Project Power Review

If the immediate pangs of heavy bass on the soundtrack weren’t enough to wake you up on this crisp, cold, August morning, then nothing else will. Project Power yanks the action playbook away from The Old Guard and attempts to ingest every page in record time. The result, a Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jamie Foxx starring action flick that revels in its lack of charm or talent. A drug that can change the state of its user, it’s a shame that it can’t change the state of this awful Netflix original into something more palatable.

Gordon-Levitt leads the charge as Frank, a cop trying to get new drug Power off of the streets in a similar fashion to when Ronald Reagan tried to clean up America’s rampant drug problem. It seemingly worked a treat, and the dark red, neon lighting of our theme park pave the way for more inarticulate, expressionless filmmaking from Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. It’s nice to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt relive his Premium Rush days, in what receives my made-up award of worst action chase of the year. Some horrific CGI shows a chameleon-like man running through the streets, followed by a strangely flat action sequence. It’s a consistent feeling, the flat style of filmmaking on display is bad enough, but throwing in cameos from Casey Neistat is the sign of a failing

Full of horrible dream sequences that showcase Robin’s dream of becoming a rapper, Art (Jamie Foxx) has consistent flashbacks to a plight that happened years ago, inevitable character development that will link him to the plot in a grander scale than we’d ever really require. That does happen, and it pushes the rest of its shoddy writing aside to make Foxx centre stage. The clunky story makes no stops whatsoever, it storms through in a headstrong fashion, forgetting to flesh out any of its villains or heroes as it pushes through a checklist of explosions, action quips and Clint Eastwood references.

You’d think that twenty years after the dawn of the 21st century, we’d have CGI nailed by now, but Project Power proves otherwise. Its reliance on special effects makes for generally bland-looking scenes, immediately dated CGI that proves itself inconsequential and rather bizarre. Biggie’s scene in particular to what appears to be a flimsy climax of the film, is the worst example of all. Sloppy effects that don’t make for any form of interesting moment, they feel like one-trick ponies, none of which ever come to a decent enough conclusion.

Infantile, another action flick in the same line of The Old Guard, but blurrier and equally as obnoxious, a colour palette that blurs the line between revolting and underwhelming. Ever since The Safdie Brothers dropped Good Time, the neon light obsessed movement has begun, and it shows no signs of stopping. Still, if you wanted to hear a loose cover of Scatman John’s Scatman’s World but layered with anecdotes about the joy of drug inhalation rather than that of shouting out from Scatland, this is the film for you.