Star Cast: Ed Skrein, Ray Stevenson, Loan Chabanol, Gabriella Wright, Tatjana Pajković, Wenxia Yu, Radivoje Bukvić, Lenn Kudrjawizki, Anatole Taubman, Noémie Lenoir
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Director: Camille Delamarre
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What’s Bad: This film is Jason Statham-less! If you can get over this fact that Statham has been replaced by a younger Ed Skrein, who cannot replicate the former’s cold-blooded nature, kudos to you. I could not enjoy this rebooted version of Frank Martin.
Loo Break: Sure!
Watch or Not?: Unless you have nothing to watch this weekend, you could watch this film. Mind you, go with a fresh mind since comparison to any of its prequels would give you a massive headache for its nowhere nearby.
User Rating:
It is the usual. Frank Martin (Ed Skrein) is at his reckless best, busy transporting classified packages for questionable people. This time he crosses the path of Anna (Loan Chabanol) who is leading an all-female crook gang. Anna and the ladies force Frank to take-up their vengeful act to take down the human trafficker who victimized her years earlier. All this includes a bank heist and in order to have Frank’s full contribution, Anna and her accomplishes kidnap his father played by Ray Stevenson. Thus, leaving no choice for Martin but to co-operate with Anna, the ex-special-operations mercenary makes sure to use his covert skills to help the operation reach its final stage. Thus what we see ahead is, the typical car chase sequences, expensive wines and a modelesque new Frank Martin.
The Transporter Refueled script lacks wit even though the writers keep the plot agile enough to end in an hour and a half. The dialogues run high on a zany quotient and you may even have a good laugh at some of the serious scenes simply because they lack the depth required to pull them off. Also what comes across as a major confusion is that the film takes off with a prelude that is somewhere in the late 90s but as the story progresses, there are elements which are too modern day for its course. It seems other than the entire script, the writers have worked better on Frank Martin Senior’s role and that is where the film gets its lighter fun. Otherwise the writing seems quite outdated and low on polish.
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Ed Skrein replaces the Transporter God – Jason Statham and he is not as much fun. While Skrein looks swoon worthy, it is the edge that he lacks. We miss him carrying Statham’s perilous charm. Delivering his dialogues in the Stathamish Cockney (London Working Class) accent does not quite work either.
Loan Chabanol as Anna kicks ass with her character. It is fun to watch ladies take charge and with Anna’s commanding nature.
The best out of the lot is certainly Ray Stevenson. As Frank’s dad who is kidnapped by Anna and her accomplices, it seems Stevenson truly enjoys being held captive by girls. The character’s lighter nature clubbed with Stevenson’s easy portrayal of it work just fine.
Camille Delamarre led Transporter Refueled lacks the edge of the previous films from the series. It is not just the change of lead but also the overall treatment of the film that makes this rebooted version not much up to the mark. From the look of it, Delamarre works much more on the classy feel of it by adding Audis, classy wines, tailor made suits but less of the ruthless violence involved in its predecessors. Not to mention, the action stunts try to replicate a Fast and The Furious feel but completely fall flat. Especially the scene where Frank escapes of a plane fraction of seconds before its take-off. It is the same scene that we see in the trailer as a a car jumps into an airport sky bridge and trust me it is half as exciting as it looks in the promo. I would have to say, the best job has been done by the Editing of keeping the film to the point and wrapping it up in one and a half hour. This avoids the possibility of enhancing how mediocre the plot actually is.
Transporter Refueled is refueled with some new elements but it does not quite work in that manner. Skreins fails to make the most of this role and does not help us get over Jason Statham’s ruthless act in anyway. I am going with a 2/5 for this film.
The Transporter: Refueled releases on 4th September, 2015.
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