Assassin Club

Assassin Club tells the story of Morgan (Henry Golding), an assassin under the direction of his enigmatic handler Caldwell (Sam Neill). Morgan wants to get out of the hitman business and live a normal life with his girlfriend Sophie (Daniela Melchior), but he finds himself trapped in a deadly game with six other people across the world – all assassins, contracted to kill each other for millions of dollars and their own survival. Forced to take on this one last job, Morgan resolves to find out who’s pulling the strings before it’s too late.

One of Assassin Club’s biggest problems is that its script seems more like a scrappy first draft than a coherent finished piece. Riddled with eye-rolling clichés and awkward, unnatural dialogue, it’s very difficult to stay invested in this film’s storytelling as it doesn’t feel like it’s invested in itself. The plot manages to simultaneously be very simplistic and needlessly complicated, and its odd structural choices make following along with the film’s mysteries more like a chore than anything resembling a good time. There are a lot of ideas floating around in the writing, but none of them are expanded upon or explored in any meaningful way, making the narrative feel bloated, indecisive and unorganised.

A weak script wouldn’t be the end of the world for a straightforward movie like this if it was in service of some interesting action set pieces, but even those are fairly lacklustre, with no truly memorable scenes that justify sitting through clunky dialogue and dull exposition. To make matters worse, Assassin’s Club’s action scenes are few and far between, with the film prioritising its by-the-numbers plot and weak character writing over the assassinations promised in its title.

Overall, the movie is clearly trying to capture the thunder of films like John Wick, but lacks the imagination or creativity that made its predecessors so popular. Devoid of style or substance, the only emotional response Assassin Club is likely to stir in even the most patient moviegoers is the feeling that they could be watching a better film.

Umar Ali

Assassin Club is released nationwide on 14^th April 2023.

Watch the trailer for Assassin Club here: