Robert Rodriguez’s Hypnotic, a flop film that never quite convinces, should have at least one virtue: it knows exactly what kind of film it is, and never hides his nature, pretending to be more than you really are.
A few decades ago we would have talked about cassette film, today’s filler from the streaming platform catalog. In the USA there will be an attempt to bring it to cinemas, we’ll see what happens in Italy. However, the facts essentially do not change: whoever organized this operation wanted this. a title without any special pretensions or special ambitions, is well suited to creating an enjoyable thriller for an audience that isn’t too demanding of the quality and ambition of the type of entertainment one can watch on TV in the evening. Hypnotic thought for those who want more from what they already know, although perhaps in a less exciting version instead of trying something new.
The names in question are actually very important: at the helm is Hypnotic as the leading actor. Ben Affleckas director Robert Rodriguez. However, in the era of catalogs that have to be filled with original new products on a weekly basis, the presence of titles that are perceived as high-level, in fact, is not a sign of quality, on the contrary. Hypnotic looks like major surgery designed to attract the viewer and come out of anonymity thanks to the presence of familiar faces cast and names already heard behind the camera.
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What is Hypnotic about?
The main character of Hypnotic is Rourke (Ben Affleck), a police officer who goes through a psychological journey while trying to accept the terrible fact of which he has become a victim. In fact, his daughter was kidnapped right in front of his eyes, taking advantage of a brief moment of fatherly distraction while playing on the playground.
The kidnapper was captured, but it appears remember nothing about the crime and provided no information about the little girl’s whereabouts or assurances that she was alive. Therefore, Rourke cannot come to terms with what happened.
Together with a colleague, take part in operation to stop a bank robbery, which begins with a strange tip. The woman called the police and told them when the gang was planning to strike and that they would be looking inside the lending institution. During a robbery, Rourke discovers two shocking pieces of information: the robber has the ability force others to do what he wants and is looking for a safe that contains only a photograph of the protagonist’s kidnapped daughter.
The cop then contacts Diana Cruz (Alice Braga), who will introduce you to the art of hypnosis. Unlike his colleagues, who are treated like pawns, Rourke seems to a psychological block that makes him temporarily unresponsive the robber’s attempts to influence him and a powerful hypnotist, so he is the ideal person to uncover the robber’s plan and shed light on what happened to his daughter.
What works and what doesn’t in Hypnotic
Hypnotic doesn’t hold back its cards and doesn’t try to convince audiences that it’s an original film. We realize this more or less halfway through the film, when Affleck chases a robber/hypnotist into a freight train station among dozens of trains and tracks. At a certain point reality is “distorted” and we see tracks and trains reflected in the sky: It’s hard to make a more direct visual reference to Christopher Nolan’s Inception.
Robert Rodriguez, among other things, can shoot action scenes (often with greater clarity than Nolan), so when you see him in action with a thrilling initiation, you willingly overlook it all. ridiculous nonsense, not even remotely pseudoscientific what the film makes a very embarrassed Alice Braga say hypnotic conditioning, hypnotists and hypnotic blocks.
Okay, in this reality, it is enough to stare at a person and make a rhythmic noise for him to lose free will and carry out the orders received, even at the cost of his own safety. It’s almost impossible to believe, but considering the kind of movie you want to make, it might make sense. Of this kind thrillers that shoot big You can also expect this kind of plot, that’s not a problem.
Rodriguez causes problems when paired with Max Borenstein, with whom he signs a contract. too picky and unreasonably complex script, which, in its attempts to constantly restart itself, ends up making the film shallow and conspiratorial beyond the scope of entertainment. Yes, it’s obvious that the government has something to do with this, and yes, it’s obvious that we’re on various levels of self-education, mental reset, and so on, including the extra mid-credits scene that starts again.
Too much considering poor narrative framework of the film. Explained poorly and meagerly, the development of the story gradually becomes more and more ridiculous and not even ridiculous, in general funny. The hypnotic quibbles with his original idea, but has nothing interesting to say. There are not enough ideas, there are not enough brilliant scenes that leave something for the viewer, there is not enough character (good or bad) that really grabs the viewer’s attention. In other words, the film is missing.
Ben Affleck continues his spiral of anonymous roles in bad films. in which he shows himself at his worst on an acting level. After lucky Air bracket – Great Leapwe find him in a banal and insipid role like terrible from Deep Waters. After all, it’s the same type of movie: minimal effort, maybe even less, on everyone’s part to come up with a title that takes up little space in the catalog, a few hours of time, but this is ultimately a waste of resources.