I have watched Anna on the first day of screening in a cool Istanbul cinema. I am a big fan of Luc Besson, knowing full well his great as well as some disastrous works. However, Nikita, Leon also Subway, Big Blue, Fifth Element are among my all time favorite films. Also "Taken" character is a creation of Besson! He is very original, a real European prodigy.
Anna is a kind of 2019 remake of La Femme Nikita-(1990) with a new and original face (Sasha Luss) who does a decent job of fooling the viewer into different roads during the film. She has a female poker face and smile. I think Besson noticed her ability to deceive viewers earlier in her motion capture role during Valerian (2017) shooting and decided to remake Nikita with her. (Did he also fall in love with her as happened before with Anne Parillaud and Milla Jovovich? I am curious.)
Some younger viewers may have a problem with the action scenes: A female lead doing fast action scenes is not so original they would say: Atomic Blonde and Kill Bill for example, had them. However, my younger viewer friends should know that these films owe big time to Nikita and Leon. Maybe for that reason, in Anna, Besson makes fun of both Atomic Blonde and Kill Bill! Her black leather fight costume is a salute to Atomic Blonde and tens of black suited body guards that she kills in a restaurant is a smile to Tarantino. The earliest female hitman, sorry, hitperson was Nikita! She was a very big shock to viewers in 1990 (I had watched it also on the first day). So was Leon. Americans almost couldn't watch that great film due to censorship.
Anna the character is: 60% Nikita, 20% Leeloo of Fifth Element and 20% Leon's girl. Character Alex is = 100% Bob (of Nikita).
I recommend everyone to go and see Luc Besson's latest ideas and without giving away spoilers it is impossible to write more about this film. I liked it and enjoyed it. 9/10.
Anna is a kind of 2019 remake of La Femme Nikita-(1990) with a new and original face (Sasha Luss) who does a decent job of fooling the viewer into different roads during the film. She has a female poker face and smile. I think Besson noticed her ability to deceive viewers earlier in her motion capture role during Valerian (2017) shooting and decided to remake Nikita with her. (Did he also fall in love with her as happened before with Anne Parillaud and Milla Jovovich? I am curious.)
Some younger viewers may have a problem with the action scenes: A female lead doing fast action scenes is not so original they would say: Atomic Blonde and Kill Bill for example, had them. However, my younger viewer friends should know that these films owe big time to Nikita and Leon. Maybe for that reason, in Anna, Besson makes fun of both Atomic Blonde and Kill Bill! Her black leather fight costume is a salute to Atomic Blonde and tens of black suited body guards that she kills in a restaurant is a smile to Tarantino. The earliest female hitman, sorry, hitperson was Nikita! She was a very big shock to viewers in 1990 (I had watched it also on the first day). So was Leon. Americans almost couldn't watch that great film due to censorship.
Anna the character is: 60% Nikita, 20% Leeloo of Fifth Element and 20% Leon's girl. Character Alex is = 100% Bob (of Nikita).
I recommend everyone to go and see Luc Besson's latest ideas and without giving away spoilers it is impossible to write more about this film. I liked it and enjoyed it. 9/10.