2017’s action blockbuster American Assassin is the first in a planned series of Vince Flynn’s best-selling CIA super-agent Mitch Rapp.
As an avid consumer of pulp-fiction-airport stories, I read the first two novels in Flynn’s action series and enjoyed them both immensely. The author manages to capture the detailed and immersive world of a Robert Ludlum novel, whilst injecting the snappy and high-octane story-telling of Lee Child. Whilst never quite reaching the quality of the aforementioned novelists, Flynn nevertheless creates a distinctive style for his books and creates an exciting and engaging universe for his characters. Sadly, the film version of Flynn’s first (chronologically) novel does not do the book series justice.
Cinema has proven that a film adaptation of a novel does not have to remain totally faithful to its source material to assure quality. In some cases, such as the Bond series, deviating from the source material can benefit its big-screen incarnation. In this case, however, the strength of the story came from the use of real-life events and historical movements in the Middle East. The rest of the story in the book is more or less your standard super-spy mixed with ultra-violence tale.
Michael Cuesta’s directional effort makes the mistake of wiping away the historical background of Rapp’s revenge, and instead gives us a vaguely familiar terrorist attack in Ibiza, rather than the Pan Am Lockerbie attack of 1988. Immediately the emotional impact is lost; this part of the movie is puzzling since the attack on the beach is very much a recreation of the 2015 Tunisian beach attack, yet it oddly decides to fictionalise the events. It doesn’t help that this moment takes up very little screen time, leaving us feeling that the director is more interested in the action scenes as we see a bearded Rapp throwing knifes at photographs of known terrorists.
Whilst the book does not dwell on the specifics of Lockerbie as Rapp’s motivation, there is constant referral to the attack and how it fuels Rapp’s murderous and semi-racist obsession. From then on, we are given a storyline that falls between the Taken franchise and the Bourne series; never really deciding if it wants to delve into the stupidity of the former, or the complex emotional and psychological issues of the latter. Dylan O’Brien is the perfect casting choice for Rapp, both in the physical description and the cold, calculating efficiency that the character exhibits. However, the best performance goes to Michael Keaton, who clearly revels in his portrayal of CIA hardcase Stan Hurley, Rapp’s mentor. Beyond that however, the rest of the film is terribly pedestrian, disposing of the book’s gritty and reality-grounded terrorist tale, and replacing it with the overly-used and exhausted plot of a former ally going rogue which Rapp must naturally confront. Finally, the long-winded and clichéd mess ends with a disastrous CGI finale, initiating a huge sigh of relief from viewers.
Whilst not terrible by any means, American Assassin suffers from being the same as every other modern-day action thriller not directed by Sam Mendes or Paul Greengrass. These faults have been reflected in its box office and critical performance; which, considering the recent attacks in the UK and Europe by Islamic extremists, is somewhat surprising, yet the film does end up being a version of 2004’s Team America: World Police minus the satire. It appears this type of pro-western movie has gone seriously out of fashion since audiences did not resonate with it at all. Ultimately American Assassin will leave you with nothing more than the desire to experience the thrills of better fictional spies like Bond or Bourne; Mitch Rapp, it seems, must wait a little longer for a film that elevates him to the same stature.
2/5
