The new film Blacklight takes its name from the idea that ultraviolet light can uncover things unseen by the naked eye. But what the eye does see in this pedestrian action romp is a tired, aged actor trying to extend a late-life action career well past its prime, and the results are exactly what one would expect. Blacklight stars Liam Neeson as Travis Block, a “fixer” for the FBI who is called upon to help agents too far undercover get out of bad situations. Block has also been known to do things many would consider illegal to ensure an FBI investigation continues unabated.
When a fiery Latina political candidate (Mel Jarnson) — who is clearly modeled after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with her progressive ideas — is run down in the street in front of her house, Block is called in to find and bring in the agent (Taylor John Smith) who was tasked with infiltrating her campaign, and who might now be trying to pass off intelligence to a reporter (Emmy Raver-Lampman) who is looking to uncover a deep government plot to assassinate the young politico and target other dissenters to keep the status quo in Washington, DC.
While the plot seems built around current real-life, hot-button issues, Blacklight’s script, by attorney-turned-screenwriter Nick May, is anything but. Major holes in the narrative constantly trip up the story, and way too many car chases and a woefully anti-climatic ending makes the payoff as worthless as as three-dollar bill.
Neeson’s Block is given a B-story as a grandfather trying to connect with his daughter (Claire van der Boom) and granddaughter (Gabriella Sengos) that really doesn’t go anywhere, and serves only as a catalyst for his family to be put in harm’s way so he can use his “particular set of skills” in yet another action movie franchise.
Add to this the fact that no one seems to be investigating the murder of a politician other than a reporter at the local newspaper, and even she keeps getting shot down by her editor (Tim Draxl) for reasons that are never made clear.
Somewhere in all of this mess is Aidan Quinn, who plays FBI Director Gabriel Robinson, a friend to Block who feeds him assignments off the books. The two men have a long history together, and the events of Blacklight unravel that decades-long relationship to a very silly and disappointing conclusion.
Blacklight has some good ideas, but maybe director Mark Williams (Ozark) should have used his own ultraviolet light to try and see what works and what doesn’t, and have been more selective in driving this film to its ultimately insipid conclusion. Williams is given a story credit, along with Brandon Reavis, but more cooks in the kitchen is the last thing this film needed.
Perhaps the biggest problem with Blacklight is in the casting of Neeson as Block. The Irish actor found great success as a action star with the Taken series, and parlayed that into other thriller-type roles for the last decade, but it’s evidently clear that his body is not what it used to be. Neeson plods through scenes, and even the fight scenes — which used to draw on his prior experience as an amateur boxer — looked and felt like high school stage combat. It just wasn’t convincing.
What Liam Neeson can still do well is deliver scenery-chewing lines with his gravely voice that still contains a hint of his Irish accent. In fact, and I don’t say this lightly, you can watch the trailers for this film and get all you need to know about Blacklight. This includes Neeson’s most powerful lines cut to much better effect in the commercials than in the final film.
With a story that could have used a hard script polishing, along with a more able lead, this could have been so much more. As it stands now, Blacklight as a film is as generic of an action film as they come, and might be better staying in the dark.
Blacklight is rated PG-13 and is in theaters now.
