Review: Polar (2019)

I love Madds Mikkelsen, so if I’m being honest, there’s half a star in this rating because of him alone. His performance is worth that, so it’s not charity.

The rest of the movie is pretty standard. It’s exactly what you’d expect from the description. The action choreography is good, though it wears it’s influences on its sleeve, and that hurts the film somehwhat. The hand to hand acrobatics of John Wick are recalled, but only really highlighting that this isn’t as dynamic.

Polar is pretty obviously trying to be a cross between something like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and John Wick, and maybe there’s a way to make something in that creative territory which still brings something that feels fresh, but this isn’t it.

All of that being said, the technical aspects are solid, cinematography, costume and set design, even the performances land. Where this suffers is in the script, and even as Madds Mikkelsen does his usual in making the absolute best out of what’s on the page, it’s not enough to bring this out of being more than a standard, thoughtless action script.

The only other thing there is to say about it is it’s past time to start moving beyond such rote, cardboard female characters. Catherine Winnick gets the most developed female character here, and she’s really the most interesting character. There’s a story in that character that would still appeal to action fans, but also be less derivative than this one.