Mitch Rapp is drawn into the world of counter-terrorism after the brutal death of his girlfriend after he had just proposed to her on the beach. A terrorist attack changes his life and as a person. Looking for revenge he is eventually mentored by former Navy SEAL Stan Hurley.
I missed this one at the cinema and quickly caught up when it was added to Netflix UK, it is very rare to see a film receive a 18 rating now and I can fully understand why it was given that having now watched it. Some of the scenes really are brutal. Even the opening blood bath on the beach is so tough to watch, considering this type of event has happened in many different places around the world. Another truly tough scene was the torture scene, I actually think I ended up closing my eyes a couple of times with that one. So just in case you needed to know what gets you a rating of 18 nowadays, torture and mass murder seem to be up there.
We cannot help but be on the side of Mitch as he is dealing with the loss. Or actually not dealing with it really. As he is now online and has been doing extreme work outs and shooting practice. His online behaviour was to get inside of the organisation who committed the killing and to get his revenge on the man who killed his girlfriend. I guess that really does create a good motive for Mitch and that is something that drives him and he really does not care who gets in his way.
Just as he is about to get to where he has been working for, the CIA intervene and sign him up as a black ops recruit to help him with specialised training. This leads him to working with Stan Hurley. Attempting to train the raw young man is a tough task and he actually can step up when it is needed.
I thought he character development was decent enough and the relationship between Mitch and Stan was very father-son related. It does go off in a slightly different direction but I guess that does actually show that Mitch did still have feelings and deep down was a good person despite the trauma he had suffered with the beach terrorist attack.
Is it wrong that I felt Dylan O'Brien just seemed too young for this role? I am not really sure why exactly maybe its just seeing him in The Maze Runner series has kinda spoilt it for me a little bit at the moment. Always great to see Michael Keaton take on a different role. I guess the best way to describe this film is totally brutal at times and quite scary in terms of how real it actually could be. With young men wanting to kill and become part of the terror must be something that happens quite often now. This won't be for everyone but it certainly offers some interesting insight.