The Gray Man

 

DIRECTED BY-:
Anthony Russo
Joe Russo
STARRING-:
Ryan Gosling
Chris Evans
Ana De Armas
YEAR OF RELEASE-:
2022
PREMISE-:
When the CIA's most skilled operative-whose true identity is known to none-accidentally uncovers dark agency secrets, a psychopathic former colleague puts a bounty on his head, setting off a global manhunt by international assassins.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

THE POSITIVES-:

• Although I found the choreography of most of the small-scale hand-to-hand fight scenes satisfactory, they would have been substantially improved with slower pacing, a better sound design, less jump-cuts, less dependence on CGI for the background environments, and more impactful gore.

• There was never a moment where the background score of the film felt particularly jarring or odd, but at the same time, it wasn’t anything special or memorable either. It got the job done just fine without having any major remarkable quality about it.

• I liked the swift dynamic drone shots used in the film, although it would’ve been better if they weren’t spammed several times. 

• There were a few respectable ATTEMPTS at giving Six some character depth. Such as-:
• His backstory with his abusive father (which could explain his bond with Claire and Fitz).
• The Sisyphus analogy that gets brought up during his conversation with Claire and is also indirectly referenced near the beginning of the movie when he contacts Fitz for help.
• Apart from this however, there is barely any attempt made to flesh out the other characters which caused them to feel very thin and one-dimensional.

• I found Chris Evans’ character and performance very entertaining. He seemed to genuinely enjoy playing an asshole character with psychopathic tendencies and snarky one-liners.

• I also liked Ryan Gosling’s performance, especially in moments where he has to deliver deadpan witty comments. However, his acting also came across as a little wooden to me during moments which required him to emote. For example, I would have preferred if he showed a little more emotion when he has to make the decision of leaving Fitz behind so that he can sacrifice himself.

THE NEGATIVES-:

• The extremely fast pacing of the film comes at the expense of character writing, as there is little to no time given for the characters to breathe and have a discussion about something that is not plot-related. As stated earlier, this causes almost all the characters of the film to feel extremely flat and inhibits the viewer from actually caring about their fates when the stakes are high.

• Six only gets to know about Carmichaels’s corruption AFTER Margaret Cahill tells him about it (as SHE was the one who could bypass the encryption of the drive). So, if Six did NOT know about Carmichael’s corruption in Bangkok, what exactly caused him to go rogue? The only probable causes include-:
• Sierra four knowing who Sierra Six is.
• Sierra four CLAIMING (without an iota of evidence) that Carmichael is corrupt.
• Carmichael being elusive when Six asks him the about the details of the operation. 
• However, all of the above reasons aren’t enough to justify Six completely abandoning his job of 18 years and essentially putting himself and everyone he knows in danger. 

• Why does Carmichael send Suzanne to assist and supervise Lloyd when she very clearly loathes him and his methods right from the beginning? Wouldn’t it have been better to send someone who can work with Lloyd in the most effective and cooperative way possible? If we’re supposed to believe that Carmichael only did this to “punish” Suzanne for Sierra Six going rogue, why didn’t he instead make her the official scapegoat since SHE was the one who recommended using Sierra Six? My point is, forcing Lloyd and Suzanne to work together was not only incredibly childish but also immensely stupid on the part of Carmichael.

• Why does Lloyd, through Fitz, order the extraction team to “terminate” Six? Shouldn’t he have ordered them to capture Six ALIVE so that the location of the drive can be known? Or better yet, he should’ve just ordered the extraction team to discreetly fly Six to a location where Lloyd and the CIA will be present to apprehend him OR, Lloyd could have just simply leveraged the fact that he has Fitz and Claire hostage and forced Six to surrender if he wishes to see them alive.

• Why did the leader of the extraction team feel it necessary to try and kill Six ON the plane itself? Couldn’t he have just waited until the plane landed and the whole team had better vantage points?

• Six LUCKILY survives the extraction team’s plane blowing up. This scene also had some very dodgy CGI.

• The above mentioned plane CONVENIENTLY blows up above TURKEY, which is approximately only 24 hours away from Vienna (a location where Six tries to acquire a new passport).

