Was this movie great? Not even close. It was so long and drawn out. There were some plot holes in the story. For example, why were the men after the young girl to begin with? Of course child trafficking was eluded to (when JLo opened the storage container and saw all the children inside), but is this why the men were after the girl? If one of them was her father then why would they want to traffick their own child? 2 hours later and I still don't have the answer. The best way to summarize this movie is, it felt as if a ton of people sat in a room and brainstormed ideas from different action movies. Then when it came to write the story, the writers tried to squeeze in as many of those ideas as they possibly could.
Another thing I can't stand in movies similar to this is when a teenager is being chased, kidnapped, shot at, threatened to be killed or trafficked, and they STILL act like spoiled brats. For whatever reason this is incredibly unrealistic to me and it bothers me when movies portray kids this way. They're not going to be rescued, see someone killed in front of them, then go to the diner and say "I hate you...or I NEED my phone now" to the one person who rescued them and who's keeping them safe. This is a pet peeve of mine that I feel writers get wrong over and over again.
As far as the production of the movie, some scenes almost had a comedic feel to them which was odd. And when JLo was interrogating the man in Havana, the punching was so clearly fake. But my biggest issue with the production was WHY SO MANY OUT OF FOCUS AND BLURRY SCENES?? It seemed like 1/4th of the whole movie was filmed out of focus! I didn't understand that at all.
Lastly, the cast was full of strong, well known actors. I love me some Jennifer Lopez, but for some reason I didn't feel like this role was meant for her. That's not to say she can't do this type of role..in fact, I loved her in "Enough." It's one of my favorite movies! But for this particular movie, I kept feeling a huge disconnect between the character being played and the actor.
Another thing I can't stand in movies similar to this is when a teenager is being chased, kidnapped, shot at, threatened to be killed or trafficked, and they STILL act like spoiled brats. For whatever reason this is incredibly unrealistic to me and it bothers me when movies portray kids this way. They're not going to be rescued, see someone killed in front of them, then go to the diner and say "I hate you...or I NEED my phone now" to the one person who rescued them and who's keeping them safe. This is a pet peeve of mine that I feel writers get wrong over and over again.
As far as the production of the movie, some scenes almost had a comedic feel to them which was odd. And when JLo was interrogating the man in Havana, the punching was so clearly fake. But my biggest issue with the production was WHY SO MANY OUT OF FOCUS AND BLURRY SCENES?? It seemed like 1/4th of the whole movie was filmed out of focus! I didn't understand that at all.
Lastly, the cast was full of strong, well known actors. I love me some Jennifer Lopez, but for some reason I didn't feel like this role was meant for her. That's not to say she can't do this type of role..in fact, I loved her in "Enough." It's one of my favorite movies! But for this particular movie, I kept feeling a huge disconnect between the character being played and the actor.