First presented in the Séance de Minuit at the last Cannes Film Festival, Hypnotic, directed by Robert Rodriguez, finally arrives in cinemas. This action thriller stars Ben Affleck, William Fichtner and Alice Braga. The script, co-written by Max Borenstein and Robert Rodriguez, tells the story of a detective embroiled in a complex case involving bank robberies, the disappearance of his daughter and a mysterious secret government program. The film will be released on August 23.
Hypnotic follows the adventures of a detective determined to solve a series of high-profile robberies. In the course of the investigation, he discovers that his own missing daughter is closely linked to the case. What's more, a strange secret government program seems to be involved. Let's face it, Hypnotic is incredibly stupid. At the crossroads ofInception and The Matrix, Robert Rodriguez's new film never achieves the greatness of either, because it never manages to hold together.
Aside from the non-existent acting, the 2000s-esque visuals, the soulless music and the ridiculous dialogue, it's the inconsistencies in the story that really finish us off. "Suffering keeps the mind awake", says Ben Affleck's character (more absent than ever, and deciding to mumble his lines instead of acting them out), and this has never been truer than when watching Hypnotic.
Yes, as you may have realized, hypnosis plays a major role in the plot, but the latter never respects the rules it previously set in place, which are the basis of a coherent narrative. This hypnosis, which - the characters insist - only works through speech, ends up becoming a superpower that can be activated by placing a finger on the skull, like Charles Xavier from X-Men. This is just one of many examples, but the film, originally a B-movie, leans more towards mindless nanar. So don't expect a summer blockbuster, and see Hypnotic more as a little accident that will appeal to Z-series fans.
Robert Rodriguez may have directed the very good Alita: Battle Angel just before Hypnotic, but the latter has none of the directing ideas of its predecessor, and seems slapdash (the transition from hypnosis to reality, which could have yielded some great visual ideas, is made by a simple, hyper-abrupt cut). It's never fun, and the film ends up losing us completely with its final big reveal, which is more laborious than ever. Fortunately, Hypnotic at least has the decency to last only 1h30.
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