• SIX ESCAPES VIENNA:

• Plot armor : Six falling straight into a considerably deep well does NOTHING to hurt him, even though it should have AT LEAST damaged his feet/knees.

• When Six gets trapped, Lloyd and his men are CONVENIENTLY the ones closest to his location.

• Six coincidentally blasts open the trapdoor of the well at the EXACT TIME Lloyd arrives at the location with his men. 

• Carmichael coincidentally gets a message about Six’s whereabouts at the EXACT TIME he’s interrogating Dani.

• Bad dialogue: During Dani’s interrogation, Carmichael spews out “cool-sounding” exposition about the gray men back to Dani, who’s already aware of what the Sierra program is.

• Carmichael CONVENIENTLY reads the aforementioned message at a close enough distance to Dani, which luckily enables her to also know Six’s location by reading the message off of Carmichael’s glasses. 

• Dani conveniently arrives to save Six JUST AFTER Lloyd gains the upper hand. 

• DANI'S MOTIVATIONS :
• We’re shown that because of the fiasco in Bangkok, Dani gets suspended from field duty and that her career and reputation are in serious danger. And, according to everything she says to Six in her car in Vienna, we know that her priority at that point is the safeguarding of her career and improving her reputation in the agency. Now, the most logical step for her to ensure this would have been to lay low, follow Carmichael’s instructions, and not wander off too far from the Berlin headquarters. However, she makes the decision of going after Six herself in order to bring him in. She supposedly does this because she intends to prove her innocence by having Six testify about her non-involvement. But, there are a few problems with this line of reasoning-:
1. The best way for Dani to prove her innocence would have been to stay as far away from Six’s shenanigans as possible, not get MORE involved.
2. What was Dani’s explanation going to be regarding how she found the exact location of Six in Vienna? Was she going to say that she read it off of Carmichael’s glasses ? Does she really think that that’s going to sound convincing? 
3. Dani has absolutely NO reason to believe that the agency is going to believe everything Six says about Dani’s complete innocence, especially considering the level of involvement she would’ve had in the case at that point (this is an argument that Six also rightfully makes but Dani and the film frustratingly ignore).

• When Dani inquires Six about the location of the drive, he tells her the truth, as Dani’s argument of “I saved your life” is apparently enough for Six to trust her completely. But, this was incredibly stupid on Six’s part because even though she DID save his life, she STILL works for the CIA, the very agency trying to hunt him down. So, how does Six know that this isn’t a “good cop bad cop” situation?

• DANI DECIDES TO HELP SIX:
• So, even though they don’t make a lot of sense, Dani's motivations to bring in Six have been firmly established - She NEEDS to bring in Six to the CIA headquarters in order to prove her innocence and protect her career. I would also like to note that at this point, Dani not only has Six in her custody, but also has an ostensible location of the drive (which Six stupidly provided to her), which should have further propelled her to hand Six over to the CIA. But, she DOES NOT do that. She instead decides to go to Prague, where the drive is apparently present, as she is convinced by this dialogue from Six - “They (the CIA) have already gone after two agents (referring to himself and Sierra four). How do you know you’re not next?” The problems with this-:
1. CIA isn’t going after EVERY single one of their agents, they are just hunting down the agents who have STOLEN the agency’s secrets. So, as a supposedly smart man with basic common sense, Six should’ve known better than to use this immensely idiotic argument.
2. The fact that Dani, who’s also supposed to be a smart woman with basic common sense, is very easily convinced by this fundamentally flawed argument, was very infuriating to witness.

• MAYHEM IN PRAGUE :

• Lloyd’s men are able to figure out that Six mailed the drive to someone in Prague by looking at the CCTV footage in Bangkok. But in that very CCTV  footage, Six is shown to be wearing a mask AND has a stranger’s clothes on. So how exactly did they know that the person in the CCTV footage was Six? 

• Lloyd’s men conveniently arrive at Margaret’s house JUST AFTER she has given some very important exposition about Carmichael’s corruption to Six and Dani.

• Six LUCKILY sees Lloyd's men preparing to take a shot at them through the window.

