Keaton turns back the clock

Film Review
Tinashe Kusema

“THE Protégé” is not bad, as far as action thrillers go.

But, this is largely because most production companies keep pushing back their releases.

Ordinarily, this means we have to lower the bar a bit.

The film generally has some low standards but Michael Keaton’s superb performance brings a bit of class to it.

Let me paint the picture for you.

In a film that has Maggie Q, Samuel L Jackson as leads, David Rintoul as the main antagonist and Keaton as nothing more than a lead henchman, it is a miracle the guy (Keaton) accepted the role.

With the exception of Big Sam (Jackson), Keaton is the next big star in the movie and deserves a much better role than what he got.

However, Keaton made lemonade from the lemons he was handed.

He oozed charisma at every turn, stealing scenes with a performance reminiscent of his 90s top acts.

The man’s last memorable act thus far was when he featured as ‘The Vulture’ in Marvel’s “Spiderman: Homecoming.”

He is expected to further reprise his role in the upcoming “Morbius” movie.

Rumours of a “Sinister Six” movie coming up also keep getting louder with each passing moment.

But I digress.

“The Protégé” tells the story of Moody Dutton (Jackson) and Anna (Q), two elite assassins who, as they say, “are very good at finding people who don’t want to be found”.

The two have a father-daughter/teacher-student relationship.

Moody rescues a young Anna after she massacres rebels that killed her parents.

After a brief time jump, the two are now reputable assassins who only kill the undesirable elements of society.

Meanwhile, Moody is dying and refuses to get help.

He then decides to revisit one of his earlier missions to try and atone for killing the father of a kid that is in a home in Vietnam.

The kid, Isaac Hayes, is deaf and has mental issues.

But his attempt to find this kid puts him in the crosshairs of a very powerful unknown third party.

Moody gets killed, Anna narrowly survives and decides to seek revenge.

Maggie Q calls back to her “Nikita” days and puts up a vintage performance as the knife-wielding and gun-toting lethal assassin who is as deadly as she is attractive.

Keaton (playing Michael Rembrandt) comes in as the mystery party’s lead henchman, often defusing every hostile situation with style and elegance.

He is also handy with a gun and aptly matches Anna at every turn.

It is this shared attraction and respect between the two killers that saves the movie, with both Keaton and Maggie Q killing it.

Samuel L Jackson does what he is best known for – screaming and shouting out his lines in a way only he can.

While there are other characters, it is these three that eat up most of the movie.

The action sequences are too few and far between, which in this case turns out to be a good thing.

It makes them memorable and gives more screen time to character development, dialogue and allows the mystery of this third party to breathe.

But I feel Maggie Q did not do her best for the movie.

In fact, I think she is yet to reach the level her talent deserves.

I thought the Craig Silverstein series “Nikita” was going to act as a launching pad for bigger and better things, but that has not been the case.

“The Protégé” is not really low budget, but very average and lacks in the blockbuster category.