The Transporter Legacy

The new Transporter, who comes in the shape of Ed Skrein, has some big shoes to fill taking on a role that helped make Jason Statham a bona fide action star. I've only seen Skrein in one previous film, whilst I've seen nothing from director Camille Delamarre. But I'm certainly more familiar with Ray Stevenson, who plays the father of Frank Miller, a.k.a., The Transporter. In this regard, it's quite obvious that a Connery/Ford father- son dynamic has been sought, which gives the tiniest bit of personality to a film that falls completely flat from the onset and rarely picks up. The story is familiar -- the Transporter gets a job driving a package, the job goes wrong and he's in deep. It gets personal when his father is kidnapped, but with no grit on its wheels and Skrein trying in vain to create a new persona for this character, what it ultimately amounts to is flash cars, sexy girls, suits and stunts, but nothing more. Much like a glorified car advertisement.

As a fan of action films, particularly the original "Transporter" trilogy featuring Jason Statham, my expectations for "The Transporter Refueled" were quite high. However, after watching this lackluster reboot, I was left feeling disappointed and unfulfilled.

First and foremost, the plot was convoluted and felt like a half-hearted attempt to recapture the magic of the original. The story revolves around Frank Martin, now played by Ed Skrein, who must become entangled with a group of femme fatales and a dangerous crime lord. Unfortunately, this premise fails to deliver any genuine tension or excitement. The characters lacked depth and development, making it hard for viewers to become emotionally invested in their fates.

Ed Skrein's portrayal of Frank Martin did not hold a candle to Jason Statham's iconic performance. While Skrein is undoubtedly a talented actor, he seemed miscast in this role. His interpretation of Frank felt flat and lacked the charisma that made Statham's character so memorable. This lack of captivating lead performance was a major detriment to the film as a whole.

The action sequences, a hallmark of the Transporter franchise, were underwhelming at best. Rather than the well-choreographed, adrenaline-pumping stunts that fans had come to expect, the action in "The Transporter Refueled" felt disjointed and over-edited. It was as if the filmmakers relied heavily on shaky cam and quick cuts to disguise the lack of imagination in their fight choreography. This approach only served to frustrate me as a viewer, as it made it difficult to fully appreciate what little talent was on display.

The film's pacing seemed erratic. There were moments where the narrative dragged, leaving me checking the runtime, and then suddenly, it would rush through crucial plot developments without providing adequate context or explanation. This uneven pacing kept me disengaged and made it challenging to follow the film's progression.

The supporting characters were woefully underdeveloped. The femme fatales, who could have added an intriguing dynamic to the story, were reduced to clichés and stereotypes. Their motivations felt unclear, and their interactions with Frank lacked any real chemistry, making key moments feel forced and dull.

The film's attempts to inject humor fell flat and often felt out of place. Instead of providing lighthearted relief, the comedic elements detracted from the tension of the action scenes, leaving me feeling confused about the tone the filmmakers were aiming for.

"The Transporter Refueled" is a disappointing addition to the franchise that fails to capture the essence of what made the original films enjoyable. A weak script, lackluster performances, subpar action, and a muddled tone all contributed to a viewing experience that left much to be desired. For fans of the series, I recommend rewatching the original trilogy instead of enduring this uninspired reboot.

While Jason Statham might not possess incredible acting, he's a great fit for Transporter. He looks suave and confident, more importantly he looks capable in action sequences. Ed Skrein only amounts to carbon copy lookalike with accent.

Considering it's now stuck with poorly edited choreography for the scuffle, there's barely a trail of usual high octane ride. However, the worst offender is the awful script, bordering on cheap fantasy or softcore porn, the fact that it quotes The Three Musketeers so often is a literature travesty.

A group of prostitutes concocts a ridiculously intricate plan to topple their mafia boss. The Transporter is caught up in the struggle and forced to help them. Story relies on blind luck, coincidences, characters' stupidity and baseless arbitrary events. In other words, it's a complete and utter mess. Forget coherency or plausibility, the movie plays by its own faulty logic.

Unfortunately, the usual captivating fights or engaging chases are nowhere to be found. The movie opts for terrible editing and epileptic camera work instead. It's actually sad that the quirky yet brutal fighting scenes are replaced with such poor production. At the very least previous Transporters' fight is over-the-top fun, this is just confusingly bland.

Script is so awful, almost everything they say sound like 80's macho gibberish, one-liner from porn parody or silly used car commercial. I've high tolerance for cheesy lines, but when the characters literally pose for camera every five minutes to utter these insanely ludicrous lines, it's not even funny anymore.

Like before, Transporter must have damsel-in-distress, now it thinks a group of these attractive ladies would replace narrative. Audience might get juvenile guilty pleasure from the these blond short bob misses with minimal dress or a couple of nifty chases, but these gimmicks are shallow and the best they could do is slightly boost the movie rating if one is generous enough in reviewing it.

With the amount of plot holes and poor choreography it must go through, the end product is unrecognizable wreckage.

Stunningly awful… I felt like I was watching robots mechanically delivering an emotionally vapid performance. Now if this was a pre-take walk through, it could be forgiven but as the final cut, it was deplorable. Only the father exuded some warmth and presence as a character that one could identify with and appreciate. The sheer lack of depth of the other characters was only matched by the lame attempts to humanize them. I am nearly speechless at how artificial the attempts were. Not sure if this was due to a really bad script, bad directing or terrible editing. I think the women made a valiant effort to give some dimension to their characters but in the end the whole enterprise was a sinking ship and the cast knew it….

Quick background: I like Jason Statham, I thought the first two transporter movies were awesome, but the third one was a let down. And this fourth attempt (without him) is just like the last one. I saw it in the cinema because there wasn't much else going on action wise. So I would only recommend this is if you have ran out of options. I don't think it is as bad as some have put it, as it does have some action, although the fighting leaves much to be desired and doesn't come close to JS skills. And to make it worse, some of it has been hidden! They tried to make up for it all with lots of beautiful women, and it may have worked a little.

In summary, it's just an OK action movie. I wish JS got his act together and made another proper one.