• Why were Lloyd’s men just openly shooting at Margaret’s house with the intent to kill everyone inside? Don’t they need Six ALIVE to know the location of the drive? I mean for all they know, Six could have just mailed the drive to some other distant location by now. This problem is also present with Lloyd putting out a bounty on Six’s head and giving EVERY mercenary the freedom to KILL Six, instead of capturing him alive so that he can be tortured for information.

• Margaret Cahill sacrificing herself by blowing herself up, Six escaping the building and running alongside it, and the police arriving at the location all CONVENIENTLY happen at the EXACT SAME TIME. 

• When the police is finally able to arrest Six, why don’t they put him in their car and take him to the police station? Why did they instead think it would be wise to cuff him to a bench in a very public place? What were they waiting for?

• Heavy plot armor : The bad guys miss ALL the shots they take at Six.

• The mercenaries STUPIDLY decide to use their rocket launcher to take out the police’s assault vehicle instead of using it to blow up the bench which Six is handcuffed to.

• Why does Six use a tram as a getaway vehicle when running on foot would have been way less conspicuous?

• Heavy Plot armor : On the tram, the bad guys again miss all the shots they take at Six. Six also luckily not only survives the tram crashing into one of Prague’s buildings, but also comes out with no major injuries.

• THE 'LONE WOLF' ATTACK :
• How exactly did Lone Wolf track Six and Dani?

• Why did Lone Wolf choose to attack them INSIDE the hospital where there are a lot of people & authorities present? Why not just attack them on their way to the hospital OR wait for them to come out of the hospital and then attack?

• Considering that he was attacking them in a public place with many cameras and police officers around, why wasn’t Lone Wolf wearing a mask when attacking Six and Dani?

• Why didn’t Lone Wolf just use a gun instead of a knife, especially when he apparently can’t even use THAT properly ? (he misses Six’s liver and kidney when he attacks him, as stated by Six himself later)

• Lone wolf CONVENIENTLY attacks Six and Dani AFTER they’ve tracked Claire’s location. 

• While pursuing lone wolf, Six ACCIDENTALLY throws an empty gun to Dani. 

• THE CLIMAX:

• In the hospital, Lone Wolf presumably overheard Six and Dani tracking Claire’s location, as he was literally in the same room as them. And yet, for all his talk of “honor”,for some reason, he DOESN’T warn Lloyd about them probably coming to rescue her. 

• Suzanne and Lloyd CONVENIENTLY have an argument where Lloyd’s plan of killing Claire gets brought up RIGHT IN FRONT OF Lone Wolf.

• How did Six know the exact room in which Claire and Fitz were being kept? The most logical explanation for this could be Claire's traceable pacemaker, although we are never actually shown Six or Dani using any kind of device to track it. So this is at least a plot gap, if not a plot hole.

• Plot armor: Bad guys miss almost ALL the shots they take at the good guys.

• Fitz conveniently gets shot in such a way that he still has enough life left to blow up a bomb when Lloyd arrives. 

• Lloyd LUCKILY survives Fitz’s bomb attack.

• Suzanne and Lone Wolf LUCKILY survive Dani’s rocket launcher attack.

• Why does Dani go inside the room that she herself blew up with her rocket launcher? Shouldn’t she be outside helping Six, Fitz, and Claire escape?

• Why does Lone wolf fight Dani if he was gonna give her the drive eventually anyway?

• Suzanne conveniently arrives at the place where Six and Lloyd are fighting JUST BEFORE Six can kill Lloyd.

• In the end, if Suzanne was going to make it look like Six was the one who killed Lloyd, then why did she interfere by shooting Lloyd when Six was going to kill him anyway?

• Are we supposed to believe that Suzanne’s plan to force Six to cooperate is to just hold Claire hostage forever and perhaps even kill her if Six disobeys? Because that just seems highly uncharacteristically cruel for someone who had clear objections with Lloyd planning to kill Claire.

• Although Six rescuing Claire from the secret CIA house is a nice way to end the film, it's still narratively meaningless because we know that Claire has a traceable pacemaker which the CIA will be able to track down immediately. 

RATING-: 3/10