such as the Ocean's films, but in this film the decidedly sardonic tone sat rather at odds with the actual plot of the story, in which Mallory, a former Marine now working as an independent security contractor, is set up for murder by her ex-boyfriend and current boss, and doesn't take kindly to it.
( Spoilers are keeping their eyes open )
Many awesome parts, but in the end, as a whole, a bit too bloodless--compared with Salt, which whatever else you want to say about it had people cheering in the theater when the female protagonist killed her worst enemy, everyone's just a bit too professional for their own good, except when they're not and it gets them what they deserve, and ironically the extreme competence of everyone involved winds up working against the movie's impact.