Anna feels like a familiar film, albeit an ok film that stars a strong woman who can be beautiful and kick butt. Overall this isn’t something I wouldn’t have put in theaters, but would have treated like Stone Cold Steve Austin’s films and sent straight to DVD. To me Anna was missing that “it” factor to make it feel interesting and big enough for the theater. If Anna didn’t feel like an adult version of Luke Scott’s Morgan, amongst a few other things, this movie might have been memorable.
Written and directed by Luc Besson (The Fifth Element), Anna opens up in the 1990’s where a beautiful young Russian woman is selling nesting dolls in Moscow. She gets spotted by a model scout and agrees to go to Paris to be a model. Throughout the film she tries anything to be free. She got into the modeling business to reach a high-end executive, who ended up revealing who she really is and her true motives. Anna is about a young woman who learns that the only person she can trust is herself, never letter her guard down for anyone and ensuring that she has an exit out of every situation.
Anna had lot of back and forward which made the movie feel predictable toward its conclusion. This feels like something that I’ve seen before, yet there was a few things that felt new, such as characters receiving death by forks or plates. I would say this film heavily resembles “Colombiana,” directed by Olivier Megaton, with strong elements being the fight scenes and the twist made by Anna (Sasha Luss) I like how she used the game chess to work everyone who was trying to use her for their individual motives.
The scene where Anna reveals what she is made of by talking on a restaurant full of men was by far Anna‘s strongest moment. It made her seem well trained, yet scared at the same time. The way she killed everyone was extreme for a first assignment, giving her only five minutes to complete it but taking far longer Anna also reveals how she became such a strong asset for the KGB, transforming into someone that they relied on to get all of the jobs done. Throughout the film she repeatedly questions her life and who she can love and trust. She had a girlfriend and two boyfriends – CIA agent Lenny Miller (Cillian Murphy) and KGB agent Alex Tchenkov (Luke Evans)- both of whom complemented Anna throughout the scenes. During these scenes, I liked how she only opened up when she wanted to.
The end further reminded me of “Colombiana” for how her arc mirrored Zoe Saldana’s Cataleya, who wanted revenge for her parent’s deaths. The way she executed her revenge even came down to Anna using the same weapons. The difference with Anna is she killed for her freedom. I just think that these two films had too many similarities and, while this movie is something to see, it would be better on a 5 dollar Tuesday rather than a 12 dollar movie ticket. This may even be something that you watch on DVD, but it’s not a theatre film.
Verdict: 2 out of 5
All in all this movie is ok. I personally think it’s not worth big money and I would recommend people either see it for 5 dollars or wait for it to be on demand. It was too similar and it was definitely forgettable.
Normally I’d talk about the films that I see after I leave the theater, but with this one I really had nothing to say about it. Besson might have been the director but it seems like he wasn’t on set, otherwise it would have had more of his style in it. The only things this movie did right was have Helen Mirren as Olga, who gave an amusing performance, and the two big fighting scenes with great choreography. Also, there was plenty of women who could have played ‘ANNA‘ better than Sasha Luss. While she’s gorgeous, she just didn’t do much for the film action-wise. I feel for her stunt double.
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