Peppermint Review
R: Strong violence and language throughoutSTX Films, Lakeshore Entertainment1 Hr and 42 MinutesDir: Pierre Morel | Writer: Chad St. JohnCast: Jennifer Garner, John Ortiz, John Gallagher Jr., Juan Pablo Raba, Tyson Ritter, Method Man, Annie IlonzehIn 2003, “Daredevil” was released. People hated it but nearly a decade later, “Daredevil” was rebooted to become a dark and gritty series for Netflix that everyone loved.In 2009, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” was released. People hated it, but nearly a decade later, “Logan” came out which was a dark and gritty Wolverine movie that everyone loved.In 2005, “Elektra” was released. People hated it, but a decade later we have “Peppermint”, a dark-- Wait... This isn’t an “Elektra” reboot? Oh, this is a STX action thriller?
I just went through “Mile 22” and “The Happytime Murders” in the last month.
Well, let’s hope to God it’s better than “Elektra” right?
Peppermint is an action thriller which tells the story of young mother Riley North (Garner) who awakens from a coma after her husband and daughter are killed in a brutal attack on the family. When the system frustratingly shields the murderers from justice, Riley sets out to transform herself from citizen to urban guerilla. Channeling her frustration into personal motivation, she spends years in hiding honing her mind, body and spirit to become an unstoppable force – eluding the underworld, the LAPD and the FBI- as she methodically delivers her personal brand of justice.THE GOODIt’s about time Jennifer Garner had an action vehicle (again). Yes, I’m going to discredit “Elektra” because it goes without saying that it’s terrible. Jennifer Garner is trying her best, but her performance can’t make up for all of the excessive flaws that lie in the film. She already played a kickass mom earlier this year in “Love, Simon”. We didn’t need her to literally play a mom that kicks ass.THE BADTo all the editors who cut action movies:STOP USING QUICK CUTS AND UNNECESSARY FILM TRANSITIONS AS REGULAR EFFECTS FOR YOUR SCENES!!“Suicide Squad” was the movie that should’ve taught studios how to NOT stitch a movie together. But leave it to “Peppermint” to copy its style. You know how scenes in “Scandal” are transitioned with white flashes nearly every time? Well, apply that flash white/washout effect where shots are overexposed to nearly every two scenes, not for a transition, but for flair, and it’s annoying and infuriating to watch. At first it’s to depict how hazy Riley’s mind is due to her PTSD, but then that’s completely abandoned and it’s used to make the movie look #stylish.
We were sold on a “Taken”-esque revenge action-thriller from the director of “Taken”, and somehow it feels as choppily edited as “Taken 3”. The movie spends so much time on everyone but our lead and when they do, it doesn’t know how to strike the right tone with her. We spend a lot of time displaying Riley’s superhero origin story that is tragic and dark, but then when we see her in the present hunting her family’s killers, she’s cracking one liners and mom jokes. She does have an incredible scene where she confronts a terrible dad, but it also feels out of character. Riley has a Batman backstory, yet she ends up cracking jokes as if she’s “Deadpool”. She does have Batman abilities though, one primarily being her power to conveniently vanish from crime scenes that she’s completely visible in.The dialogue is... how can I put this bluntly? It’s bad. Very bad. You know how Steppenwolf’s dialogue in the “Justice League” movie was comprised of the most generic lines a villain can spew out? Picture that but with a screenplay where every character speaks like Steppenwolf.
A lot of the scenes are focused on the police and their procedures in terms of following Riley North.I’ve seen episodes of “Law and Order: S.V.U.” with better written dialogue than this.Why is this movie spending so much time on them?!In movies you’re always provided with an A-story and a B-story. The subplot involving the LAPD is the B-story and yet, it gets more screen time than the A-story which should be set on Riley’s revenge.Initially, the trailer makes you assume that Riley’s (Garner) family were murdered at random, but the film itself establishes early on that this is not the case. Of course, the husband and daughter are killed because the dad was going to rob a drug lord with his friend from work. Why? So he could afford to buy a better house for his family when they already lived in a nice suburban home.
