Interceptor Review – Good Plot, ‘Meh’ Cast, Terrible Dialogues

By Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

We like an exaggerated action film with a strong woman lead kicking butt and saving the world. Oh well… not the entire world, but America to be specific. Elsa Pataki plays Captain J J Collins, America’s last hope to save its cities from being blown to bits by Russian terrorists, in the 2022 Netflix action film ‘Interceptor’.

Directed by Matthew Reilly, this film has an interesting (even if unrealistic) plot, but an incredibly mediocre cast, terribly written dialogues and forced political themes drown its potential. And damn, the dialogues are so bad, it feels like somebody wrote them for their middle-school assignment.

Plot overview: The Russians have managed to steal 15 ballistic missiles and have also compromised one of the only two American Interceptor facilities capable of stopping their attacks. Captain J J Collins is in-charge of the other Interceptor station, and the only person standing between the annihilation of 15 American cities.

Some of the action scenes were quite entertaining, but there’s a lot of political stuff in between that will exasperate viewers. For example they have a white dude spiting immigrants. Captain J J Collins is half-Spanish, her colleague is Indian-origin, and the one of the white terrorists’ whines about immigrants stealing jobs (he is literally their colleague turned mole and clearly not out begging on the streets) and some other mindless spiel that made no sense.

Elas Pataki does a decent job portraying the badass Captain J J Collins, who is demoted after leveling sexual harassment charges against a senior. While this back-story makes for an interesting addition, the writers ruin it by dragging the issue throughout the plot. Luke Bracey plays villain Alexander Kessel, the son of a billionaire, who’s turned into a terrorist because of some ridiculously philosophical crap he tries to explain to Captain Collins. If the dialogues weren’t bad enough, Bracey’s delivery is even worse, he inspires no fear or hatred in the viewer’s mind. At best, you feel like saying “go play with you daddy’s money you psycho” to Kessel.

A lot of little twists make no sense or are too convenient – like how Kessel and team don’t blink before killing the entire staff at the facility, but just tie up Collins and her colleague when they make it to the main control room. It’s not like the terrorists are rookies, Kessel is said to be an army guy who specializes in torture. The writers heavily rely on just brute action, instead of incorporating some elements of tactical thinking or wit. All that said, I did enjoy watching the action sequences, so it’s a 5/10 from me.