How to watch: Available to rent on Youtube, Amazon, Google Play, and Vudu for $3.99.
Starring: Scott Adkins, Craig Fairbrass
Director: Jesse V. Johnson
Writer: Jesse V. Johnson & Stu Small
Runtime: 1h 30min
Rating: R
Release Date: May 24, 2019(US), July 1, 2019(UK)
Style: Martial Arts, Crime, Violent, British
More information on this film can be found on its IMDB page.
Scott Adkins, Action Royalty
For the past decade, I have been a major supporter of Scott Adkins and his films. I first came across his Undisputed character Yuri Boyka on Youtube eight years ago. After that I found whatever movies I could, quickly becoming a fan. Since then Adkins has dominated the decade releasing over twenty films and featuring in a few big-budget Hollywood films like Expendables 2, Doctor Strange, The Brothers Grimsby, and American Assassin. He has had a few misses over the past decade but the films that hit, hit hard. For years Adkins collaborated with director Isaac Florentine making many great films but more recently he’s been working alongside director Jesse V. Johnson. So far, the change in partnership has proved beneficial with films like Triple Threat and Accident Man garnering praise from critics and fans.
The duo’s latest collaboration, Avengement, promised to be a darker, more straight forward, and down to earth take on the martial arts genre. Johnson and Adkins have only been getting better and they have yet to truly drop the ball on a film. Is Avengement the first blunder? Or is this team now five for five?
Overview
Adkins plays Cain Burgess, an amateur MMA fighter and brother to a high-ranking gangster. Cain is a pretty nice and fairly average guy. After failing to complete a job for his brother, Cain is arrested and serves seven years in prison where he grows fearful for his own life. In response to numerous assaults, Cain turns himself into a hardened weapon. Upon freedom, he holds a bar full of gangsters at gunpoint as he details his time in prison. Cain must find who is responsible for turning him into the man he is, while also righting the wrongs of his family’s discretions.
Story Review: 7/10
The Good: Characters and Structure
The character of Cain Burgess truly makes Avengement. There is something sad about seeing who Cain is before prison and who Cain is after. He’s a young, handsome man with a kind heart. As time passes in prison and Cain defends himself from countless attacks the scars start to add up. As Cain’s physical appearance changes, so does his mental state. The only times that the old Cain shows through are the few times his mother comes around. Despite how ferocious he is in a fight and the hatred he has for the people responsible, Cain’s heart still finds moments to shine through.
While Avengement does rely on flashbacks to tell the narrative it doesn’t feel repetitive. The use of Cain telling the story from the bar is not original, but it is his character and the thugs around him that keeps it from feeling stale. All of the classic gangster traits are there. The tough one, the sneezy one, the snarky one, the dirty one, the not so tough one, the grumpy one, the dopey one. Okay, my bad, some of those were dwarves but there’s also a take-no-trash female bartender with some good lines. Bottom line, is this is a well-told story where the question isn’t always who did it, but why. Best of all is how Cain is going to get back at those who wronged him? Death isn’t always the answer.
The Bad: Villainy at its Most Basic
While I absolutely love the character of Cain Burgess and I find enjoyment in many of the individual gangsters, the villain is the weakest part of the film. Any time he opens his mouth it is typically to say something menacing. He threatens his enemies and he’s just as likely to threaten his own men. This is a massive contrast to Cain who feels so complex in his motivations. When we first meet Cain, he commits acts of violence that terrify the viewer, but his reasons reveal a sense of altruism within him. Perhaps it makes sense that the antagonist is so different. The same terrifying personality is there but there is nothing more to his character.
Martial Arts Review: 8.5/10
The Good: Street Fighting with Style
There is a variety of styles when it comes to the fight scenes in this film. When Cain is in prison the fights resemble bare-knuckle boxing matches. Adkins is given one fight scene to show off his signature style of impressive kicks while still staying in the character. The climactic fight scene is an oddly beautiful bar brawl. Adkins gets to do a few kicks but much of it includes random blunt objects and glasses. The scene is beautifully crafted thanks to Jesse V. Johnson’s understanding of action and camera. Johnson himself comes from a stunt background so he knows how to show the action without passing over the important moments. To make the finale feel even heavier is the lack of music. Every grunt, shattered glass, table break, punch, kick, and stab are audible. Cain works his way up from the bottom against about twelve guys in a fight scene that lasts a little longer than five minutes.
To make it all even better, Adkins continues acting through every fight scene. He never stops being Cain. This is most evident in the bar fight, when all of the gangsters arm themselves with bats and pipes and such while Cain stands prepared and yells “Well come on then!”. He has molded himself into an unstoppable machine and he knows he can take every single one of them.
The Bad: Someone Turn the Light On
I really do not have too many complaints about the action in this movie. I’m really getting nit-picky when it comes to this but here it is. The fight scene in which Adkins gets to use his flashier style of kicks could use some more lighting. The scene takes place in an empty night club with dim lighting and strobe lights flashing. What is visible is fantastic but there are moments of darkness hiding something great. Again, I’m really scraping the bottom of the barrel here.
Overall: 8.2/10
Conclusion
Johnson and Adkins did it again. They are getting better and better as a team which seems absurd. Their previous film Accident Man is martial arts fun at its highest level. Triple Threat is a cavalcade of dreams coming true from start to finish. So how does this hold up to those? How is it possible? The reason this team is so successful is because they always do something different. In Avengement they showed a darker, grittier, and more realistic martial arts film. They showed that even an indie action film can provide a great protagonist with a good story. And of course, they proved once again that Scott Adkins is the undisputed king of action martial arts. Pun Intended.
What did you think of Avengement? Tell us your thoughts and head over to Youtube where you can see me review this and other films as well as videos discussing the announcement of the Marvel Shang Chi film and the Wu Assassins Trailer. You can also check out my other movie reviews here on Martial Journal.
Check out my Youtube channel where I review and discuss martial arts films.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUYUbj1Rjnf07S3UbVvKZ0Q?view_as=subscriber
- Five Bad Martial Arts Sequels - November 22, 2021
- The Top Five Essential Films of Jet Li - March 8, 2021
- Essential Film of Jackie Chan - December 4, 2020
Leave a Reply