Colombiana

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First let me say "Colombiana" is pretty bad ass from an action perspective, but the story was just insane. The story is about a young woman (Zoe Saldana), after witnessing her parents' murder as a child in Bogota, grows up to be a stone-cold assassin that leaves a calling card of a the Cataleya lotus on her victems as she seeks vengeance against the people involved with murdering her parents. You have probably think that you have seen this story before because one of the writers, Luc Besson, wrote the two movies that "Colombiana" most closely resembles ("The Fifth Element" in 1997 and "the Professional" in 1994).

This film is supposed to be the breakout lead role for Zoe Saldana after her role in "Avatar" (2009) and "Star Trek" (2009). The film doesn't suffer by anything she does, but with such a horible script I am not sure anyone could have made this film better. I hope that Christopher Nolan gets a chance to watch this film, because she would have been perfect as the Catwoman in the upcoming "Dark Knight Rises" (2012). There's a giant gap of 15 years time between Cataleya's arrival in America and her present day activities. Without any on-screen training the jump in the character feels artificial. I found it difficult to care for the character once this jump took place. I thought that Amandla Stenberg did very well as the younger version of Cataleya, but the emotion that she showed didn't translate to Zoe Saldana.

The performances from Michael Vartan (the boyfriend), Cliff Curtis (the uncle) and Jordi Molla (one of the bad guys) where all below par. I was especially hoping for a strong performance from Jordi Molla who was awesome in "Blow" (2001).

For some of the better action sequences I will give this film a bump to 2 Quacks. This is your perfect escapist fun film late in the summer, however anything beyond that is asking too much from it. Keep your expectations low and you will be better off for it.

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