Hummingbird

 

**

Release Date: October 21st 2013

Homeless and on the run from a military court martial, a damaged ex-special forces soldier navigating London's criminal underworld seizes an opportunity to assume another man's identity -- transforming into an avenging angel in the process.

Director: Steven Knight (Locke)

Starring: Jason Statham, Agata Buzek

Statham follows the likes of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal as a typecast. We know he carries the same traits across each film. He's a hard-nut. Straight-edged and reserved. A cold bad-ass who's sometimes warm. All of this is displayed in Hummingbird, but with a slight twist.

Statham's character Joey is a sorrowful miscreant, made homeless from actions that are yet to be explained. He's a tortured soul, gone off the rails and struggling to deal with the past. He's also constantly plagued by nightmares and visions.  Assuming the identity of someone who's out of town for the summer, Joey aims to atone for past mistakes by searching for a missing homeless girl he built up a relationship with.

A nun by the name of Cristina (Buzek) spends her personal time donating food to the poor. She's roped in to helping Joey half because of her feelings towards him and starts to question her faith in the process.

It hits full-on absurdity when we learn that Joey's love interest is a nun. It goes against all principals and the likeliness of it happening is near on impossible. It doesn't quite gel, just as Statham's new found character attributes don't either. Joey flips from brash bad-man to redeemer almost instantaneously. I'll give credit to Statham for attempting the change, but a clunky script filled with implausible actions means he's unable to unveil his new curve.  

It's easy to lose your way with Hummingbird. One minute Joey is exacting revenge on the crime syndicate responsible for the missing Isabel, the next wooing the damaged Cristina. The concoction of action and melodrama never quite works as one takes over the other as it comes back in to play.

Overview: This was supposed to be Statham's chance to show that he can be more than a gung-ho action stealer, but it's halted by a poor script. Until next time then.