I Am Wrath (2016)

Directed by: Chuck Russell | 92 minutes | action, crime | Actors: John Travolta, Christopher Meloni, Amanda Schull, Sam Trammell, Patrick St. Esprit, Rebecca De Mornay, Asante Jones, Paul Sloan, Luis Da Silva Jr., Jordan Whalen, Jayden Blake Cochran, Caroline Kane, Robert Forte Shannon III, Stacy Levi, James Logan, Doris Morgado

Liam Neeson has sparked a craze with his role in ‘Taken’. The Irishman was one of the first ‘aged’ character actors who decided to aspire to a second life as an action hero. Pierre Morel’s violent thriller did well at the box office and breathed new life into Neeson’s career. Playing the action star after your fiftieth was still fine! Well, not everyone gets away with it though. Enter ‘I Am Wrath’.

In ‘I Am Wrath’ John Travolta plays the lead role and he plays Stanley Hill. When this unemployed engineer witnesses the murder of his wife, everything goes crazy. This once controlled man decides to take the law into his own hands, because he thinks the police are too lax. Stanley enlists the help of an old friend and takes on the villains who killed his wife.

Travolta is a nice actor, but in this film he really misses the mark. He lacks the flair and authenticity that Neeson does have and does not come across convincingly as an action hero for a moment. This is partly due to his expanded posture and face that looks increasingly artificial due to all kinds of surgical procedures. Not exactly the type that the average man will identify with. In addition, it does not help that the action scenes are too dull for words. Fights look wooden and stiff. Spectacle is not to be expected and that is disastrous for an action film.

The problem with ‘I Am Wrath’ is that too little attention has been paid to the action. The focus is purely on the Hollywood star who linked his name to this film. Travolta, however, lacks the star power to carry this very mediocre film. He’s not alone. That also applied to Sean Penn in ‘The Gunman’ who, despite his acting talent, failed to take that little thing to the next level. Denzel Washington, however, got away with it in the already so flat ‘The Equalizer’. His natural charisma saved that production from obscurity and, according to Hollywood, even justified a sequel that should hit theaters sometime in 2018. Casting older men in fight movies can turn out well (Neeson and Washington), but it goes wrong just as often.

‘I Am Wrath’ is an unnecessary release. A boring film that doesn’t stick. Normally Dolph Lundgren and Steven Seagal play the leading roles in these anonymous B-movies. Travolta is doing bread robbery. Despite his status, he bakes little of it and it is better to leave this uninspired pulp to the experts.