Hardened
criminal Cain (Scott Adkins) is granted temporary leave from prison to visit
his dying mother. When the guards lead
him into the hospital, he learns of her passing. Enraged, Cain subdues the guards, escapes,
and sets out on a rampage of revenge.
Avengement
is yet another collaboration between Scott Adkins and director Jesse V.
Johnson. It’s not one of their best
efforts, mostly because of the lackadaisical pace and awkward flashback-fueled
structure. (The framework involves Adkins
holding people hostage in a pub while waiting for the man who betrayed him to
show up. In the meantime, he relates
flashbacks to show how he got there.) Another
debit: Most of the actors speak in
thick, impenetrable British accents, which makes many of the dialogue-heavy
scenes hard to follow. (You’ll probably
want to put the subtitles on for this one.)
There
are a couple of OK fights sprinkled about, but they’re nothing on the level of
Adkins’ best stuff. We do get a nasty prison brawl where he winds up the
victim of a curb stomping and receives a garish set of metal teeth for his
troubles. The problem is most of the
fights occur during montages, so it’s hard to appreciate them when they’ve been
edited together in bunches.
Adkins
attacks his role with ferocity. (The scenes
where he goads the other prisoners to take him on have a bit of a Bronson vibe
to them.) I can’t fault his
performance. It’s just that the
character is so shallowly written that he never quite comes to life. The inert pacing and choppy narrative also
help to drain interest from his character’s plight.
Usually,
whenever Scott Adkins gets sent to prison, it makes for a good movie. If you’ve ever seen any of the Undisputed
sequels, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Unfortunately, Avengement seems to be the
exception to the rule.
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