Review by DallasBob

• Username: DallasBob

I'm just an ordinary joe. I've never played the game this movie is adapted from but from what I hear it's pretty fun. The movie itself is okay for a treasure hunting movie. The action is good and keeps flowing, and the actors, Holland (latest Spiderman) and Whalberg seem to have good chemistry. Even the female protagonist did well in her "diverse & inclusive" part. If I had any cons to put forth about the movie, I'd say the lead villian being a female (thanks to Woke-Hollywood's influence) has been thoroughly worn to the point of irritation. This woke trope is tired and worse, but oh-so-true to the core, it is dubious at best; especially so when it comes to fight scenes between the protagonist and villain. It is time for Hollywood to hang up its Woke-cape. There is no need for "inclusivity" when you can just give someone the job because it works for the story instead of politics. I wouldn't complain on this aspect so much if Liberal (woke) Hollywood had the ability to write good characters and therefore good scripts. But that is not possible when you are reaching to tick off checkboxes. **Somewhat Spoiler & complaints:** If the movie had simply begun with a female villain and had her demostrate certain abilities in combat, then her fighting men would be more believable. It also would establish WHY her people would follow her. But the female antagonist's action scenes do not come across as pertinent as they should because her profession is not established in the movie. I struggled to get a handle on whether she was a fellow treasure hunter since she knew Walberg's character personally and was there to advise the rich villain, or if she was a hired mecenary. Turns out she was the later, but that still did not help her character gel. I kept thinking, "Why on earth would anyone follow her? She's hasn't done anything to prove she's more than any other run-of-the-mill killer." If the movie failed in any way it was this one glaring aspect. Henry Cavill made an EXCELLENT head henchman in Mission Impossible: Fallout, because men fighting men is believable; villains have menace. But without that special training I mentioned for a female villian, any interaction between her and men in fight scenes comes across as purely contrived. The actress, Tati Gabrielle, did very well as a villain but this women fighting men is just not believable; and that matters to the male viewing audience. Instead of sitting on the edge of your chair wondering who's going to win, you're sitting back with a finger to your temple wondering what bullcrap Hollywood is going to make of this fight scene. If I have to rate this movie on a whole I give it 3.5/5 stars. It's not _Indiana Jones_, but it's better than _Red Notice_, if only just.