Starring Blake Lively, Jude Law, Sterling K. Brown

Directed by Reed Morano

Paramount Pictures UK, out now to download and keep

After the deaths of her family in a plane crash, Stephanie’s life falls apart – but when she learns that the crash wasn’t accidental, she wants revenge.

The big selling point of this new spy drama was that it’s produced by EON – i.e. Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. Anyone coming to it expecting a 007 film with the serial numbers filed off is in for a big shock – if you want a comparison in terms of Bond, this is like Harry Saltzman’s production of the Harry Palmer films in the 1960s. This isn’t the glamorous world that we’ll revisit in November (hopefully); this is a down and dirty business and is scripted and filmed accordingly.

Blake Lively is convincing as Stephanie, whose descent into drugs and prostitution is graphically set out at the start of the film before she’s told that the cause of it all was actually a terrorist act (although quite why the journalist who’s told her this does so is never really explained). There’s a long – and I mean, long – section of her with Jude Law’s former MI6 agent, firstly persuading him to take her on, and then training her, before we get to her actual mission. Mark Burnell adapts his own novel, and this may be one of those times when an outside view would have helped in altering the pace a bit.

Morano’s direction veers nearer to Paul Greengrass’ Bourne films (or Marc Forster’s Quantum of Solace) and there’s obviously been conscious choices to focus on the less attractive parts of the locations. The inevitable car chase is well shot and edited – you have a clear sense of the geography of the sequence, which by no means always is the case – and there are some chilling moments, particularly involving the fanatics that Stephanie is pursuing.

The plot holds together but you need to concentrate, particularly once Stephanie is on the trail of the killers – I’d advise watching with subtitles on, as more than one character speaks critical lines softly. The 40 minutes or so of extras include some deleted scenes, and featurettes on the fight choreography special effects, central character and the design.

Verdict: Sometimes oddly paced, this has some good moments – and a solid central performance from Blake Lively – but overall it fails to grab the attention. 6/10

Paul Simpson