Inspired by a comic book by Bob Layton, Don Perlin, and Kevin VanHook, Bloodshot was helmed by first time feature film director Dave Wilson and stars Vin diesel (Guardian of the Galaxy) in lead, co-starring Guy Pearce (Iron Man 3), Sam Heughan (Outlander), Eiza Gonzáles (Alita: Battle Angel), and Toby Kebbel (Fant4tic).

Premise: After he and his wife are suddenly assassinated, Marine Ray Garrison (Vin Diesel) is brought back to life by a team of scientists. Enhanced with nanotechnology, he becomes a superhuman, biotech killing machine – Bloodshot. As Ray first trains with fellow super-soldiers, he struggles to recall anything from his previous years. But when his memories flood back and he remembers the man that killed both him and his wife, he breaks out of the facility hellbent on revenge.

Review: Writing the premise, I omitted part of the last sentence which is, “only to discover that there’s more between what he originally feels and a conspiracy.” I’m not sure that it is necessary to sell this movie, I’m on the fence. Selling it as a revenge movie with cool visuals would probably work for Diesel’s core fanbase or anyone who just love action scenes no matter what the story is about. The phrase I highlighted and took out of the premise gives more subtances, more meat to the story. It could intrigue a casual action movie fan into seeing Bloodshot trying to figure out what the conspiracy is about. Saddly the marketing took that away from the viewer.

It’s not high art, and that “conspiracy” is not too difficult to figure out but they could have tried. Tried, among other things, to not give it away before the movie was out. Since for almost two third of the movie it is not adressed. They could have put more subtle clues about what’s really going on before Ray discovers it, enticing audiences to watch the film a second and/or third time instead of the one and done it turned out to be.

There are actors that I love in this film but they failed to level up the story. The performances were a little wooden but to be fair you can’t make up what’s not there. Although, Toby Kebbel kind of made it work, I really saw two dinstinct versions of the character he was playing. As for the rest of the cast they can count their blessings because people will forget they were even in this.

The visuals are clearly a selling point of the movie – that is if you count Vin Diesel as a reason to see a film – and it’s the only thing that some thoughts went into. For a debut film Dave Wilson has shown that he’s good with action scenes and visual effects but still needs to show that he can direct actors, maybe in another movie with a…story.

Bloodshot is action packed with awesome secenes and weak story, so leave your brain at the door and enjoy your popcorn.