Bloodshot, movie (Valiant cinematic universe, 2020)
image © Sony
Article updated: 2022.10.20
The Bloodshot (2020) is a futuristic action film. The movie was reviewed by Kadmon.
Product: Bloodshot (2020)
Original title: Bloodshot
Series: Valiant Cinematic Universe
Setting: futuristic Earth
Product type: Film, Genre: Futuristic action, Style: action, futuristic
Release: 2020.03.13
Reviewer: Kadmon, Type: Male, 40s, Preferences: Immersive, logical story, consistent setting, prefers surprises to spoilers, prefers establishing elements before referencing them
Watched: very recent (2020.04), first time
Rating: Weak (2- out of 3 points), Enjoyment: Bad (1 out of 3 points)
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This is my review of Bloodshot, a futuristic action movie from 2020, set in the Valiant cinematic universe. It's about a soldier, who gets kidnapped, and he wants to get revenge on the people who wronged him. The film looks okay, but the characters are uninteresting, and the action is boring. I didn't like the Bloodshot film at all.
If you'd like to be surprised, I don't recommend you to watch the following trailer, because it spoils the first 90% of the movie, so the only "surprise" you'll get is whether or not the protagonist will defeat the villain. And in a film like the Bloodshot movie, I don't think the outcome will be a surprise.
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Review (spoiler-free) - Bloodshot movie for the Valiant cinematic universe (2020)
I haven't heard anything about the Bloodshot movie, I just read that it's a film based on super-hero comics. I've probably watched the trailer when it came out, but I couldn't remember anything from that. When I had the chance, I gave Bloodshot a try. (Edit: I've watched the trailer after writing this review, because other reviewers said it spoils the whole movie. And that is true, if you watch the trailer, every tension and suspense is drained from the movie. So, don't watch the trailer.)
The Bloodshot film is about a soldier, who gets kidnapped, and he wants to get revenge on the people who wronged him. Along the way he tries to bring down the evil corporation that caused his problems.
The story is stupid, the actors play accordingly. The main characters is a void, and we don't really get to know the others. Because of that it was really hard to care for them.
The visuals are good. The music is okay. With the right story, and a good direction, this could have been a good film.
The action is boring, and that's not a good basis for a film that focuses on the action. The choreography would be nice, the sets are interesting, but there is no tension, and the action scenes usually take too long to remain interesting.
Another thing I didn't like is that the movie is incredibly brutal, the protagonist maim his targets in the most cruel ways, but as no blood is seen, it can be rated PG-13. It's not the blood I miss -although I wouldn't mind that-, but it's hypocritical that you can show all these to a kid, but if the movie would show blood, it wouldn't be fitting for them.
The Bloodshot film is the first movie in a possible Valiant cinematic universe series.
The whole movie tries to maintain interest with the action scenes, but even those are lacking.
My experience
I didn't enjoy the movie. It was stupid from the start, than it became boring.
Rating: Weak (2- out of 3 points). Technically it's okay, the movie is watchable, but it's not a good film.
Enjoyment: Bad (1 out of 3 points). I've felt the Bloodshot film is boring and stupid.
Rewatchability: I think that if you really love these kind of action movies, and you liked the film for first viewing, you'll like to watch it more than once.
Chance of watching it again: Not a chance.
Chance of watching a sequel: Maybe. The technical aspects were not bad, with a good writer, a sequel could be interesting.
Bloodshot, movie (Valiant cinematic universe, 2020)
image © Sony
Will you enjoy this?
If you like action movies, with no plot, and mediocre action (G. I. Joe, Transformers 2+), you might like this one. If you prefer your action movies with stupid, but interesting action, watch The Raid: Redemption again, or Dredd, or Punisher: Warzone.
If you enjoy everything that has Vin Diesel in it, you might enjoy the Bloodshot movie.
If you are an absolute fan of cyber-punk movies, and you don't mind the stupid story, you might like Bloodshot. There are cybernetic limbs, system hacking, EMP bombs, evil corporation - every trope you need.
If you are a fan of the Valiant cinematic universe, you should watch this.
If you like twists in the story, you might like Bloodshot.
Do you need to read the comics to enjoy this?
I have no clue. I haven't read any Valiant comics, and I didn't know who Bloodshot is. Knowing stuff about him might enhance your experience. On the other hand, if the film makers didn't adapt the story well enough, it might take away from your enjoyment.
Watching for plot points
If you are only watching this film because you are curious whether it has some interesting background story or twist - I think you are better off with reading the plot summary on WikiPedia, or watch one of the video summaries, I'm going to list in the Resources section of my review. There a couple of twists, but they are so convoluted, the movie would have been better off without them.
