Blacklight

Liam Neeson seems lately to be rather ill-advised in his career choices while he continues to keep our strong sympathy. After having been directed by famous directors (John Boorman, Peter Yates, Neil Jordan, Sam Raimi Barbet Schroeder, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Kathryn Bigelow, J. J. Abrams, Martin Scorsese...), he seems to indulge since the 2000s in the ease and find a malicious pleasure to be present in productions without real magnitude such as Made in Italy (2020), The Marksman (2021). His last movie to date Blacklight directed by Mark Williams under whose direction he had already shot the forgettable The Good Criminal (2020)) is once again a real disappointment as the scenario seems to be a simple copy of the Taken trilogy in which his daughter was kidnapped and he had to face corrupt agents and use his know-how to get out of dangerous situations. 

Travis Block (Liam Neeson) is a freelance government agent who is called in under extreme conditions and always under anonymity. He is simply the best at extracting agents from top secret situations and works for the boss of the FBI. After successfully completing a perilous exfiltration mission, he learns of a dangerous top secret program duunom Operation Unity that strikes ordinary citizens for reasons known only to his boss, FBI Chief Robinson (Aidan Quinn). While trying to help an undercover agent who seems to be losing his mind, he witnesses his murder and finds himself seeking help from a journalist Mira Jones (Emmy Raver-lampman) when he had decided to retire and spend time with his daughter and granddaughter.  His past will put him in a difficult situation especially since his daughter and granddaughter seem to have disappeared without leaving any information. Travis Block is left with no choice but to find his family and confront his own employer and longtime friend.

Blacklight does not shine by its originality and places once again the actor Liam Neeson as a wrongdoer who will have to use both his intelligence and a real warrior technique to stay alive. At almost 70 years old Liam Neeson had said that he would stop making action movies, but for lack of real interesting proposals, he continues to hide in films that really lack the presence of an inspired director and not like here, which seems to follow the letter of a well filled schedule with its quota of chases, fight scenes and a desolate thinness of the script. 

While he had created unforgettable characters like Peyton Westlake (Darkman (1990), Qui-Gon Jinn (Star Wars episode I), Colonel John Hannibal Smith (The A-Team) (2010), Bryan Mills (Taken trilogy), here he seems to be content with interpreting a character without really believing in it to the point of wondering if this is not a simple food film for him to shoot quickly and not requiring too much dialogue to learn. 

However, one suspects that this film could have been really successful if the script and the direction had been really accomplished and had chosen to approach this story differently with ambitious and unpublished action scenes. This real lack of ambition is also felt on the very slow rhythm of the film and an editing that doesn't help not to get bored in front of so visible scenaristic strings.  We wonder if it is not time that Liam Neeson works on more ambitious projects and not a succession of B movies, each one more disappointing than the other.

Blacklight
Directed by Mark Williams
Screenplay by Nick May Mark Williams
Story by Nick May, Brandon Reavis
Produced by Mark Williams, Paul Currie, Myles Nestel, Alevé Loh, Coco Xiaolu Ma
Starring Liam Neeson, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Taylor John Smith, Aidan Quinn
Cinematography : Shelly Johnson
Edited by Michael P. Shawver
Music by Mark Isham
Production companies : Zero Gravity Management, Footloose Productions, The Solution Entertainment Group, Sina Studios, Fourstar Films, Elevate Production Finance
Distributed by Briarcliff Entertainment, The Solution Entertainment Group Sina Studios; Metropolitan FilmExpot (France)
Release date : February 11, 2022 (United States), February 23, 2022 (France)
Running time : 108 minutes

Seen on February 23, 2022 at Gaumont Disney Village, Room 9 seat A18

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