Jason Statham has built a remarkably durable career out of knowing exactly what audiences want from a Jason Statham movie. Put him in a confined space, surround him with disposable henchmen, give him a vaguely personal reason to be angry, and eventually someone is going to discover just how creatively an everyday object can be weaponised. Mutiny certainly understands the assignment, even if Jean-François Richet’s latest actioner takes an unexpectedly long time getting around to the part we’ve actually come to see.
Following the similarly contained Plane, Richet again finds himself working within the sturdy parameters of old-school action cinema, this time swapping Gerard Butler and a troubled aircraft for Statham and a cargo ship. There’s something almost comforting about how proudly unfashionable Mutiny is. It’s the type of mid-budget action vehicle that once seemed permanently stationed at the multiplex, before the genre largely migrated to streaming and younger stars inexplicably stopped being groomed to inherit the throne from men now pushing into their 50s and 60s.
Here, Statham plays Cole Reed, an ex-cop working as a bodyguard for a billionaire whose murder leaves Cole conveniently framed for the crime. His search for answers ultimately leads him aboard a cargo ship, where corrupt operators, an increasingly sizeable collection of henchmen and a human trafficking operation provide him with more than enough justification to start breaking bones. Annabelle Wallis is along for the ride as Angie, the ship’s third mate, who becomes Cole’s reluctant ally as the vessel transforms into a floating playground for revenge.
Or at least it should.
Surprisingly, Mutiny is rather sporadic with its action. Richet and screenwriters Lindsay Michel and J.P. Davis appear determined to fashion something more story-driven than the usual Statham beat-’em-up, spending a considerable amount of time setting up conspiracies, loyalties and motivations. There’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting to give the carnage some narrative weight, but that requires a story capable of carrying it. Mutiny simply doesn’t have one.
The plotting is mechanical, the villains interchangeable and its supposedly significant revelations are telegraphed with such enthusiasm that anyone paying even passing attention is likely to arrive at them well before Cole does. Angie is given the obligatory personal backstory to make her more than just Statham’s companion, but Wallis is ultimately underserved by material that alternates between allowing her some agency and reducing her to someone Cole needs to rescue.
It creates a frustrating imbalance. For a film built around the uncomplicated pleasure of watching Jason Statham take names, Mutiny spends an awful lot of time trying to convince us that the names matter.
When Statham is finally allowed off the leash, however, the film becomes considerably more entertaining.
Richet understands the physicality that makes his star such a convincing screen fighter, and the ship provides a suitably claustrophobic arena for him to work within. Narrow corridors, cargo containers and cramped industrial spaces force the combatants into close proximity, lending the fights a pleasing tactility. There’s a genuine ferocity to the choreography too; punches land with satisfying weight, bodies collide unpleasantly with hard surfaces, and Statham remains remarkably persuasive as someone capable of dismantling a room full of men without ever looking particularly concerned about it.
The violence is also surprisingly nasty. Mutiny occasionally jolts itself awake with bursts of gore far more vicious than its otherwise workmanlike personality suggests. Padlocks, knives, an enormous axe and, eventually, a harpoon all become opportunities for the film to indulge in some enjoyably gruesome creativity. It’s during these moments, particularly across an increasingly absurd final stretch, that Mutiny reveals the more gleefully unhinged movie it might have been all along.
And Statham, naturally, remains Statham.
His performance isn’t exactly an exercise in emotional elasticity, but asking for that would almost misunderstand his particular appeal. Few actors can deliver a ludicrously tough line with the same stone-faced commitment, and fewer still can sell the physical punishment that follows. Even when Mutiny around him feels stubbornly generic, there remains an undeniable enjoyment in watching Statham stride into another room of people who have made the terrible mistake of assuming they can beat him.
That reliability ultimately keeps Mutiny afloat.
There’s a perfectly serviceable Saturday-night action movie buried within Richet’s film, but it takes too long to embrace its strengths. Its attempt to favour story over sustained spectacle might have been admirable had the narrative contained anything particularly involving, but instead it merely creates lengthy stretches between the brutal confrontations that audiences are waiting for. When those confrontations arrive, they’re tightly choreographed, pleasingly vicious and occasionally far gorier than expected.
At this stage, Statham doesn’t need to reinvent the action movie. Mutiny certainly doesn’t either. But if you’re going to give him a cargo ship full of villains and various objects capable of inflicting grievous bodily harm, it seems almost rude to make us wait so long for him to start using them.
TWO AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Mutiny is now screening in Australian theatres.