Bloodshot, movie (Valiant cinematic universe, 2020)
image © Sony
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Review with spoilers - Bloodshot movie for the Valiant cinematic universe (2020)
The Bloodshot movie was boring, but watchable. It wasn't that bad that I'd left it, but in different circumstances, for example if I'd watch it on television, I'd probably spent some time switching to other channels. It just couldn't keep me interested. The main story - brainwashed cyber-soldier trying to get free of the evil corporation -, is not inherently bad. There are famous actors in the movie, but they don't do a particularly good job, they just tell their lines, act a little, and that's it. I'm not sure it's because the lack of direction, or the lack of interest on the actors' part.
I find the violent nature of the story disturbing. The main character seems to be a soldier, who tries to avenge the death of his girlfriend. But then we later realise that the girlfriend is alive, and he is a brainwashed assassin, sent against innocent people. The "terrorist" and bad guys he murders, are possibly just regular bodyguards, his targets are not evil villains, just scientists that are the competition to their company. Yet, the movie doesn't dwell on this, the brutal killings seem to be justified, and even after being liberated from the brainwashing, our protagonist doesn't spend a thought on this.
Promise of the first scene
A soldier rescues a hostage from bad guys. As the soldier is Vin Diesel, I assume that he will become Bloodshot. But as I don't know anything about the story, I have no clue what will happen.
Execution: Indeed, Vin Diesel's character became Bloodshot. And from the beginning, I couldn't have guessed where the story will go.
Plot summary / Synopsis
In the beginning, we see a soldier (Vin Diesel as Ray Garrison, aka. Bloodshot) going on a hostage rescue mission. After it is successful, he is abducted and later killed together with his girlfriend (Talulah Riley as Gina Garrison). The soldier wakes up, and he's being told that he was resurrected by the use of nanotechnology, and he has superhuman abilities due to his enhancements. He has a flashback of the events that happened, and escapes from the facility to brutally murder the man who killed him, and the people around that man.
We later get to realise that this was all part of his programming, he's a cybernetic assassin, and every time they send him to kill one of the competition of the company, they program the target as being the one that murders his girlfriend, and they erase his memory every time after the mission. During one of his missions, they use an EMP bomb against him, taking him out. The computer guy (Lamorne Morris as Wilfred Wigans) who activated the bomb, revives the assassin, and tells him about the situation.
The assassin find his ex-girlfriend alive, but he is attacked by hitmen from his corporation, and he is taken back for another programming. However, one of his colleagues sets him free from the corporate programming, with the help of the computer guy he'd met earlier. The assassin kills the other hitmen, then the boss of the corporation.
In the end, we get to know that he became free of the corporation, and the computer guy programmed the nanobots in him to be even better.
The setting
In the near future, there will be nano-technology to revive dead soldiers to create mindless slaves. The Bloodshot movie is set in the Valiant cinematic universe, so we'll probably see more of the setting in the future.
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Bloodshot, movie (Valiant cinematic universe, 2020)
image © Sony
Analysis of the story - Bloodshot movie for the Valiant cinematic universe (2020)
The overall story of Bloodshot is stupid, and the plot is based on the stupidity of the characters, otherwise there would be no story.
Although this is the first film in a possible Valiant cinematic universe series, the Bloodshot movie is not particularly good, and I'm afraid this might prevent the continuation of a Valiant Comics shared universe.
The message of the story
I'm not sure there's one.
The structure of the story
The scenes are played in sequence. It has the usual arc of the dramatic structure - beginning, action, resolution.
Things I liked
For my Bloodshot review, I tried to come up with every good thing I've found in the film, but there were not that many.
- I liked the exo-suit with the robotic arms.
Problematic elements
I list the problems I've found below.
The title - Bloodshot
All through the movie, there's only one mention of Bloodshot. In the beginning, they say something like "Let's wake up Project Bloodshot", then the name is never mentioned again. They call the protagonist by his real name, and nobody addresses him as Bloodshot. So, there's really no point of calling this movie "Bloodshot". I've checked the comics, and the character has red (bloodshot?) eyes, probably that's how the name comes, but in the movie there's only a couple of moments with him having darker eyes, as I remember.
Elements I find problematic
- Not following Bloodshot: The company should always send a couple of their own men to handle the situation, in case it goes out of control. So, when they hit Bloodshot with the EMP, they should have been already near the house, because they already knew where Bloodshot will go, before they started the simulation to aim him at the target.
- Not monitoring the agents: They also don't monitor the other agents, and that's illogical. If they have satellites following Bloodshot and the target, if they have the resources to hack into surveillance equipment, they should be able to follow their agents, and see if they are following orders. When the girl lets the computer guy free, they should know about that.
- Chewing gums under the nano-bed: The number of chewing gums under the bed was probably foreshadowing. However, it just means that the guy put several chewing gums on the bed, since the last time it was cleaned up, probably a couple of hours ago. In facilities like this, people take cleaning up seriously.
