The Protege starts off noisily with too many boppy tunes that obscures the melancholy narration underneath about revenge and making peace. Thankfully the music calms down and allows Maggie Q's book-loving assassin character room to breathe and develop.
Her exciting action scenes continue from start to finish and is the highlight of the film, along with her odd attraction to the old Michael Keaton. Their lovers/enemies dynamic make for something rather tender, complex and unique as the two measure out if whether each bullet was shoot to kill, or shoot to miss.
However, despite its strong characterizations and interesting relationship dynamics, there are parts of the stories which really don't make sense. Such as, the entire mystery. And also, just why indeed a final decision had to be made for one character's "peace." The major players on both sides were gone, so why not let things rest?
Also, I really think the writers just gave Samuel L Jackson the chance to do his iconic Pulp Fiction monologue again but in another form. They did not really background his character or the villain's character enough for the speech to make much sense for the story. However, the actor is of course very good at meting out justice-except of course, they did not spell out the crimes as well as they could have.
All in all, a sleek and stylish film with some very good moments, even if sometimes you are not sure exactly what is going on.
Her exciting action scenes continue from start to finish and is the highlight of the film, along with her odd attraction to the old Michael Keaton. Their lovers/enemies dynamic make for something rather tender, complex and unique as the two measure out if whether each bullet was shoot to kill, or shoot to miss.
However, despite its strong characterizations and interesting relationship dynamics, there are parts of the stories which really don't make sense. Such as, the entire mystery. And also, just why indeed a final decision had to be made for one character's "peace." The major players on both sides were gone, so why not let things rest?
Also, I really think the writers just gave Samuel L Jackson the chance to do his iconic Pulp Fiction monologue again but in another form. They did not really background his character or the villain's character enough for the speech to make much sense for the story. However, the actor is of course very good at meting out justice-except of course, they did not spell out the crimes as well as they could have.
All in all, a sleek and stylish film with some very good moments, even if sometimes you are not sure exactly what is going on.