Kill - Movie Review and Discussion
Kill is the most mundanely titled film that came out this July 4th weekend, but it might also be the best film released this past weekend. The deceptively simple plot reads: during a train trip to New Delhi, a pair of commandos face an army of invading bandits. I say deceptive because I found that this movie had a lot more going on than just the action sequences, particularly in how it’s all structured.
I had heard really good things about “Kill” out of festivals, and now that it’s out, I went to a theater and saw it. There were only two other people in the theater with me. I wish there were more people because this is definitely the type of movie that a crowd will engage with. It’s extremely violent and very bloody, but it doesn’t start that way. Again, I’ll use the word deceptive because the movie begins almost like a rom-com. It feels light as a feather; everything is super happy; people are excited about their future.
Unexpected Turn from Rom-Com to Action
A very purposefully over-the-top musical sting plays when we meet our hero, and this movie is trying to make you feel like you know where it’s going and you understand the way these movies work. In so many ways, the movie is probably what you think it’s going to be: a lot of really violent action on a train. You’re going to hear all kinds of comparisons to other movies you’ve seen before when people talk about it. But without getting into any spoilers, what I found so unique about the movie is that it takes all of those feelings that we’re accustomed to having when we experience an action movie like this, and at one point in the film, it just says that’s not the kind of movie you’re going to get.
Relentless Action and Hyper-Violence
About that action, though, it’s relentless. These two commandos are the most badass of badasses that ever existed, and it’s hyper-violent. When this man is crossed in the wrong way, he becomes Terminator. These bandits, who came on this train to simply rob a bunch of passengers, had no idea they were going to discover essentially a couple of T-1000s who are on this train as well. What excited me the most as an action fan is that the first few fights felt really good to me, and I thought, man, I don’t know if they’re going to be able to top this. This is pretty effective. But it just keeps building; it gets more intense, longer, and more violent.
Skillful Editing and Cinematography
What I also loved about it is that this movie doesn’t do the thing that so many action movies have been trying to do lately, where everyone’s obsessed with doing something in one take. Everyone always talks about how cool one-takes are, but in action films, it can be really tough to pull off a very effective one-take because the hyperactivity of the fight scene can be increased exponentially by cuts. Sometimes it’s a really bad thing; we experienced that in the mid-2000s all the way into the mid-2010s, where Hollywood had no idea how to edit a fight scene.
Villains with Depth and Fear
One of the most effective elements of the movie, though, is that we’re with the villains a lot, and most of them are family or friends; they’re all very close. As soon as they realize that they have awoken a beast on this train who is extremely mad at them, you get to see how terrified they become. They realize the mistakes they’ve made, and you really get to live in that fear. One of these guys eventually decides to find ways to absolutely terrify his opponents by setting up haunted houses of dead bodies in various cars that these villains have to walk through. The whole time, you can see on their faces that they think they’re going to be one of these dead bodies very soon.
Remake Potential
It’s no surprise at all that the company behind the John Wick movies has already licensed this movie to do a remake. It’s only been out for a few days in American cinemas, and here we are. As you know, remakes have a history of having a hard time being as good as the original. It doesn’t mean it can’t be; this is a very effective, simple, deceptively, as I said, premise that could definitely be done in its own way.
But I’d be very curious to see how they handle some of the storyline regarding the hero and his girlfriend. As an action movie, this gave me everything I wanted and expected, but it was also very surprising how it was constructed. So definitely don’t miss this one in theaters.
