LONDON: It’s hard to take “Trigger Warning” — Netflix’s latest attempt to create a pseudo “John Wick” franchise of its own — too seriously. After all, the movie’s outlandish premise sees special forces operator Parker (Jessica Alba) returning to her sleepy hometown after the mysterious death of her father. Once there, she winds up in the middle of a violent gang’s machinations and has to dispense justice in her own unique, knife-wielding way. Director Mouly Surya lets us know this by opening the film with a decidedly lackluster high-speed (but very clearly not) car chase, ostensibly set in Syria (but very clearly not), during which Parker, confronted by a violent gang, dispenses justice in her own unique, knife-wielding way. She also smacks down a corrupt fellow soldier when he executes a prisoner. Because she really hates injustice, you see? High-concept filmmaking this is not.
And, as becomes even more apparent over the next 106 minutes, many of the creators of “Trigger Warning” aren’t taking the movie very seriously either. The script is littered with rote plot cliches, eye-wateringly clunky dialog, one-dimensional characters and abandoned storylines. By the climatic third act, “Trigger Warning” doesn’t even have the good grace to try and hide its gaping plot holes anymore. It just stumbles towards the finish like a bad guy who’s been beaten up by a knife-wielding hero who really hates injustice.
Alba, at least, tries to take the film seriously while Gabriel Basso (star of the recent, surprisingly enjoyable Netflix series “The Night Agent”) makes for an amiable sidekick.
Some movies can offer glorious bouts of escapism, others, like this one, are simply thrown together without any seeming sense of cohesion or care, relying on a charismatic lead to drag the whole mess toward some kind of satisfying conclusion. “Trigger Warning” is a film that should come with one.
