Anyone who’s seen the trailer for Haywire most likely thought the same two things I did; “oh wonderful, a Bourne movie with a woman at it’s core” and “thank you trailer editor for ruining that entire film for me”. If you reader have not seen the trailer I recommend you avoid it, but also recommend you run to the pictures to see the movie. There’s no escaping the comparisons with the series which came form Robert Ludlum’s books and starred Matt Damon – but in this we have a female playing the lead role as the highly-trained super-assassin kicking and wrestling her way through the conspiracy plot. Rather sensibly Steven Soderbergh has avoided the trap of casting a dainty looker to play Mallory, but instead given the role to a former American Gladiator and MMA fighter, Gina Carano. This works extremely well in a film which could easily have been ruined had it starred one of Hollywood’s pretty A-list.
I’ll stand by an arguably contrary opinion by saying my favourite Bourne movie was the first one. Others believe the series only came to life once Paul Greengrass took over, but I was never a fan of the shaky camera being shoved so close one couldn’t really see what was happening during close combat. Soderbergh goes in the complete opposite direction and pulls the lens much further away. This means we get to see the many brawls as they would appear, and the fight coordination is so good this really works. The violence looks real, horrible and occasionally there’s a hit which will really make you wince.
The film is non-linear which allows a relatively simple plot to become slightly more interesting than it could’ve been. Thanks to the terrible sploiling trailer there weren’t too many twists, but the cast all play their roles perfectly well. There’s some good actors in this film and Carano does all she needs to to blend in.
It’s not entirely original, but in Soderbergh’s competent hands it’s bloody good and I’d happily take in the sequel which it seems to gear up for.
★★★★
