Speak Now Storyteller

Summary: Beneath Anna Poliatova’s striking beauty lies a secret that will unleash her indelible strength and skill to become one of the world’s most feared government assassins.

This will be a short review.

Pros:

Action Sequences. If there is anything this movie has going for it, it’s the action sequences. They are handled and choreographed well. The scene in the restaurant was great. She walked in confident like and then goes to crap and she must fight for her life against her mark’s henchmen and she only has five minutes to prove herself. I thought it was great because she kicked butt. I mean, she got her butt handed to her a few times, but she held her own and it was cool! She killed someone with a pole from the bar or something like that, it was crazy. My friend and I were like “Oooo, wow!” the entire time. She also has this big fight at the end, after she completes a major assignment, she must escape the building and pretty much encounters a ton of guards and she fights each one she meets. She has great prowess with a gun.

Entertaining/Fun. I don’t think this movie has great writing or anything but it’s fun. It reminds of Red Sparrow, but I enjoyed this movie way more because it’s just fun to watch. The story isn’t anything special but watching Anna’s montage of her missions, how she kicks butt and some of the story elements are entertaining, so it makes at least enjoyable. Keeps your attention.

Helen Mirren. She is a national treasure and is literally amazing in everything she’s in, even if the movie isn’t that great. Her character Olga is complicated. She’s part of the KGB and very much a Miranda Priestley type. She’s intimidating and observant and you wonder just how much she knows and what she’s keeping from Anna and by extension the audience. There are some character surprises from her later but if you’re paying attention, they may not be surprises at all.

Luke Evans & Cillian Murphy. We see them both a bit at the very beginning. We’re later introduced to Luke Evans when he tries to recruit Anna for the KGB. We see Cillian Murphy a few more times but he meets Anna much later. They both end up creating interesting relationships with her and maybe it’s because I like both actors, I was interested in seeing what happens with them. Particularly Luke Evans because we didn’t get to learn a ton about him, and I just wanted to follow him more. They’re both good in their roles, almost the same person just on opposite ends with kind of different personalities but ultimately the same kind of person.

Great Cinematography. Beautiful looking film. The colors are very vibrant when they’re there and you can pretty much see everything. All the fight scenes are well lit and shot so you can see what’s going on.

Cons:

Sophia Luss as Anna. I don’t quite think the character was bad, but the actress was just okay. Yes, she’s pretty, but I didn’t quite believe her as this character. She’s inconsistent. In the scenes when she’s in her apartment when she first meets Luke Evans, I quite liked her then. I don’t know if it was because she wasn’t that into her whole “spy” thing yet or what but I all the emotional stuff she had to do just didn’t do it for me. Plus, she cried too much at certain points, or she was whining too much.

The Story. Majority of the story was Anna doing things to get out of her situation. She was found and offered a solution to her bad life, but she was entering a questionable life. Then it was her always talking about being free and constantly asking people how she could do it and what she could do in order to be free. I mean, honestly, she wasn’t that interesting to me to be invested in her story and there wasn’t an interesting or strong enough story to really help elevate the action we got to see. I mean, the beginning was interesting by showing us all these undercover agents being rounded up, but we don’t hear anything about them until about halfway through the movie. I mean what?? Lol, the movie should have followed one of the agents that got rounded up, or maybe an agent that managed to not get rounded up, or they should have just followed Cillian Murphy’s character.

Overall, Anna is mindless fun. There isn’t much of a story to really catch your attention or keep it. You’ll probably come for the actors and for the action and I think both of those things are positives for the most part. There are two distinct action sequences that are fun to watch, very well shot and choreographed and Sophia Luss does a good job in selling the action… probably because she doesn’t have to do much acting if the camera isn’t focused on her face. Helen Mirren is always great, and her character is probably the most interesting in the film. Luke Evans and Cillian Murphy are also good in their smaller roles. Sophia Luss is okay, she doesn’t do it for me when it comes to acting, she was too inconsistent for me to be that invested in her character. But if you’re looking for a spy thriller that will at least be entertaining, then you can check out Anna.

Rating: 2.30 out of 5 stars.

Have you seen Anna? What are your thoughts on this film? Let me know in the comments below!

What is your favorite spy movie?

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