Compared to its setting of Tokyo, Japan, the other bits and pieces of "Kate" just falter in comparison. If we could be blunt about it, "Kate" is just mediocre and never achieves to be anything but average at its best moments.
Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is one of the best assassins working for a man named Varick (Woody Harrelson) who recruited and trained her since she was a young girl. In her most recent job, she was forced to kill a man in front of his young daughter with him. This scars Kate and she decides to quit for good after she finishes her next assignment. On the night of her last mission, Kate is poisoned and has only one day left to live. Kate decides to spend her last day on Earth to seek vengeance by finding the one who poisoned her.
In a genre that is slowly growing tired for us recently, being impressed with another revenge-themed action film is going to be a mighty task. Unfortunately for "Kate", it doesn't really do anything special or noteworthy to really stand out from an already crowded spacce. For us, it has multiple points of failure but the most egregious of these would be its writing and action.
The story of "Kate" was interesting at first but the film failed to build up and develop the right back stories to make it more substantial. This could be seen best in the character of Varrick (and his associates) who we barely get to know but controlled most of Kate's status as a relentless assassin in the past and present. Worse, the overall narrative arc of "Kate" was extremely predictable showing that it really took the most convenient road to get to its ending. This could be controversial but we found the film's fight choreography to be lacking. There's just something with the fights that didn't sit right with us as punches and kicks lacked that critical oomph and follow through to be really believable. It was a small thing but these made the fights, especially in its first half, came off as timid. The film eventually found its footing in its latter half but we could count the scenes that truly impressed us. And don't get us started with its only chase scene looking extremely fake. Overall, "Kate" had an interesting premise and a cast that could have made this a powerhouse. But it failed to build up on this potential and it just feels like a wasted opportunity for everyone who worked on this.
Rating: 2 and a half reels
Why you should watch it:
- the cinematography captures the unique beauty of Tokyo well
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