Dylan O’Brien hunts terrorists in this frustrating Vince Flynn adaptation.
American Assassin doesn’t waste any time getting into the mentality and motivations of its protagonist, Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien), in its truly shocking and unsettling prologue. The sequence - which involves a sudden and terrifying terrorist attack on a resort beach - provides American Assassin with a solid emotional foundation and visceral tone that sets it up as being a well-crafted, albeit familiar, spy-based revenge thriller. For the majority of its runtime too, American Assassin manages to live up to that promise, thanks to a capable lead turn by Dylan O’Brien and some terrifically handled action sequences by director Michael Cuesta.
The biggest issue with American Assassin then is how much of that momentum and emotional underpinning it loses throughout its final act. Instead of bringing all of its characters and subplots together in a grounded and satisfying way, the film slowly unravels into the clumsy, cliche-ridden and overblown spy movie that it had previously avoided being. It swaps out its intense, personal, character-driven perspective for a much larger piece of grand spectacle that it doesn’t have the capability to deliver fully on.
The fact that American Assassin doesn’t completely throw away all of its validity and franchise potential with those final 30 minutes or so is a testament to all of the solid work that comes before it. The film moves at such a brisk and confident pace throughout its first two acts that it becomes one of the more engrossing espionage thrillers in recent memory, with O’Brien proving himself once again as a talent to watch out for. He helps the film keep its grounded feel and darkness even throughout its larger, sometimes strangely humorous sequences.
It’s an especially noteworthy performance by O’Brien since he’s given the tough job of carrying all of the film’s emotional moments and action sequences on his shoulders, and he does it with apparent ease. The plot of American Assassin - a revenge-driven vigilante is hired by the CIA to hunt down terrorists - is, after all, its least original and compelling aspect. So it’s due to the work of O’Brien in front of the camera and Cuesta behind it that American Assassin still manages to provide its own spin on the familiar central premise. Getting Mitch Rapp right is what the film needed most in order to work, and fortunately he ends up being an interesting enough protagonist for audiences to be willing to follow him throughout the film’s story.
Having a talented and reliable veteran like Michael Keaton to pit against O’Brien doesn’t hurt the film by any means either. Playing Stan Hurley - the head of the elite secret military division that O’Brien is assigned to - the actor brings his usual grit and charisma to even some of Hurley’s more exposition-heavy scenes. His banter with O’Brien is predictably ruthless, but the two actors’ combined talents help to elevate Hurley and Rapp’s relationship above their been-there-done-that, military mentor-protege relationship.
The same goes for a majority of the characters in the film, all of whom audiences have seen similar variations of in almost any other spy movie. The film’s biggest character misstep, though, is in its handling of Taylor Kitsch’s Ghost, an ex-protege of Hurley who emerges as the film’s lead antagonist. He spends a majority of American Assassin showing up just in time to mess up Mitch and Hurley’s plans, and his ill-will towards the latter is only ever half-explained. Kitsch has proven himself to be a better actor than he usually ever gets the chance to be, but not even he is capable of bringing much dimension or charisma to the role of Ghost.
American Assassin’s lackluster villain leads to most of the biggest issues with its finale, and one can only imagine what the film might have been had Rapp and Ghost’s confrontation/conflict with each other been fine-tuned a little bit more. But with all of that being said, there are several training and combat sequences throughout the first half of the film - all of which are directed with sleek and realistic touches by Cuesta - that fit more in line with its initial dark and violent tone.
The Verdict
American Assassin has some of the more terrifying, brutal, and visceral action sequences to be seen on the big screen so far this year. But the film can’t ever quite manage to maintain the same momentum or intensity as its opening act, thanks to a lackluster climax and sudden left-turn into full blown absurdity.
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