Good evening! Well, thanks to another appreciated and somewhat unexpected “follow” on my OneFilmFan Twitter account, I have ended up seeing a slightly different kind of indie film this time around. The main difference being that this was an indie ACTION film as opposed to the mostly dramatic and/or comic indie offerings that have been my focus in the genre. As the film’s official Twitter account followed me, I found it only fitting that I watch their movie as a “Thanks!” and then post the review. And hence I give you…..”Kite”.
SEE THE TRAILER HERE
Directed by Ralph Ziman as his 4th major film effort, and based on the 1998 anime short film of the same name by Yasuomi Umetsu, the film takes us to a post-financial & governmental collapse South Africa, where cities have fallen to ruin, true law is a thing of the past, and the streets are run by so-called “Numbers Gangs” whose sole purpose seems to be capturing young women to be sold into slavery and/or otherwise used by a man simply called The Emir (Zane Meas), as well as his henchmen. Amidst this chaos and decay is a young woman known only as Sawa (India Eisley), whom we quickly learn has a method of getting herself into the hideouts of these ruthless men and then utilizing her feminine wiles to get them right where she wants….before exacting some brutal violence against them. We find, via brief flashbacks, and the recollections of her current ally Karl Aker (Samuel L. Jackson) that she has been turned into an assassin in order to ultimately hunt down The Emir, as he was responsible for her police officer father (also Akers’ partner) being killed years earlier. And, she also desires to free the young girls held captive by him as well. And after each “mission”, a designer drug, usually administered by Karl, causes her to lose memory of the past day’s activities. Wanting to escalate her hunt and get herself into a shipment of girls going to The Emir’s hideout to have access to him, Sawa cuts and shoots her way through his right hand men, including Vic Thornhill (Carl Beukes) and Kratsov (Jaco Muller) to get answers out of them, ignoring Karl’s warnings that she’s getting sloppy. After another mission, Sawa ends up coming upon Oburi (Callan McAuliffe), who claims to be her friend from childhood, which she has no memory of. Desiring to help her, Oburi is met with initial disdain and suspicion by Sawa, who slowly allows him into her world and goals. As her swath of violence widens, Akers is left cleaning up the mess, but also covering for her, as we find out what the connection is between him and Sawa. Finally getting to the last man who can lead her to The Emir, Sascha “Staggie” Steyns (Terence Bridgett), she gets herself to the destination she’s been striving for, and the events unfold quickly and violently. With this sense of accomplishment, Sawa thinks it is over, but new revelations arise that cause her entire sense of purpose and intent to be thrown into question, and a new hunt begins that will effect her, Oburi, and Akers and the future they have. Any real detail beyond this would constitute the dreaded spoilers….so won’t go any farther with this portion of my review.
Well….as stated above, this was actually the first real indie ACTION film I have seen. I think it stands out a bit more that the budgetary constraints existed here, only because action films so often involve huge explosions and massive gun fights and this can ALSO mean lots of necessary special effects. While “Kite” did NOT need these devices per se, it would have helped a little to have more finances to work with for the overall visual look. That being said, the film felt like a mish-mash of other material in the tale being told….part “Alias“, part “Mad Max“, part “La Femme Nikita“…just more gritty, dark, and visceral, especially in its violence, which again, was savage to say the least! Also, I am not at ALL familiar with the original source material to be able to draw any comparison from that. The dialogue and acting was, frankly, exactly what I expected…good not great, sometimes cheesy, other times just…there. Yet, it DOES work for this type of feature all things considered. I think it was hard to see the primary three actors in this context when I’ve already seen them ALL in QUALITY films already, as opposed to this being, say, their initial debuts on screen. I mean, Samuel L. Jackson! The guy has done, truly, about EVERYTHING it seems. He brings enough of his trademark delivery to Akers to play along, but this IS Nick Fury fir crying out loud. Still, the fact that Jackson, I think, simply enjoys working on projects when he can, lets him get away at times with some somewhat sub-par stuff. India Eisley does very much prove she can do this style of action, which immediately brought back to mind her efforts as vampire Selene’s daughter Eve in “Underworld: Awakening“, and I DO relish the thought of the lovely Ms. Eisley reprising that role in the proposed continuation of that series. Here, she ruthlessly and coldly exacts some serious carnage on people, and does so with only a modicum of emotion throughout. Again, this DOES fit the character. And McAuliffe I recall seeing in “I Am Number Four” and definitely it felt different seeing him in this role vs. Sam in that YA adaption. I think I got much more entertainment out of his character IN “Four” than here, sorry Callan. This character…I understand why Oburi was present, but I guess I just couldn’t feel totally invested in him like Sawa or Akers. This is at most escapist fun, and at a run time of only 90 minutes, everything goes by quickly. I honestly am not totally sure that I personally would watch it again, but it is one of those indie projects that is what it is.
As always, this is all for YOUR consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
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