You have to wonder at what point movie producers are going to ask one of the two questions the rest of us have been asking for several years.
1) Isn't the same movie just getting made over and over again?
2) At what point is Liam Neeson just too darn old (not unlike how Marty McFly and his band were "just too darn loud") for these action movie roles?
Apparently the right people are not asking either question; because here we are, sitting through The Commuter--another Liam Neeson slug fest with a convoluted plot that is about as sensible as it is original. However, while that may sound harsh, this movie could've been a lot worse. In fact, I was willing to bet some decent money that it was going to be much worse. It's nothing particularly original or impressive, but it's relatively enjoyable nonetheless.
For starters, I have to say that the fight and action scenes weren't nearly as ridiculous as I thought they'd be. Particularly after the Taken sequels, I was fully prepared to turn my brain off for a while. I'm not saying it borders on documentary by any means, but after the countless other action movies that have you going, "...bruh..." The Commuter isn't so ludicrous. In fact, the filming style was somewhat similar to the O.G. Bourne Trilogy (definitely not either one of the more recent horrible ones) or the Kingsman movies. Frankly, the fight scenes are fairly enjoyable, aside from one or two outrageous scenes. Although, after watching hundreds of outrageous car chases, boat-jumps, shoot-downs, and martial-arts-style-neck-snaps in three Taken movies, almost anything is acceptable.
Another plus was that the characters actually weren't terrible. Ed Warren from The Conjuring did a nice job, and side characters I've never heard of were surprisingly more than useless. Granted, some were, but the whole, "let's introduce this person to watch them die" thing was minimal. Although I will say I was relatively peeved that Jonathan Banks was utterly wasted.
Now for the flaws (this my favorite part to write about). Come one--you knew they were coming.
I will say there is a lot more to the plot than the trailer lets on, which is usually a good thing. In the case of The Commuter, however, the plot makes absolutely no sense. I've said before that I appreciate an intriguing twist, but this movie became far too complicated for its own good. It's one of those movies where the main character has to perform a task that is later revealed to be a piece of a much bigger plan; and said bigger plan is much darker and intimate than the character originally thought (like we've never seen that before). This leaves an opening for a big reveal that is often really interesting, but the problem with The Commuter is that it tries WAY too hard to surprise you. You're lead to believe one thing, find out it's not true, but it turns out the thing you thought was gonna happen would've been way more interesting. So, instead of going, "Oh, no way!" You're left going, "Oh...wait, what? That's lame."
Returning to our original topic of being realistic, I'll say that a gaping hole in the logic of this movie is how omniscient the antagonists are; and how easily their ridiculous plan is executed. I know, I know, I'm nitpicky--but when a plot is so absurd that the moviemakers don't even attempt to explain the "how" or "why" of any of it is precisely where I draw the line. The so-called "plan" of the "villains" of the movie is so obscure and confusing that you're never completely sure what the ramifications, motivation, or consequences of any particular action are. Additionally, you're never even sure who the main villain is. Which is a problem.
Even though this movie could've been a lot worse, it isn't too great, either. I think the main issue most people will have is its lack of originality. Particularly the, "Liam Neeson is an ex-cop who is pulled away from his desk job to take care of some bad guys" element. It's kind of like the plots of Taken, Speed, Non-Stop, Unstoppable, The Polar Express, and Murder on the Orient Express all got mashed together. Throw in the final nail of Liam Neeson in this ripoff coffin and this is what you end up with.
To be fair, I thought I was going to have much worse things to say about this movie. But, no, it's still nothing special. But for you Liam Neeson fans out there, it's worth looking into. I'm willing to give this a 54% and tell you to stream it on
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