Colombiana

The latest disappointing actioner from producer Luc Besson, Colombiana follows Zoe Saldana’s Cataleya as she embarks on a campaign of revenge against the mobsters responsible for her father’s death – with her ongoing efforts inevitably catching the eye of a tenacious detective (Lennie James’ Ross) and a feared gangster (Jordi Molla’s Marco). There’s little doubt that Colombiana fares best in its opening fifteen minutes, as filmmaker Olivier Megaton kicks off the proceedings with an admittedly exciting prologue in which an adolescent Cataleya (Amandla Stenberg) must outrun several goons through the streets of Colombia. From there, however, the film morphs into a typically overblown and hopelessly tedious action flick – as Megaton infuses many of the movie’s high-octane moments with a jittery sensibility that proves disastrous. The filmmaker’s overuse of shaky camerawork and rapid-fire editing is exacerbated by the movie’s distressing lack of actual violence, with the bloodless kills preventing the viewer from deriving any visceral pleasure out of such moments. Far more problematic, however, is the palpable lull within the film’s almost sedate midsection, as Megaton attempts to pad out the running time by stressing Cataleya’s pointless relationship with a friendly painter (Michael Vartan’s Danny). The incompetent atmosphere ensures that Colombiana‘s action-packed final stretch is nothing short of interminable, and it’s ultimately difficult to imagine all but the most indiscriminate of teenagers finding much here worth embracing.

*1/2 out of ****