After enjoying the political action thriller, The Night Agent, I was ready for another action thriller. The faces of Tyrese Gibson, Ruby Rose and Don Johnson on the poster were all the encouragement I needed. However, my excitement immediately turned into disappointment within fifteen minutes of watching.
The Collective (2023) is an American action thriller directed by Tom DeNucci that focuses on a group of ethical assassins who fight to right wrongs. They targeted a human trafficking ring backed by a network of billionaires who believed themselves untouchable. A popular hacker, Miro Lindell, was kidnapped and about to be auctioned for fifty million dollars. At about that period, the group had just brought in a recruit, Sam Alexander.
Source: YouTube
After Sam Alexander completed his training, he begged to be let into the field rather than start with a desk job. The leader of the assassins, Liam (played by Don Johnson) realised the smart way to infiltrate the auction and take down the human trafficking ring was by using their recruit. Hugo (played by Tyrese Gibson) had a time accepting Sam into their midst. Will this duo succeed in working together and taking down the trafficking ring?
Review
After wasting an hour and thirty minutes of my life on this mockery of an action thriller, I was disappointed. How did I not see that this film was a flop? Without judging a film by its poster (cover), I patiently took my time to watch it and wished I did not. Bringing human traffickers to justice and saving the victims is a good plot but the screenplay is poorly written and the storytelling is lazy. If this plot had been taken seriously and the screenplay is brilliantly written, this film would be a success.
To make things worse, the director cast some well-known actors like Ruby Rose, Tyrese Gibson and Don Johnson, hoping to get the audience's attention and hopefully elevate the film. However, the calibre of actors couldn't salvage the disappointment of this film. I don't want to imagine how much was spent on paying these top actors and the total production of this film.
In every action thriller, viewers are chiefly interested in the action/fight scenes. That's the reason it's called an "action thriller". In The Collective, the fight scenes are horrendous and badly staged like it's child's play. Starting from the first scene where Sam Alexander (played by Lucas Till) is shown practising how to invade enemy territory, I could see the poor acting and fight choreography. I watched further thinking it would get better, but sadly, it did not.
Another disappointing part of the film was the acting and dialogue which revealed poor screenplay and directing. Tyrese Gibson and Ruby Rose were the worst among the actors. I've always enjoyed their films and expected more. Instead, they acted like puppets and unlike their usual extroverted selves.
Overall, I'll say this film is an unimpressive production and very much doubt the producers will make any money off it. I don't like to give negative reviews about films. No matter how bad it may be, I'll always find something positive to highlight. In this case, it's a total flop. I wouldn't recommend this film to any action lover. It's a total waste of time!
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Other images are screenshots from the movie
Posted using CineTV