Blacklight is a dull, deep state conspiracy actioner that misses the mark entirely. He is out of sorts in the film’s evident and exaggerated story Liam Neeson, normally an easy choice for action junkies. This time around he takes on the role of an FBI black operations fixer with OCD. The movie also employs weird double-take edits to some chase sequences which complicate them even further. I can’t understand what stylistic sense was being pursued by the filmmakers; they don’t attain it.
The best part of this film unfortunately happens in its very first scene which is meant to be shocking. That is when we meet Travis Block (Liam Neeson) who saves a disoriented undercover FBI agent. After his efficient performance, Block receives congratulations from FBI Director Gabriel Robinson (Aiden Quinn). They have been buddies for many years. For all practical purposes, Block serves as a “handler” for Robinson’s shady activities within the intelligence community. His fixer has another pressing task at hand. Dusty Crane (Taylor John Smith), an undercover agent with severe mental breakdown seems not alright.
Travis Block wants to create closer connections between him and his daughter Claire van der Bloom and granddaughter while still at her tender age (a young girl). She fears that his compulsive behaviors and paranoia are affecting the child emotionally (?). However, efforts by Block to capture the rogue agent has hit a snag; Dusty Crane has contacted Mira Jones through whom he plans to blow wide open a can of worms with her investigative reports about his employer . When confronted with such awful allegations against Crane, should Block put duty first or go ahead investigating?
Blacklight has a nonsensical script. The film makes one grave mistake which destroys its story right from the beginning: The antagonist is revealed early in act one. We then have to watch as Block bumbles around trying to reveal an enemy that’s plain as day. If Block is supposed to be an elite operative this makes no sense at all. The same goes for the reporter as well. She meets Crane several times and just cannot put two and two together. Mira Jones is not going to win a Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism.
Previously, director Mark Williams worked with Liam Neeson on Honest Thief and as producer of The Marksman. This film was very awkward and disjointed to me . Scenes involving the family are forced and tasteless. This subplot about OCD is completely out of place. The gunplay and car chases are interrupted by the odd editing choices – that’s all I can say about it! I had reasonably high hopes for Blacklight. It seems hard to believe that these major players in the industry have worked together before; they take a step back here.
Blacklight simply does not function as a pure action movie, let me be clear on that fact; nor is the action bad at all; there seemed to be a lot of money spent on stunts, explosions and many car crashes. All of those scenes together amount to twenty minutes f runtime only which means that Blacklight has multiple bewildering mistakes throughout its plotline. I will never remember this movie but could watch any movie with Liam Neeson any time. Produced by Zero Gravity Management, Footloose Productions, Sina Studios, it will release theatrically on February 11th through Briarcliff Entertainment and Open Road Films.
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