Starring Vin Diesel, Guy Pearce, Sam Heughan, Eiza Gonzalez

Directed by David SF Wilson

Sony, out now

Special Forces soldier Ray Garrison is killed by terrorists then resurrected with special nanites in his blood that make him nigh on invincible…

Bloodshot isn’t a comic book that I’m familiar with so I wasn’t coming into this start of a “Valiant universe” with any preconceptions, bar the impression from the trailer that it might be a decent addition to the comicbook movie ranks. Vin Diesel’s films have ranged from the strong – Pitch Black – to the ridiculous (Chronicles of Riddick), but usually manage to be entertaining.

This is not Vin Diesel’s best movie, or even, to be honest, in the Top 10.

As has unfortunately become almost obligatory in the final acts of such films, the CG element takes over the nearer we get to the end, and even on the small screen it doesn’t always hold up. (The disc contains the original, much more contained and personal, ending – watch it with the director’s “commentary” i.e. introduction.) The physical fight sequences and the stuntwork are well choreographed and there’s not the nonsensical focus on one-on-one action – all the bad guys pile in on a single god guy just as they would in real combat.

But the plot feels hokey, and once you’ve got the twist, you know that Garrison is going to turn against those who have manipulated him. The nice surprise is Lamorne Morris’ Wigans, a self-aware character who seems to be in a different film to everyone else, but Sam Heughan’s henchman is one-dimensional evil with none of the nuance we’ve seen him capable of in Outlander. Eiza Gonalez gets a couple of decent moments and Guy Pearce never really seems to fully engage. Amongst all this, Diesel does his best with the material.

There’s minimal attempts to sell the “worldwide” locations – one English taxi has a credible licence plate, the rest are all European; an ordinary British police car has an automatic weapon in the back that Garrison can borrow from the boys in blue. Audiences have become used to a scene set in the UK to do more than a couple of establishing shots!

The Blu-ray comes with a couple of featurettes on the making of the film, bloopers and outtakes, and deleted scenes, which includes the original, considerably smaller-scale ending.

Verdict: The potential to have been much more than it is, Bloodshot’s action sequences are all that really make it watchable. 5/10

Paul Simpson