As we continue in the summer film season, we are besieged with more and more action, adventure, animated films and the like. If you like huge grandiose productions, you're in the right season. Action films are a common staple for Hollywood and has been for decades, so when summer breaks out, they jump on the band wagon and release a plethora of these films. We have seen "Dark Phoenix" and "Men in Black: International" just recently, so now we have "Anna" to get our 'action' fix appeased.
Beneath Anna Poliatova's (Sasha Luss) striking beauty lies a secret that will unleash her indelible strength and skill to become one of the world's most feared government assassins. An electrifying thrill ride unfolding with propulsive energy, startling twists, and breathtaking action, this story introduces Sasha Luss in the title role.
As this story unfolds, it ultimately pits Anna against the Russian KGB lead up by Olga (Helen Mirren) and a co-operative Alex (Luke Evans), when a US CIA agent Lenny Miller (Cillian Murphy) coerces her to work for them so as to obtain the freedom she so desperately desires, since the KGB promised her nothing. As Anna goes into double-agent mode, will she find that elusive freedom ultimately, or are the stakes simply too high?
Others to round out the cast are Lera Abova as Maud, Sasha Petrov as Piotr, Nikita Pavlenko as Vlad, Anna Krippa as Nika, Aleksey Maslodudov as Jimmy, Eric Godon as Vassiliev and Ivan Franek as Mossan.
This was directed by the veteran French filmmaker, Luc Besson ("Subway" '85, "The Big Blue" '88, "La Femme Nikita" '90, "The Fifth Element" '97, "Angel-A" '05, "The Lady" '11, "The Family" '13, "Lucy" '14, "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" '17) plus others, video shorts and documentaries. This filmmaker has more writing to his credit than directing, but his experience in directing is certainly substantial. As with his other films, he has an innate ability to extract the correct amount of emotion, whether it being over-the-top or dry and deadpan to a realistic degree. This makes him constantly in demand. He is working on several films at this time to prove it. It was also written by Besson (""Taxi" '98, "Taxi 2" 2000, "Kiss of the Dragon" '01, "Wasabi" '01, "The Transporter" '02, "Taxi" (earlier screenplay) '04, "District B13" '04, "Transporter 2" '05, "Bandidas" '06, "Taken" '08, "Colombiana" '11, "Taken 2" '12, "The Family" '13, "Brick Mansions" '14, "Lucy" '14, "Taken 3" '14, "American Renegades" '17) plus others and TV. Where Besson is a talented director, writing is definitely where his expertise lies. He can, and has, taken an otherwise common plot idea and has the ability to make the script a tight and slick screenplay, and he's executed this time and again. Twists and turns are a common staple for Besson in his script--this being no exception, however, with this storyline, there were too many twists coupled with going back and forth in plot and a timeframe, that it was a bit difficult to follow. The first quarter of the film moved too slow, however when the plot started getting interesting, the film definitely became saved. It really became interesting when Anna was trying to appease both sides so as not to ruin her chances of freedom. Besson is definitely talented in creating an interesting yarn, and he is busy with other projects to peak our interests.
If a slick and tight screenplay serves you, you'll revel, especially if you're a Luc Besson fan. This isn't his best effort, but, like I mentioned prior, once this story becames a bit more involved, the film picked up and soared.
Out of 4 Stars: 3 Rated: R 119mins.
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