The origin story of the new science fiction film by Robert Rodriguez reads more twisted than its screenplay. For 20 years, the Sin City and Alita director has dreamed of the film adaptation, which was then paused three times, plunged into a lawsuit and the financier went bankrupt. Despite all opposition, Rodriguez completed the film.
At the Cannes Film Festival he presented the result in the indulgent Midnight Screenings (that’s the time to cheer to stay awake at the cinema), but Hypnotic turned out to be more boring than one might expect from a Robert Rodriguez film. The sleepwalking Ben Affleck is partly to blame.
In the sci-fi film, Ben Affleck stumbles upon a conspiracy
On paper, Affleck has his own little Inception blend got hold of it, with a decent 80 million budget, a seasoned cult director and, in the form of Alice Braga, a colleague who can get something out of even the smallest screenplay.
Affleck plays detective Daniel Rourke, whose daughter was kidnapped. Much like John Travolta’s grieving dad in In the Body of the Enemy, he is haunted by flashbacks to that day. While observing a planned robbery, he notices The Dark Knight bank manager William Fichtner, who subjugates strangers to his will with a few words like puppets. With the help of fortune teller Diana Cruz (Alice Braga), Rourke gets to the bottom of the matter.
The trailer for Hypnotic:
Hypnotic – Trailer (English) HD
At some point in Hypnotic, a skyline really bends across the sky, like in Inception, and whoever thought Doctor Strange was showing the Billo version of it is witnessing an unexpected drop in the price of effects at Rodriguez. The semi-surreal spectacle bursts into the film in such an unbelievable and unmotivated way.
The inception moment also works superimposed because hypnotic otherwise a pretty down-to-earth sci-fi thriller is. He draws his dreamlike atmosphere primarily from bizarre situations: a woman undressing in the middle of the street; two cops threatening each other with guns. Hypnotic can’t keep up with Nolan’s dream worlds anyway, which doesn’t make the film any worse.
Hypnotic is a major disappointment for Tarantino pal Rodriguez
A huge disappointment is Hypnotic, because Rodriguez narrates it like a 90-minute orgy of exposure, which stops when it really starts. Unlike his friend Quentin Tarantino, Rodriguez films are not usually watched for the dialogue (unless they come from Frank Miller or Tarantino himself), but for spectacular interludes of violence, originally staged action and memorable character moments. Hypnotic offers none of that, but immerses itself in the tedious explanation of its sci-fi concept without making us understand why anyone should care.
After the surprisingly good sports shoe drama Air – The Big Hit, Hypnotic also proves to be Setback for Ben Affleck’s comeback. Affleck is missing what makes really strong action stars and leading men like Tom Cruise, Jason Statham or even Gerard Butler. They grow beyond weakly written characters and fill the gap with the concentrated power of their star persona. Which sometimes leaves the impression that they always played the same character. Hypnotic needs a star like that to be halfway entertaining.
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Ben Affleck already lacked this quality when he appeared in Pearl Harbor, in his Daredevil interlude and his role as Jack Ryan in The Attack, or throughout his entire blockbuster career.
In Hypnotic, he acts by the numbers, barely appearing involved and wandering through the script’s twists on autopilot. It’s all the sadder because this type of film is hardly ever shot in Hollywood with this budget. A star-powered sci-fi thriller without a franchise connection. But that alone doesn’t make Hypnotic a good movie – no matter what time you watch it.
Hypnotic will be in German cinemas on August 10th.