The Killer (2023)

Director: David Fincher

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, Charles Parnell

After a fateful near-miss, an assassin battles his employers and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal.

‘The Killer’ is a stylish action thriller starring Michael Fassbender as the titular Killer, who goes on a killing spree killing assassins after an attack on his girlfriend. So, this is sort of a vengeance story.

Did I say stylish? Ok, that means slow and a bit boring. Did I say ‘action thriller’? Well, the action is few and far between. There’s quite a bit of narration here, though. Hmmm, did I say ‘quite a bit’? Well, actually a hell of a lot throughout the entire movie. In fact, the film’s first 15 minutes sees the Killer telling us about statistics, metrics, his life, the meaning of life, his perception of various elements of life, and a bit on politics. Yup, and all the time we watch him watching the building opposite him – as he patiently waits for his target to show up.

When the target finally shows up and the moment is perfect for the assassination, the Killer misses his target in a matter of a millisecond, killing a bystander in the process. The Killer immediately senses being followed, and goes on the run using various aliases. When he arrives at his home in the Dominican Republic and finds his girlfriend brutally attacked – but alive – he vows to go after those responsible.

Oh, darn, I it happened; I just yawned! Ok, so this film wasn’t really boring, but it did move a bit slow, and quite honestly I just didn’t find it compelling. It wasn’t always clear (to me, at least) who he was after. Yeah, I knew he was after assassins, but it felt like random characters appearing in the film just for a bit of action. Without any background on any of these characters, I simply viewed them as one-dimensional targets.

Apart from that, there was very little action. There was ONE chase sequence, and only ONE good fight sequence – which happened to be so dark that I could hardly see what was happening. There never really was a clear antagonist, and no protagonist either. I suppose the film wants us to view the Killer as the protagonist, but I didn’t. He was simply the film’s lead, and by no means did I see him as a hero. The mere fact that he didn’t even have a name – and called The Killer which in itself is negative – didn’t really make me root for him; not as I would have wanted to had he in fact been an innocent victim.

Michael Fassbender was good in his role, and he is in excellent physical shape. Pity they didn’t put his good shape to better use. And all the (repetitive) narration was a bit too much… Oh, and did you also happen to spot all the sponsors in the movie? The movie was like a commercial…

Would I watch it again? No.