White’s character, John “Falcon” Chapman, is the latest in a long line of emotionally scarred action heroes, in this case an ex-Marine suffering from frequent PTSD flashbacks who in the film’s opening minutes plays a game of Russian Roulette (with bullets soaked in a shot glass filled with whiskey, no less). Set in the Brazilian slums that inspired its original title Favela, Falcon Rising is a by-the-numbers thriller that mainly serves as a showcase for its star’s considerable fighting abilities, showcased in an endless number of kick-ass set pieces. Hopefully Falcon Rising 2, if it comes to that, will give us a reason to anticipate Falcon Rising 3, if it comes to that.Michael Jai White ( Spawn, The Dark Knight) makes another bid for action movie stardom with this film so determined to spawn a franchise that its ending sets up a sequel, with distributor Freestyle Releasing already promising two more installments.
#Falcon rising movie 2014 series
That’s too bad because I like White a lot and would love to see him play a character worthy of his talents through a series of films. So when the film’s end explicitly sets up future adventures for him to tackle, it’s hard to care. Chapman’s just another strong guy doing strong guy stuff. But there’s nothing to this character, especially once plot motivation robs him of his suicidal impulses and alcoholism. Falcon Rising intends to kickstart a whole new franchise for White. He’s so stupid muscular that he almost looks obese.īut what’s the point? This isn’t some one-off. White can play comedy, and he can offer a great buffoon, but here he’s all mad all the time. He’s in full-on grumpy mode in this movie. Chapman’s not really playing it suicidal anymore once he gets to Brazil, so they don’t really have a place in the narrative, anyway.Įven in the most generic scenes possible, it’s still hard to hate Michael Jai White, though. Each time shit goes down, Chapman has little flashbacks that never really add up to a war trauma convincing or specific enough to justify their continued conclusion like, for instance, the war flashbacks used in Jason Statham’s Redemption. So for that alone, it's worth checking out. Falcon Rising has great action, both well-shot and interestingly choreographed.
When Michael Jai White DOES start kicking things, however, he does a pretty good job of it. We came to see Michael Jai White kick things, and end up wasting that time on plot threads that bore. Chapman spends way too much time off screen in favor of these Brazilian cops who aren’t at all compelling. Things get more complicated than anyone wants from a movie like this, even if that ultimately means Michael Jai White gets to take down a Brazilian wing of the Yakuza. He finds help from local cops and his old Marine buddy played by the just barely not albino Neal McDonough. So instead of languishing like a Hulked-out Martin Riggs, he gets on a plane and starts hunting for revenge. Chapman’s sister is found nearly dead in Brazil. Unfortunately, a plot eventually kicks in. If the whole movie were like this, I’d be singing Falcon Rising’s praises as a new classic. There is one particularly great scene where a robbery interrupts his booze run. For a while, the film offers a lot of this to savor. It’s a joy to watch someone like White play drunk, suicidal, and grumpy. This is especially true of the film’s opening act as Michael Jai White’s John “Falcon” Chapman tries to deal with civilian life after seeing some vaguely awful shit in his Marine days. They don’t elevate the film to some higher DTV echelon, but they are the only bits keeping the film from being completely generic. So when I say it’s just an okay B-action film, keep in mind these special touches. He then takes the bullet out of his mouth and plays Russian Roulette with it. The first thing we see in Falcon Rising is Michael Jai White drinking a bullet with a shot of whiskey.
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