Time: 108 Minutes
Cast:
Zoe Saldaña as Cataleya
Jordi Mollà as Marco
Lennie James as James Ross
Michael Vartan as Danny Delanay
Cliff Curtis as Emilio Restrepo
Director: Olivier Megaton

I knew Colombiana as a Zoe Saldaña led action movie, but I was hesitant to watch it because of the director, Olivier Megaton. He previously made Transporter 3 and the Taken sequels, and his filmmaking in them really weren’t good, to the point that it was the main thing that actually prevented me from enjoying those movies. It’s not saying much, but Colombiana is probably his best work.

Colombiana is a generic and basic action revenge flick. It doesn’t really cover any new ground despite its best attempts, and is very cliched and predictable. That said, it’s fairly reliable, and has the character depth and backstory needed for this story, even if it’s standard fare.  

Zoe Saldaña is quite good in the lead role, she has a presence to her and especially sells the action really well. The rest of the cast are good too, especially Amandla Stenberg (as a younger Saldaña) and Cliff Curtis.

You feel Olivier Megaton’s directing style throughout with the yellow filters as well as the quick cut editing and shaky cam during the action. The thing is, the action itself is fairly competent and there are some good set pieces, but they’re held with the choppy edited. Still, after watching his Transporter movie and Taken sequels, the directing in Colombiana did feel like a small step up here. 

Colombiana is a generic, but entertaining revenge action thriller with a good cast (especially Zoe Saldaña) and some decent action, brought down by some very dodgy editing and directing.