- Not using their equipment: It seems like there are a couple of high-tech equipment that some of the characters use. Why not give them to everybody? If they can manufacture an exo-skeleton suit, they can probably do a couple more so every soldier could have one, to enhance their abilities.
- Blowing up the computer mainframe: The computer guy was probably right, he knew his trade. When the girl blows up the mainframe, there might be safety protocols about uploading everything into another server. Erasing information from computers connected to the internet is more complicated than just blowing them up, especially if you want to make sure you were succesful.
- The evil corporation is not prepared for their main product going on a rampage: Even though they are ready to mass produce soldiers like Bloodshot, when he gets out of their control, they don't have the equipment to pacify him. One of their enemies already has an EMP bomb, the evil corporation should have resources to get a couple of those too, or electronic weapons that can harm the nanites in him.
- Invulnerable protagonist: As Bloodshot is able to defeat anybody in the movie, and we already know this in the beginning, it's very hard to feel any kind of tension. The only time he gets taken out is by his future companion, and he is the only one who was close to defeat him. As wounds don't show up on Bloodshot, the audience doesn't even know if he is able to be hurt at all.
Misleading the viewer
The movie tries to mislead the viewers, and the characters act in a way that's not logical for them, but it helps the movie creators to build up for a "twist".
- The character of Martin Axe was named after a similarly named villain in the comics, to mislead the readers who kew about this.
- When Bloodshot first escapes, everyone acts in the office like this has happened for the first time, even though we later see that this happens every time, as planned. Who are they acting for, and why? Does the director of Bloodshot hope that the viewers won't be able to remember that scene, and believes they won't watch it for a second time?
- When they realise it's KT who alters the programming, the boss should just switch off her lungs. That would probably stop her interfering. Running to find her, then trying to command her takes way too long. Of course the whole delay is only there to later show us that she is able to resist the remote control, but it's only there to deceive the watcher.
Boring action
The creators managed to make the action scenes boring, and that's not very useful for a film that tries to sell itself by those action scenes. The sets for the action were not inherently bad, I liked the idea of fighting in a tunnel, covered in flour, and the fight on the elevators, but the execution was not very interesting.
The fight in the tunnel was especially boring and long, with the slow motion shots. Even though there was constant action, there was no tension, nor was the action visually interesting enough to compensate for this.
The action scene when the girl attacks the computer guy was good, and it was fast, I don't think it lasted more than a minute. That's the amount of time the actions should take. I also liked the first minute of the fight between Bloodshot and the guy with the exo-skeleton with robotic arms.
The look of Bloodshot
It's a minor from in the perspective of the story, but the Bloodshot of the comics has white skin and red eyes. There were just a couple of scenes that showed him like that, and I actually didn't realise the change when I was watching the movie. The change happened during the action scenes, most of it was hidden from the viewer. I suppose I've assumed he is covered in dust, and the red of the eyes came from internal bleeding.
Unanswered questions
- I didn't care enough about the Bloodshot film, to come up with questions for this review.
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Possibilities of improvement
- Cutting the action scenes shorter: The choreography was not bad, they were just too long. If you cut some parts, the action might become interesting again.
- Cut the lines that were inserted to mislead the audience: Some lines were there just to mislead us. This movie is not intended to be an intelligent techno-thriller, so you might as well cut those lines, to spare some cringy moments for an intelligent audience.
- Explain the white skin and red eyes: There should be some kind of explanation for that in the movie, to draw attention to the fact when he changes.
How it could have been better?
More characterisation: The number of characters in the movie was enough, but we didn't get to know anything about them. Spend more time on the personality of the supporting characters, if the protagonist doesn't have a personality on his own. If we get to know them better, we might become more attached to them. When they get into danger, we might feel some tension.
Dangerous enemies: Make the enemies of Bloodshot threatening to him.
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How does it compare to the other works of the creators?
This is the first feature length movie of the director (Dave Wilson). The previous short film I've seen (Sonnie's Edge) was not bad, but it was basically following the original short story step by step in an animated movie. In Bloodshot he had more freedom to make story fall apart.
The movies I have seen from the writers (Jeff Wadlow, Eric Heisserer) were not exciting. Jeff Wadlow's Kick-Ass 2 was okay, but Eric Heisserer's works (The Thing (2011), Arrival) were mediocre, both in plot, and as an adaptation. I think Bloodshot follows this trend.
How does it compare to the original source?
I didn't read any Bloodshot graphic novels, so I can't really tell.
While I don't know anything about the personality of Bloodshot, in the comics, his skin is pale white, and he has red eyes. In the Bloodshot film, he looks just like a regular person, although in the final battle, he looks pale, and has dark eyes.
