(spoiler free)
It’s rare to see a truly original studio movie anymore, isn’t it? Amongst the onslaught of sequels, prequels and spin-offs that dominate our cinema screens, there’s little room for new stories and characters that we aren’t already familiar with. Although after Robert Rodriguez’s new film Hypnotic, the more accurate statement would actually be that it’s rare to see a truly good original studio movie anymore. As unfortunately his new Ben Affleck led, sci-fi action-thriller, while yes, original, is ultimately incapable of entrancing audiences in the way that its title might suggest.
Affleck plays Danny Rourke, a tortured police detective who’s haunted by the unsolved abduction of his seven-year-old daughter Minnie (Hala Finley). Whilst attempting to thwart a bank heist being carried out by William Fichtner’s villianous Dellrayne, Rourke discovers that this mysterious bank-robber – who also happens to be a powerful hypnotic – might have been involved in his daughter’s abduction too.
What follows is a twisty, messy imitation of several much-loved 21st century crime and high-concept sci-fi flicks, which bring into question the validity of Hypnotic‘s own originality. Its influences are far from subtle, with Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000) and Inception (2010) feeling like the most heavily relied on. Yet, the list doesn’t end with these Nolan favourites, as there’s echoes of The Adjustment Bureau (2011) and Looper (2012) too. Of course taking inspiration from genre favourites isn’t inherently problematic, the real issue is that unlike the films that Hypnotic borrows from, it fails to make its premise remotely convincing or at all entertaining.
The film’s main concept of hypnotics is handled so haphazardly that it becomes more comical than compelling. The aforementioned bank heist jarringly throws audiences in at the deep end and rather than immersing viewers in an intriguing world of hypnosis, the immediate and overblown usage instead alienates them from it. This sets the film on the trajectory of a significant uphill struggle as it tries to use its frankly naff premise to create any semblance of an enticing watch. And when its tools of choice are subpar VFX, tiresome exposition and a central mystery completely devoid of any intrigue, the pieces of this cinematic puzzle aren’t even worth trying to put together.
A third-act revelation has the potential to draw some viewers back in and admittedly this is when the film finally decides to try and be interesting. Sadly this slight lure of appeal arrives far to late to atone for the sci-fi slop already served up. Not even a gruffly-spoken Affleck can save Hypnotic as his most memorable contribution to the film ends up being his painfully rigid delivery of some terrible exposition at the heart of the film’s final moments.
So if Hypnotic is in any way indicative of original studio filmmaking right now, maybe we should count ourselves lucky that we still have John Wick and James Bond to rely on.
Written by Hamish Calvert
★★
Thanks for reading this review, if you enjoyed it and would like to support us you can buy us a coffee HERE and make sure to follow us @HCMovieReviews over on Twitter.
HCMovieReviews 
Leave a comment