Directed By Patricia Riggen

Starring – Viola Davis, Anthony Anderson, Anthony Starr

The Plot – Terrorists take over the G20 summit with President Sutton (Davis), bringing her governing and military experience to defend her family, company, and the world.

Rated R for violence throughout

G20 – Official Trailer | Prime Video

POSITIVES

Very few aspects about “G20” stand out beneficially to the film’s favor, but the rapport and dynamic developed earnestly between President Sutton and her overseeing bodyguard (Played by Ramon Rodriguez) is easily the most entertaining among them, conjuring not only reality and insight towards how the depicted president came to be the intimidating badass that she is, but also a sincerity in bond between them that was surprisingly a delight to invest in, despite Rodriguez character essentially being a supporting player to the film’s bigger picture towards family. From the second sequence of the movie involving them combat training on the White House lawn, to bantering quips between them during some overwhelmingly hostile situations, the two of them effortlessly feel in tune towards the movie’s tone, even when nearly everything else is continuously working against them, and though they’re dynamic duo is essentially the balancing side to this movie’s conflict, the abundance of heart and humanity conjured between them goes a long way towards articulating characters who make it effortlessly easy to invest in, all the while offering us plenty of examples of Davis’ powerfully prominent president that definitely joins the ranks of some of cinema’s all-time greatest leaders of the free world. Speaking of Davis, her performance here is nothing short of breathlessly exhilarating, particularly in the physical transformation and emotional resiliency that make her such a mesmerizing force to be reckoned with, even in a movie that she is far too good to be a part of. Davis’ biggest feat of strength among her portrayal is how she represents strength, sincerity and especially composure in moments and surmised stakes that could easily break her, and while it’s a bit of a blast seeing Davis command the screen as the movie’s acting president, her best moments serve as those where she committedly gets her hands dirty in the depths of the many action sequences, proving that even in knocking on the door of 60-years-old in her real life, Davis shows no signs of ambitiously or energetically slowing down any time soon.

NEGATIVES

Unfortunately, “G20” is another soulless shell of better action movies before it, which not only makes everything contained so unmemorable and lifeless, but also a remarkable waste of riches, which can be seen at nearly every measurable turn of the movie’s aspects. For the script, the material does attempt to get progressive, with a plan towards Cryptocurrency that doesn’t make sense logistically, however its biggest issue is in its uninspiring articulation towards these characters, with flimsily telegraphed dialogue and obvious foreshadowing on the set of skills of its characters that will most definitely come to play at sometime in the murky depths of the movie’s third act. Otherwise, why would the movie spend ample time inside of its opening sequence to illustrate that Sutton’s daughter (Played by Marsai Martin) is a gifted hacker capable of conquering even the most prestigious of government software? The dialogue make up a barrage of these hand-fisted conversations meant to unnaturally tell you as much of what you’re supposed to know, in the shortage allowance of time, and while it makes for unintentionally amusing deliveries that echoed those of last year’s “Madame Web”, it’s ultimately the kind of movie that you can watch on mute and still accurately comprehend everything that is transpiring on-screen, an avenue of exploration that I myself wish I took, especially for conflicting intentions of its tonal ambiguity. For my money, “G20” could’ve worked with a more campy establishing of its action-oriented material, but the film often takes itself far too seriously than it has any right to, and even when it attempts humor in the form of the most cringe-inducing dad jokes, I took more pity with it than prominence, leaving the rare but attempted few infectious opportunities to land dead on arrival from the actors who spouted them, feeling every bit disorienting and out of place for a film that remains firmly focused on being another Die Hard disciple, with no personality or innovative action to reserve its place alongside such an iconic classic. Similar to the material lending nothing to the possibilities of the personalities of these characters being so endearing to the audience, the action sequences too are riddled with blandly lifeless execution that not only fails to produce any kind of palpable tension or urgency to the cat and mouse dynamic of President Sutton and these invading terrorists, but also are riddled with the kind of redundancy in the consistency of their respective outlines that fail to evolve the magnitude or vulnerability factors in their designs. Some blame can certainly be paid to a prominent artificiality that distractingly envelopes the movie’s big climax, but so much more blame belongs to the horrendous editing, underwhelming direction, and heavily choreographed fight sequencing that refused to offer any kind of meaningful momentum or even accidental fun to their depictions, and even with the added benefit of the established settings of each room inside of this lusciously lavish hotel offering plenty of unique opportunities to surmise adaptable creativity to the objects that each room allowed for, the sets bear such a disappointing influence on those involved, condemning the action within an action-first movie whose flaws thankfully won’t be seen on the biggest screen possible, as a result of its straight-to-streaming platform, to which the budget feels every inch of. In addition, the script’s attempts towards some late act twists fall entirely flat on both unpredictability and impact, as a result of some telegraphed insights during the opening act that are focused on a bit longer than necessary, in order to sell audiences on a bill of goods that it has no intention delivering on. One such example pertains to a character who physically and structurally feels out of place in such a progressive administration, and considering this character is never seen again until said twist is delivered unremarkably on the audience, it made my initial predicting perception all the easier to cement, proving the lack of surprises with the movie’s phoned-in speculation that doesn’t come close to the other movies that it shamelessly borrows from, in that regard. But more unforgiveable than any of these aspects is how “G20” wastes away the brilliance that is Anthony Starr, especially in a ruthlessly antagonist role that he has made a career out of, to this point. To be fair, Starr’s effort isn’t the problem here, as with his natural Australian accent in tow, emphasizes the right kind of anger and menace to the role that speaks volumes of the professional kind of energy that he brings to every role, but the material and direction from Riggen is doing him no favors here, supplying him not only with an abundance of stock villain dialogue that you’ve heard in every movie pertaining to terrorists ever, but also an inexplicably serious approach to character that squanders any opportunity for Starr to make the role truly memorable, where over the top body language and deliveries could’ve helped cement that cause. It makes Starr feel like he’s being plucked from an entirely different movie, as nothing about his portrayal taps into the maniacal side of his character’s objective desperation, wasting what should’ve been a memorable turn from the rising Starr who revels in the bold personalities of morally irreprehensible characters.

OVERALL

“G20” does offer a promisingly progressive salute towards American politics, with Viola Davis’ ass-kicking madame president eliciting vengeance towards terrorist enemies, but the movie as a whole fails to entail any kind of originality or innovation to both its action or exploration that keep audiences from thinking about the superior predecessors that it borrows so uninspiringly from. While the film isn’t above having fun with its fantastical concept, the intended humor and necessary campiness fall dead on arrival while in the clutches of its blandly monotonous material, leaving Amazon’s latest a generic genre-retread that promises so much, and delivers so very little.

My Grade: 3.8 or F