A rare successful new straight to streaming release, Trigger Warning brought in Indonesian director Mouly Surya to the mainstream after her lower budgeted features Fiksi (2008) and Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (2017) gave her the best director award twice at the Indonesian film festival The Citra Awards in their respective years. So it was a no brainer to bring an international talent so consistant like her to bigger productions, which probably wasn't the best move, considering the commercial requirements for streaming movies are often at war with those of independent cinema.
Trigger Warning started as a spec script by Josh Olson (A History of Violence) and John Brancato (Primeval, Catwoman, Femme Fatale, Terminator 3) back in 2016, originally envisioned as a female First Blood or John Wick but set in rural America. After some production changes Jessica Alba (Dark Angel, Machete, Fantastic Four, Sin City) was cast and Surya was hired as director.
It tells the story of Parker (Jessica Alba), a Special Forces commando, who comes back home from Syria to New Mexico after her father dies, but she finds a different town than the one she left. After encountering some local criminals she uncovers a group of domestic terrorists that menace the little town.
The film has been attacked for being completely generic and by the numbers, which is true, it doesn't have anything new or different to offer aside from some adequate action sequences that are well executed and efficiently staged, but being slightly above average does not fully save it compared to better examples of the genre. The film lacks much personality and energy, it ends up being mostly dry and heavy.
Directing wise, Surya´s compositions, clever shot placement and knack for understated camera movements show some good craftsmanship and she keeps things visually dynamic but the well done cinematography is at the service of a run of the mill “coming home” story, hitting predictable plot beat after predictable plot beat quite mechanically and without ingenuity nor subversion or deviation.
Alba has always gotten some flack for not being a very good actress and because of that she came off as confused and phony-sounding in some of her previous movie roles like Machete (2010) or Fantastic Four (2005), but she was just fine in this movie and in Dark Angel, pulling off her choreographies with some dedication. I still think that this is the type of action vehicle that would suit a rougher actress better like Michelle Rodriguez or Katy O'Brian.
The movie suffers from a lot of the issues I have with many modern action movies, like how the action seems mostly gratuitous and the addition of some unimpactful hits ruins the combat sequences, like hitting people in the leg with an object and making them fall down for example, it´s something that obviously wouldn't happen in real life, striking someone in the leg with a backpack would hurt but it wouldn't make them get knocked down. Those are some parts that are shaky or wobbly, they take away from the strong impression the rest of the fight actually achieves. However, maybe I am just spoiled with all the Asian martial arts movies I watch which feature more resounding stunts. This flaw isn't exclusive to the movie, so it could be forgiven.
The biggest positives are obviously the fight scenes, but there are also some very memorable images that very much exalt the main character and these fragments might stick with me for a while, like the back lighted Jessica Alba swinging a machete at magic hour. Quite magnificent. These are, however, very few and far between.
A mixed bag of a flick with competent direction, satisfying screenwriting and decent acting but it´s bogged down by an erratic pace, an unoriginal premise and an overall lack of dramatic weight due to the flimsy characterizations and weak storytelling. Not particularly good nor particularly bad. It's in the limbo of Netflix´s constant output, at least quality wise. Popcorn flick at best.
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