If you would have told me watching a 69 year old Liam Neeson limp-run and slow-fight his way through Blacklight, his latest action thriller, would be a painful experience, I would have said, yeah, that sounds about right. Liam Neeson is not the young man he once was. He’s not even the middle-aged or just-over-middle-aged man he once was.
Long since past are his “glory days” of 2008’s Taken. Though he did manage to kind of put it all together for 2019’s Cold Pursuit, which was basically Taken, but in the snow. That movie is a blast, and benefitted from leaning into a dark comedy side of things, something not many of his other movies do.
This time around, Neeson plays Travis Block, a fixer for the FBI, specializing in extracting deep undercover agents when they start to lose their grip. One of Blacklight’s early scenes goes to great lengths to showcase Block’s badassery. Even though the rest of the movie will make it painfully obvious his best days are well behind him.
And then, a whole bunch of nothing. There are a few lackluster chase and fight scenes, none of which had any hope of concealing Neeson’s age. In one chase scene where Block and his target, a rogue agent, are on foot, the other agent is going at barely more than a jogger’s pace, just to keep the appearance of Block almost being able to keep up.
The other agent in question, Dusty Crane (Taylor John Smith), believes the FBI was behind the apparent hit-and-run death of a young, popular anti-government activist. He believes it’s just one death of many in a huge FBI conspiracy where the agency murders civilians they deem a threat for one reason or another. Eventually Block teams up with a young, eager reporter, Mira (Emmy Raver-Lampman) in an effort to expose the secret operation. And that’s it, as far as plot goes on that side of things. It’s as thin as anything you’ll find. It’s just about people in power wanting to remain in power; nothing deeper or more complex.
While it doesn’t succeed, Blacklight at least makes a small attempt at giving Block some more depth and character development. But it’s all very cookie cutter. He’s a stereotypical divorced single dad. His job always got in the way of family, and it continues to be a roadblock in his relationships with his daughter and granddaughter. But now, after a couple decades on the job, he wants to leave it behind and spend more time with them both. It’s not quite as surface-level as the main conspiracy plot, but it’s not far off. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before, and something you’ll be sure to see plenty of times more in future movies like this.
Blacklight never even goes to Taken levels, where his family is an intended target. It just hints at it a few times. If these side characters are going to be used this ineffectively, why even bother? Wouldn’t it be enough motivation for Block to see the light once he learns of the possible secrets of the FBI?
But unfortunately that’s not uncommon for these kinds of movies. Almost everything is paper thin, but there’s usually at least a couple action scenes or set pieces to give it a little life. Not the case here. Blacklight tries, sure. But Neeson holds everything back in that department. It seems like they didn’t use a stunt double much, if at all, and it shows. Neeson just can’t keep up anymore. He’s slow when he runs, he’s slow when he fights. And in a movie like this, when the audience is supposed to buy in to his character as a physical force, it sticks out even more.
But it’s still Liam Neeson and he’s not without his charm. He still has that gritty charisma that draws you in when he gets a chance to showcase it. Pretty much everything good that Blacklight has to offer comes courtesy of him. And it’s not much, but it does save it from being a complete and total failure. Neeson has another movie coming out this year, Martin Campbell’s Memory. I’m sure he’ll bring the same energy he always does. Let’s hope the rest of the movie is able to match him.
Score: 42/100
