Time: 94 Minutes
Age Rating: R13 – Violence & content that may disturb
Cast:
Ben Affleck as Danny Rourke
Alice Braga as Diana Cruz
J. D. Pardo as Nicks
Dayo Okeniyi as River
Jeff Fahey as Carl
Jackie Earle Haley as Jeremiah
William Fichtner as Dellrayne
Director: Robert Rodriguez

I was actually looking forward to Hypnotic. It was an upcoming sci-fi action thriller from Robert Rodriguez and starring Ben Affleck, which looked to be visually trippy and involving hypnotism. It didn’t live up to what I hoped from it, but was still better than expected based on the negative reactions.

The concept for the movie sounds pretty good, but the actual execution could’ve been better. It mainly just grabs from much better sci-fi movies and jumbles them together. The movie is definitely over the top and silly, it’s almost a throwback to 90s and 2000s schlock (intentional or otherwise). It’s especially entertaining with how absurd the twists get. It also does get needlessly convoluted but I guess that might add to the B grade movie that it is. There is definitely plenty of exposition in place explaining everything, mainly the hypnotism. It didn’t bother me too much but there is definitely too much of it. Also there is a very long explanation at the end of the movie which really wasn’t needed. While I would never say to turn off your brain to watch a movie, Hypnotic is definitely the kind of movie where if you think about it for too long, you will spot plenty of holes and things that don’t make sense. At the very least, it’s kept at a good runtime at around 90 minutes, so it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

I generally like Ben Affleck as an actor, but he almost felt a bit on autopilot here, definitely one of the weakest performances I’ve seen from him. Still, he’s a fine enough lead that you’re willing enough to follow him in this movie. Other performances fare a little better, including Alice Braga, and William Fichtner who plays the villain.

This movie is directed by Robert Rodriguez, and I’d say he does a good job. It definitely takes its trippy imagery from other movies like Inception, except the visuals aren’t nearly as good or inventive. It does have some entertaining action, but it can’t help but feel like it is missing a lot of the flair that you’d expect from a Rodriguez movie, so that was a little disappointing.

Hypnotic is a silly and flawed, but entertaining and twisty action sci-fi thriller. It’s not a good movie and definitely isn’t one of Robert Rodriguez’s best, but I still had fun with it, and I think that it’s better than the overwhelming negative response it’s been receiving.