Fiending for a movie franchise to call their own has become a drawn-out, backbreaking journey of unfilled desire for Netflix's brass. They've thrown billions of dollars into making blockbusters (their splashier investments include Bright, 6 Underground and last year's Red Notice) since they started significantly investing in their film division back in 2016 and remarkably, not a single one of them has been able to earn a level of cultural significance that is even remotely comparable to their successful theatrical peers. Their latest carefully curated attempt to become a zeitgeist power player comes in the form of The Gray Man-a $200 million globetrotting action/spy flick from The Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame, Captain America: The Winter Solider/Civil War). While The Gray Man is a respectable blockbuster that will almost certainly yield enough positive streaming data to earn sequels, it would be pretty shocking if it went onto become Netflix's first megahit film.
Action movies don't tend to become special because of their plot or the presence of any substantial drama or social commentary within that narrative, so the familiarity of The Gray Man's setup-which involves a convict turned covert CIA operative is forced to go on the run from his own agency after he aborts a mission following the uncovering of some compromising information about his boss-bares very little weight on the quality of the final product. Where The Gray Man cements itself as a competent but flawed film is with the unadventurous execution of that routine plot.
Kicking off this celebration of routine proficiency is the disappointing revelation that the shootouts, fist fights and car chases of The Gray Man aren't as kinetic or hard-hitting as what the Russo Brothers delivered in their Captain America movies. As nice as it was to see them ditch their signature drab gray color palette for something that contains actual bursts of colors from time to time, most of these scenes are held back by a rhythmless editing style that goes from dizzying quick cuts to pretty clean and back again within a matter of 3-5 seconds and bizarre shot selections that remove the viewer from the heart of the action at pivotal moments where assailants are about to meet their demise or take a knockout blow. There's enough energy and solid fight choreography present in its impressively large-scale action setpieces to ensure their effectiveness, but it's frustrating to watch these scenes play out and know that they've would've notably improved if the director just made a couple of easy compositional tweaks.
Since The Russo Brothers were able to get this gig through their work with Marvel, The Gray Man is of course further hampered by their insistence on bringing MCU-style humor to this movie. The Gray Man may not have the same issue that Red Notice had where Ryan Reynolds looked like he would rather lie down in the middle of the highway than have another snarky quip fall out of his mouth, but even with the actors trying their best to deliver these one-liners, at least 75% of them land with a thud. The weakness of the jokes is further exacerbated by their forced insertion into scenes where they're trying to add a little bit of dramatic backbone to the proceedings or build suspense. The returns of this style of safe, snarky comedy have been rapidly diminishing in recent years and it's getting to the point where I'd rather watch something that's deadly serious over something that's idea of comedy is just half-assed pieces of sarcasm that rarely produce real laughs or feel organic to the bulk of the characters that are spitting them out.
$200 million might not have boughten Netflix a great movie, but it did get them a great ensemble cast that boosts the entertainment value of The Gray Man just by showing up and putting forth a noticeable effort. Ryan Gosling reminds everybody that's he a god damn movie star that could be the biggest action star on the planet if he wanted to be. Chris Evans has a blast as a psychotic douchebag mercenary that no one would ever want to be around if he wasn't really good at tracking down, torturing and killing people. Ana de Armas further elevates her ascending action star status as the reluctant partner to Gosling's character. Billy Bob Thornton makes a long overdue return to the world of movies and easily puts together the highest quip hit rate of the entire cast. Rege Jean-Page and Jessica Henwick play quite the tandem of corrupt CIA officials with Jean-Page being the sleazy, arrogant boss that will gladly go to any lengths necessary to silence anyone that threatens his agenda and Henwick complementing him as the more by-the-books agent who only reveals her true scumbag colors when the shit really hits the fan. Even the veteran character actors (Alfre Woodard, Wagner Moura, Callan Mulvey, Shea Wigham) and Tamilan megastar making his English-language debut (Dhanush) that signed on for extended cameos prove their worth by bringing ample gravitas to largely thankless characters. As effective as high production values and big action sequences shot in multiple countries are at demonstrating the presence of big dollars on a movie, proper actors showing up and lending their talents to a movie that really needs their services is the surest sign that The Gray Man is a legitimate blockbuster affair.
Netflix should be pleased that The Gray Man isn't Red Notice 2.0 and actually looks and feels like a real blockbuster. However, it's also further proof that their algorithmic, desperation-fueled approach to big movies that is likely only going to worse in the wake of this year's drastic subscriber losses isn't likely to bring them the results they desire. The Gray Man is a solid yet not even remotely special project that a major studio would put out as an appetizer or dessert for the main courses on the summer movie slate. These are the types of movies that largely get forgotten within months of release and since this is a streaming title, it will probably be erased from most people's minds by the end of next week.
Franchises don't come from simply handing out zillion dollar budgets to make IP adaptations with name actors. They're produced organically when a filmmaker with a vision hires the right people to help bring that vision to life and with a lot of effort and a little bit of luck, magic gets made. Netflix's hand-off approach in the actual creative process could make them a great destination for ambitious filmmakers who can't find the funding to make something huge elsewhere, but they're going to keep tripping over themselves if they remain obsessed with using their viewer data to try and manufacture a hit franchise instead of simply valuing the artform and trusting talented people to organically give them what they want more than anything in the world.
Grade: B
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