REVIEW: Maggie Q, Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Keaton Take The Protégé to a Whole New Level
Vietnam, 1991. Moody (Samuel L. Jackson), an assassin for hire, finds a young girl named Anna (Maggie Q) hiding in a closet. Outside the closet are the dead bodies of her captors. Instead of leaving the child to survive on her own, Moody takes her in and trains her to be just like him, an assassin. Years later, we find the pair tracking down a new lead. In what seems like a simple task at first, turns deadly when the two go from being the hunters to the huntees as Michael Keaton’s Rembrandt attempts to put a stop to their searching. Now, Anna must find a way to find their lead and stay alive before it is too late.
The Protégé really surprised me. I went into it thinking it would just be another assassin movie, all action and no real story, but I was proven wrong. Director Martin Campbell and writer Richard Wenk managed to craft an entertaining story amongst all the action and blood. The characters had depth to them, which you don’t always find in action movies, and the story kept you captivated from start to finish. can you expand on this at all? With that being said, I will say that the ending left a lot to be desired. They may be setting the movie up for a potential sequel, but it still doesn’t change the fact that the ending didn’t have the oomph it needed.
Maggie Q makes for quite the action star in this movie. She brought an ease and confidence to the character that with anyone else could have seemed overconfident, but with her, it just worked. Her costumes were also a big highlight for me. Who says you can’t kill people and look amazing at the same time? Costume designers, Irina Kotcheva and Karyn Wagner, really outdid themselves when picking the outfits for Anna. Jackson and Keaton are just as good in their roles. Q’s relationship with both Jackson and Keaton provided for some great banter and fun moments. At first, I was put off by Q’s Anna and Keaton’s Rembrandt’s back and forth, but as the movie progressed so did my feelings towards it and it ended up being one of my favorite parts of the movie.
The Protégé features a great cast and a solid story. If you can get over the last 5 minutes of the movie then you will have just as good of a time as I did. This is one worth checking out. Whether it be in theaters, if you feel comfortable enough, or when it comes to On Demand, this movie will not disappoint.
Grade: A-