Assassin

J.K. Amalou, writer and director, unfortunately attempted to make a cerebral, substantive as well as emotionally gripping assassin movie, but the final results reveals that he over-reached this lofty goal. Overly ambitious but commendable, from the script and a number of supposedly poignant scenes, it is apparent Amalou took risks in trying to probe the human depths of various people involved in shady undertakings. Yet the fine balance between relational drama and the more appealing physical action (usually marketed in the trailers such as this movie) is often impossible to handle. The tries to be both action of sorts while concentrating mostly on the principle characters and their interactions. By end of the movie, the energy and passion as well as plot seem to lose a lot of their power, almost a pale British version of a more dense and heavy European espionage movie. Unlike Bourne Identity (2002)/The Bourne Supremacy (2004) or even Casino Royale (2006) where the relational element is a potent part of each movie but it doesn't diminish or detract from the intense physicality of either movie. The Numbers Station (2013) or The Point of No Return (1993) or even the recent Negative (2017) are movies that have strong relational elements without necessarily sacrificing the potent element of physicality of killing.