I've recently had something of an epiphany as of late. With the exception of her cameos in the "Entourage" TV series and movie as well as "Knocked Up", I've never seen a single film or show that starred Jessica Alba. I guess you could say that is the only reason I decided to grace the new Netflix action thriller "Trigger Warning" with my time. This is after knowing full well how poorly received this film is thus far.
Jessica Alba stars as a hispanic CIA agent named Parker. She's been recruited back to her hometown on account of her father's recent death. Parker is told by local law enforcement that her father committed suicide, while in the mining tunnels where he worked. Parker is unconvinced of this alibi, however, and uncovers clues proving otherwise. A mix-up with local gun smugglers unfolds itself, and Parker aims to reclaim vengeance for her father's passing by putting his executioners to justice.
I can confidently say that even though this film just came out only a few days ago, to me, everything about "Trigger Warning" feels around 15 to 20 years old. I was not impressed by the film's visual presentation, especially when it comes to its CGI and action set pieces. Any newbie to the action genre will be rolling their eyes at the sight of various gunmen being outwitted by Parker, whose sole weapon is a combat knife.
There's no shortage of dumb action cliches to be found here, and most of them hardly progress the plot as much as they hinder or slow the film to a halt. You ever wonder why filmmakers put a CGI train in just an average 15 second shot instead of a real train? After seeing said shot like I did, you'll be asking that question as well, and not get an answer anytime soon.
Further punctuating the film's uneven presentation, you notice that the closest thing to good action scenes are mostly shot under darker lighting? If this isn't a sign from the filmmakers themselves that there isn't much here, I'm not sure what else it could be. If I had to guess however, it would have to be the embarrassingly bad hispanic makeup on Alba. Parker's dark tan reeks of overkill to the point of almost looking like blackface for hispanics.
And given Alba's own Mexican ancestry, this butchered tan of multiple coats feels even more misguided than it already is. The narrative itself isn't too difficult to follow or understand. Unfortunately, that distinction is because this is such a deadly dull story being told. The few aspects of the story that are interesting on paper, namely two brothers on opposite sides of the law trying to cover each other, aren't enough to save "Trigger Warning" from overwhelming mediocrity.
Any attempt at humanizing the characters within this routine and mechanical plot doesn't translate into a satisfactory end result. If anything, it's not much different from seeing your typical zombie looking for something to eat. Speaking of zombies, Halley Gross, one of this film's screenwriters, previously helped pen the script to the 2020 PS4 exclusive "The Last of Us: Part II". Unlike said game however that introduced bold ideas that earned everyone's attention, this feels tamer than your average action flick from the '70's.
I'll admit that the mancave within a cave that serves as the centerpiece of the narrative's drama is a neat idea, in that I haven't personally seen something like it before. The actors aren't terrible at working with what they had. There are moments of competency here and there. But at the end of the day, if the film nearly puts me to sleep due to pure boredom, that only gets you so far.
"Trigger Warning" is yet another sad example proving Netflix's focus on quantity over quality in terms of their exclusive content as of late. This film is here simply to fulfill a quota to the streaming algorithm, and not because it has anything new to say or show. And whatever is there isn't enough to make it worthwhile, even if the mancave in a cave is an interesting idea. With so much better content on the platform alone, consider this "Trigger Warning" a false alarm.
Final Verdict: 3.5/10
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