This woman, this straightforward suburban mom who has never held a weapon before, spends five years training so she can hack down Latino after Latino for revenge. Yeah, that’s fine and all but that revenge is rooted from a stupid motive. Riley’s motive is justified and you resonate with her emotionally, but when you link it back to what kicks this entire story off, you can’t jump on board with it because it’s rooted from a middle-class family man not satisfied with his current status. Many Latino people are killed by the hands of this white woman and it just makes you feel completely uncomfortable.We went through this issue earlier this year with another movie!
Earlier this year, we had Eli Roth’s “Death Wish” which was set on a typical dad who turns into a killer after the death of his wife. This white man murders many people of different ethnicities for revenge aka for his own personal vendetta. But, while doing so, it also tried to incorporate a message about vigilantism. It epically failed (like, headfirst failed into the ground) but I give “Death Wish” this: at least it’s message of vigilantism was consistent rather than forced.“Peppermint” attempts to make a statement about vigilantism, but it’s rather forced an hour into its story as if it’s a secondhand thought just so our hero’s actions can be justified. And the way they even try to incorporate it is downright stupid. There’s a scene where Detective Carmichael and an FBI agent go to an office agent to investigate Riley’s location. He gives them the information based on the crimes in the area, but right after that, to throw it in there for good measure out of nowhere, he pulls up random tweets. He doesn’t go on Twitter and see her trending or even look up her name or hashtag in the search box. He just pulls up random tweets from people on the same monitor he’s looking at WITHOUT any push of a button saying, “All of these people are hailing Riley as a hero.”
Soon after you see news reports shown with stories questioning if Riley is a hero or a criminal and call her a vigilante. For God’s sake, there is a mural painted of her in a homeless area as she’s hailed as a guardian angel.If you are a dumb action thriller, don’t attempt to be smart by incorporating any message about vigilantism. And if you do, BE CONSISTENT! Don’t introduce it an hour in and then immediately say, “Fuck it!”
I haven’t thought of it until as of recently, but I do think that race and a lead character’s occupation do play an intricate part to your enjoyment of an action thriller. “Taken” had a former CIA op go to an entirely different country to take down sex traffickers. “John Wick” had an assassin go take out a Russian mafia. Russians are Caucasians. Why doesn’t “Peppermint” work? Because you have a Caucasian mom taking down an entire group of Latinos. ONLY LATINOS! It doesn’t help that this movie is bloody and violent which amplifies your amount of uncomfortableness. At least with “Death Wish” Bruce Willis was killing EVERYONE. I’m sorry I keep comparing this to “Death Wish”, but they bear so many similarities that when it ultimately comes down to it, “Peppermint” is a lesser and choppier version of that. Yeah, “Death Wish” is a more fascist propaganda film than this, but when you strip it of the subliminal messages and look at it as what it is (a revenge action thriller), it’s a far superior movie.THE RENDYTwo weeks ago, I went on a vacation to Los Angeles where this movie takes place and holy crap does this movie exaggerate the L.A. scene. Excluding Garner, nearly every single person in this movie is a complete douchebag and that is not the case with the people in L.A. During my vacation, every person that I met was such a sweetheart which made my trip amazing. It was my first ever getaway outside of New York and it was perfect; one of the factors being the kind people there. So, coming back to the city and having “Peppermint” be one of the first movies I see since my trip just fueled my desire to return to L.A. while defensively going, “Screw you, that’s not L.A.! That’s not how I remember L.A.”#NOTMYLA(Trend it. Make it viral. You can do it.)LAST STATEMENT“Peppermint” prospers from Garner’s performance, but this poorly-stitched, violence-charged, action-thriller is not worthy enough for her talent. If you want a movie that was released this year where Garner plays a badass mom, go watch "Love, Simon". She kicked more ass in one scene in “Love, Simon” than she did in this 102-minute movie.Rating: 1/5 | 25%Super Scene: Riley confronts a drunk dad.
