Trigger Warning review: Too routine storyline; high time Netflix changes its template

The storyline is too simple and routine.

By Abhinav 

Netflix has a fixed template when it comes to action movies – a family member dies, the prodigy returns home to uncover a sinister secret or the main reason and the prodigy extracts revenge.

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Here too, Mouly Surya uses the same template. It is high time Netflix changes its template and trusts its directors. Of late, actresses like Jennifer Lopez and Agnieszka Grochowska have essayed the bad ass protagonist avenging/protecting their offspring. This time around, you have Jessica Alba avenging her father.

The storyline is too simple and routine. Parker (Jessica Alba) is a special forces officer. Harry (Alejandro De Hoyos), Parker’s father is found dead that is presumed suicide/accident. Parker returns home for the funeral and takes ownership of her father’s bar. She soon realises that all that meets the eye is not true.

She discovers that Harry’s death was not an accident and her former boyfriend and now Sheriff Jesse (Mark Webber), his brother Elvis (Jake Weary) and Senator Ezekiel Swann (Anthony Michael Hall) are involved In an illegal arms trade with a domestic terrorist. The rest of the story is all about whether Parker can extract revenge.

It is good to see Jessica Alba after almost half a decade in a full-fledged movie. What Surya’s outing lacks is a degree of urgency. It is laidback to a fault and travels at a sloth’s pace. Too many scenes are out of sequence. It is evident that Surya was not given the creative space that has won her accolades in Indonesia.

This proves that in spite of having a director capable of directing a movie like ‘Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts’ or producers of action movies like ‘John Wick’ or ‘Sicario’ or an actress who is not a novice to action movies is enough to save a bland seen-it-all script.

There are enough action sequences in this movie that most viewers would have seen them in other outings. Jessica Alba doesn’t have much to do. The others either help her kill or die at her hands.

This 106-minute outing is no Rambo. The Cricket World Cup has better drama and if you are not a cricket fan, watch the UEFA Euro 2024.