It’s been a little while since I’d last reviewed a movie from a streaming platform and thought to myself, why not check out Netflix’s “The Killer” last weekend.
While the trailer seemed to highlight the usual assassin cinema tropes, it hid one important fact – the utter garbage pacing of the overall film.
I’m used to action/thriller films featuring more action and movement in the story instead of almost an hour’s worth of lead-in shots with quick travel montage segments.
The only underlying entertainment I found was from Michael Fassbender’s portrayal of the main character full of sarcasm and deadpan voiceovers.
The Killer is a film directed by David Fincher from a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker.
It is based on the French graphic novel series The Killer written by Alexis “Matz” Nolent and illustrated by Luc Jacamon.
The film stars Fassbender in the title role, alongside Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, Kerry O’Malley, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte, and Tilda Swinton in supporting roles.
Clocking in at 118 minutes long, the movie is rated R for strong violence, language, and brief sexuality.
An unnamed skillful professional assassin known only as ‘the killer’ (Fassbender) stakes out a Parisian hotel room across from an under-construction office space.
He prepares to use a sniper rifle to kill a target who will check into the hotel room at an unspecified time.
While waiting for the target, he eats, practices yoga, listens to the Smiths, and talks on the phone with his handler, an attorney named Hodges (Parnell).
The Killer narrates about these activities, stressing the mantra of his rules and the routine, even boring, nature of his job and how his cynicism and lack of empathy are beneficial for his chosen occupation.
The target eventually arrives in the company of a dominatrix.
Unfortunately, the Killer misses his target, accidentally shooting the dominatrix.
He flees, successfully evades the police, and flies to the United States under one of his numerous fake identities.
The Killer returns to one of his hideout homes in the Dominican Republic to find that it has been broken into and that his girlfriend Magdala (Charlotte) has been attacked.
The Killer finds her sedated in a hospital and her brother watching over her.
He learns that Magdala was tortured but managed to escape the assassins, who fled in a taxi.
He tracks down the taxi driver Leo (Polanco) who drove the assassins to the Killer’s home.
Leo identifies them as a brutish man, who has an injured leg, and a woman whose hair resembles a “Q-Tip”.
The Killer shoots and kills Leo, leaving his body in his taxi.
The Killer travels to Hodges’ office in New Orleans, Louisiana, and gains entry to the building disguised as a recycling worker.
He restrains Hodges’ secretary Dolores (O’Malley) and destroys the electronic records of their work together.
As Hodges attempts to de-escalate the situation, the Killer shoots him in the chest with a nail gun in an attempt to torture the names of the hitmen out of him, but Hodges dies more quickly than the Killer anticipated by aspirating his own blood.
Dolores offers to show the Killer the assassins’ identities in her personal paper files in her home as long as he meets her conditions.
Everything shapes up for the Killer’s revenge plans but it still seemed to drag on forever for me.
After all, I’m used to my action films actually keeping my attention but I felt like this one fell flat.
Still, if you’re a fan of Fassbender’s then you might want to catch this on Netflix now.
