'The Killer' Reviews: "Woo is arguably the living filmmaker most determined to examine masculinity, and without a male relationship to dissect, it gives him the space to honor the femme fatale in her purest form"

         On August 24, 2024, Peacock released 'The Killer', which has received a mixed reception from critics, currently holding at 54% on Rotten Tomatoes. In the film, "Nathalie Emmanuel (The Fast Saga, Game of Thrones) as Zee, a mysterious and infamous assassin known, and feared, in the Parisian underworld as the Queen of the Dead. But when, during an assignment from her shadowy mentor and handler (Avatar's Sam Worthington), Zee refuses to kill a blinded young woman (Diana Silvers; Ma, Booksmart) in a Paris nightclub, the decision will disintegrate Zee's alliances, attract the attention of a savvy police investigator (Golden Globe nominee Omar Sy; Jurassic World franchise, Lupin), and plunge her into a sinister criminal conspiracy that will set her on a collision course with her own past." Read the full review round-up below. 

        BJ Colangelo of Slashfilm praises the film, stating, "As the titular killer, Nathalie Emmanuel has the impossible task of filling the shoes of Chow Yun-fat. Wisely, she and Woo do not attempt to channel Ah Jong, instead allowing her character Zee to thrive as something wholly unique. Woo is arguably the living filmmaker most determined to examine masculinity, and without a male relationship to dissect, it gives him the space to honor the femme fatale in her purest form. Emmanuel and Omar Sy as police officer Sey never reach the high-octane heights of Yun-fat and Danny Lee, but they're not trying to. Their alliance is an entirely different beast, but whenever the two stare each other down with guns drawn at eye level, it's a testament to Woo's unwavering commitment to blocking actors' physicality to tell a story beyond the script."

Photo by Johnny Briggs on Unsplash

        Jake Cole of Slant Magazine notes, "More pressingly, this remake is absent the far richer character development that made the original as much a melodrama as a shoot-’em-up. The 1989 film swiftly established and then complicated the relationships between the three main characters until it became difficult to separate platonic friendship, professional respect, and even romantic intrigue. Here, Zee, Sey, and Jenn are thinly sketched, with Emmanuel, Sy, and Silvers spouting their lines with perfunctory, plot-advancing flatness. Zee is especially baffling given the naïveté this seasoned assassin regularly displays, and compared to the more cynically aware triad politics of the original, Zee’s relationship with Finn is oddly docile and childlike, with the killer regularly asking for assurance that her targets “deserve death” with doe-eyed innocence."

       Fred Topel of United Press International says, "It would be impossible for The Killer to reinvent action in 2024 like 1989, but it is not meant to. Woo was developing a Hollywood remake for years. So it finally comes to fruition in a satisfying way simply for being a new Woo movie." Concluding, "Woo's technique inspired Hollywood to copy him when producers couldn't hire him in the '90s. It especially stands out in 2024 when so few mainstream films pay such close attention to staging."

       Nick Schager of The Daily Beast was less impressed, stating, "A mediocre remix that, for all its familiar elements, fails to improve upon a single aspect of its trailblazing predecessor." Adding, "The film’s script (credited to Brian Helgeland, Josh Campbell, and Matt Stuecken) complicates matters by revealing that Finn works for gangster Jules (Eric Cantona), who hired Zee for her opening gig in order to recover 100 tons of heroin that was stolen before he received it from a Saudi Arabian prince (Saïd Taghmaoui). The question of who’s backstabbing who, however, proves of little consequence, especially considering that Woo himself appears primarily interested in his vicious centerpieces."