The final act of this revenge film hits hard, but unfortunately it’s a fairly boring journey getting there.
PLOT: A model prisoner’s leave ends in tragedy when his past resurfaces, forcing him to flee. He starts over in Thailand, until a local criminal coerces him back into crime. After this man attacks his family, he vows revenge.
REVIEW: Xavier Gens burst onto the horror scene with 2007’s Frontier(s) and I thought he’d be quite the name by this point. He followed that up with the often maligned Hitman and all but disappeared from US Cinemas. After finding success with Lupin, I’m hoping that Mayhem! serves as the beginning of a bit of a revival for Gens. Because despite its issues, there is a lot of potential here.
The story of Mayhem! follows Sam, a professional fighter whose whole life is turned upside down when he’s forced to flee the country. He ends up in Thailand and rebuilds his life but his past catches up with him and sets him on a journey for revenge. There’s also a whole aside where he’s in prison, but that honestly doesn’t result in much. Plus, an action film that takes place mostly in Thailand? Sign me right up. But if you think this is going to be balls-to-the-wall, The Raid-style action, then maybe temper those expectations.
One of the biggest problems the film has is that it takes quite a while to finally get going. There’s a lot of just waiting around for something major to happen. The events are so telegraphed that any savvy filmgoer is going to see where the plot is heading right from the jump. It doesn’t help that the story itself isn’t anything to write home about, as it’s pretty standard fare. Man escapes from prison and is forced to start a new life, only for his old one to catch up with him. It’s about as generic as you can get. The journey to get to the “revenge portion” can be a bit frustrating. For a 100-minute film, the revenge doesn’t even start happening until 55 minutes in.
But hey, most people are watching this for the action, so how does that hold up? Fairly well. Gens really knows how to shoot action in a kinetic way. The violence feels grounded and brutal. You can feel every single punch, every bit of impact as the sounds of their bones and ligaments breaking fill the mix. It’s the kind of thing the John Wick series did very well in the beginning but got away from in favor of a more cinematic style. I do have to give credit for how quickly things are handled when there’s a weapon involved. The only person taking insane levels of damage is the lead, but he has a lot of motivation, so I’ll forgive this. If anything, it’s what I want from a vengeful lead.
One of the most satisfying moments of any revenge film is when the bad guys finally get their comeuppance. I’m not sure there was much understanding of what moments the audience would want to see. Take the person who kills Sam’s wife; you would expect her to be one of the last killed and have a spotlighted death. But if anything, when she’s killed it’s hard not to question whether Sam even realized she was the one that killed his beloved. This adds a bit more grounded realism but it comes across as a little sloppy in scope.
If the final twenty-five minutes were representative of the rest of Mayhem!, then I’d have loved this one. They seem to find their footing towards the end, but it may be too late for some. The journey of getting there is a bit arduous, as Sam can be a frustrating lead. As good as he is at fighting, he doesn’t seem to think through his decision-making and it results in some obnoxious moments. One of the big reveals is absolutely infuriating. Even still, he’s the only person that gets developed enough to feel like a character as the others are just fodder for violence. Even Sam’s wife and daughter don’t have any personality traits outside of what they mean to Sam.
I wanted to like Mayhem! more than I did but there’s still a lot of good here. The action is extremely well shot and the FX work is seamless. Had the final 30 minutes been stretched out into an entire film, it would have probably been more of what the trailers made it out to be. This just isn’t a balls-to-the-walls action spectacle so there’s bound to be disappointed moviegoers. I certainly count myself as one of them. But if you just want to see a few really impressive action sequences, then check this out and leave your brain at the door.
Mayhem! is IN THEATERS AND DIGITAL ON JANUARY 5TH, 2023.
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