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Uses for the film - Bloodshot movie for the Valiant cinematic universe (2020)
Plot
- A corporation revives death soldiers, and enhances them with high technology
- A super-soldier rebels against his creators
Scenes
- The action scenes were good. I especially liked it when Bloodshot was fighting the four armed guy.
Scenario ideas - Role-playing game scenario ideas
Scenario ideas - Wargame scenario ideas
Miniatures - 1/50-1/60 (28-32mm scale)
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Similar stories - Bloodshot movie for the Valiant cinematic universe (2020)
Novels
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818): A human is brought back from the dead, and gets technological enhancements. He gets free, and turns against his creator.
Graphic novels
Bloodshot: The comics this movie is based on.
RoboCop: Adaptation of the RoboCop movie.
Wolverine: Weapon-X stories: A soldier is brainwashed. He gets technological enhancements, to further the goals of his creators. He gets free, and turns against his creators.
Movies
Black Widow (2021): Abducted people are brainwashed, and trained as assassins. They get technological enhancements, to further the goals of their creators. One of them gets free, and turns against their creators.
Outside the Wire (2021): A robotic super-soldier gets free, and turns against its creators.
RoboCop (1987): A policeman is brought back from the dead, but he is brainwashed. He gets technological enhancements, to further the goals of his creators. He gets free, and turns against his creators.
RoboCop (2014): A policeman is brought back from the dead, but he is brainwashed. He gets technological enhancements, to further the goals of his creators. He gets free, and turns against his creators.
Universal Soldier (1992): Soldiers are brought back from the dead, but they are brainwashed. They get technological enhancements, to further the goals of their creators. One of them gets free, and turns against his creators.
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Frequently asked questions - Bloodshot movie for the Valiant cinematic universe (2020)
Was Bloodshot a success?
Nope. Bloodshot is not a success. It failed to make back its budget, and it also got bad ratings.
Is Bloodshot bad?
Yes, Blooshot is bad, but it's watchable. There are worse action movies out there.
What is the movie Bloodshot based on?
The Bloodshot movie is based on the Bloodshot comics, set in the Valiant superheroes universe.
Is there a post credit scene in Bloodshot?
No, there's no post credit scene in Bloodshot.
Will there be Bloodshot 2?
Considering Bloodshot was a box office bomb, I don't think it's likely, but this might not stop the building of a Valiant cinematic universe, so we'll see.
Where can I see Bloodshot? What is Bloodshot playing on? What streaming service is Bloodshot on? Where can I watch Bloodshot online? Is Bloodshot available on Netflix? Is Bloodshot on Amazon?
As of 2022.10.20, Bloodshot is available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Microsoft Movies, Redbox, Vudu, YouTube.
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Resources - Bloodshot movie for the Valiant cinematic universe (2020)
Information
IMDB: Bloodshot (2020): Database article.
WikiPedia: Bloodshot (film): Database article.
Letterboxd: Bloodshot: Database article.
Rotten Tomatoes: Bloodshot (2020): Database article.
Metacritic: Bloodshot 2020: Database article.
Creation
: Behind the scenes article.
Parental advisory information - Bloodshot movie
Jeffrey M. Anderson (for Common Sense Media ): Bloodshot: Parental advisory information article.
Reviews with no spoilers - Bloodshot movie
: Review article of the Bloodshot movie with no spoilers.
Reviews with spoilers - Bloodshot movie
AngryJoeShow: Bloodshot Angry Movie Review: Review video of the Bloodshot movie, with spoilers.§
Chris Stuckmann: Bloodshot - Movie Review: Review video of the Bloodshot movie, with spoilers.§
greigzilla (for We've Got (Back) Issues): Bloodshot: Review article of the movie, with spoilers.
Heavy Spoilers: BLOODSHOT Ending Explained + Shared Movie Universe Breakdown | Full Movie Spoiler Review: Review video of the Bloodshot movie, with spoilers. Includes plot summary.
Jeremy Jahns: Bloodshot - Movie Review: Review video of the Bloodshot movie, with spoilers.§
Nate Zoebl: Bloodshot (2020): Review article about the film with no spoilers.
Reviews with spoilers - Bloodshot movie - Turkish
Bugra Sendundar (for Science Fiction Club): Bloodshot: Simplifying a Complex World (in Turkish): Review article of the Bloodshot movie with spoilers, in Turkish. The reviewer compares the story of the film to the original comics.
English version by Google Translate
Analysis - Bloodshot movie
Looper: The Ending Of Bloodshot Explained: Analysis video of the Bloodshot movie.§
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Buying the product - Bloodshot movie (2020)
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Have you seen the Bloodshot film? How do you like the movie? Would you recommend it to others? Do you know reviews or resources you'd like to add? What further thoughts do you have about it? Tell your opinion in the comments!
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