NEW ON THE BIG SCREEN / I AM WRATH
ACTION THRILLER. With JOHN TRAVOLTA, CHRISTOPHER MELONI and AMANDA SCHULL. Director: CHUCK RUSSELL. 16LV. Opens 24 June.
An ordinary man, Stanley (Travolta), witnesses his wife’s brutal murder. The police can’t solve the case and he realises they’re as useless and corrupt as the criminals. Then he takes the law into his own hands.
We live in a country where many crimes go unsolved and unpunished and readers who are fed up with this state of affairs might identify with this movie – although it’s wrong to manipulate the law to suit your needs.
The film would have been much more effective if the script was solidly constructed, the characters more convincing and better defined and the direction more stylish and responsible. Think of other movies in this vein, such as the Taken series. This effort takes a hoary story from the Charles Bronson era and presents it without a shred of originality and with every imaginable violent cliché.
Like Nicolas Cage, Travolta has become associated with inferior films that either bore the viewer or are so bad they leave you indifferent and drown you in gratuitous violence. What’s more, his wig is distracting as you watch the weak plot limping its way through a string of improbabilities to its bloody conclusion.
We’re already subjected to so much senseless violence that if it’s portrayed in movies the violent images should at least have some meaning – they shouldn’t just serve to cover up a poor storyline. Be warned: the violence is disturbing. – LEON VAN NIEROP