“In the south of France, former special-ops mercenary Frank Martin enters into a game of chess with a femme-fatale and her three sidekicks who are looking for revenge against a sinister Russian kingpin.”
– IMDb
The Transporter Refueled
Starring
Ed Skrein, Loan Chabanol, Ray Stevenson
Directed by Camille Delamarre
Box Office: $72,629,670 Gross worldwide
Review
The Transporter is back with the release of the first of three films in the reboot of the franchise: The Transporter Refueled. The character of Frank Martin has returned- this time, without Jason Statham. Ed Skrein, who you may know as Daario Naharis from Game of Thrones, has taken over the role.
When asked by Vulture about the return of the franchise, this time without him, Statham stated:
You know what? It was obviously a great experience doing those films, and I would have loved to keep doing it. But they wanted me to sign on and do three more films without even seeing a script, and they offered me less money to do three than I’d get paid for one! So it was a business decision. I would have loved to have done it, but you can’t really sign on without doing a script, and to sign on for three of them? And to get paid a pittance? I just couldn’t see the value in that.
While it is unfortunate for all of us Statham fans, I think we can all respect his decision to end his Transporter career but, how will it affect the rest of the franchise?
After a small intro, the film continues to show an all too familiar fight scene held in a parking garage, reminiscent of Transporter 2. Then, you see the young Frank Martin come out of the shadows. You know it’s not going to be Statham. You’ve been preparing for this. And yet, it is still hard not to feel a bit let down when you see Skrein. Now, I’m not GOT fan, so I couldn’t even get excited about seeing Skrein just for the fact that he’s in GOT. Oh well. He’s not too bad to look at, so you slowly get adjusted to the casting change.
I will not give any spoilers of the rest of the film, but…
The main premise is, that in order to save his father’s life, Martin must help four women with a bank robbery. Part of this also involves confronting and killing, a human trafficker. This person had victimized one of the females, Anna, years earlier.
All of the previous Transporter films were cheesy and over the top ridiculous. This fourth installment easily offers the same thing but is a major letdown. Yes, there are the usual stunts, fights, fast cars, and seductive women involved. However, it was hard to care about the plot enough to pay attention. Without having Statham’s charm and wit, the script falls short.
There are also unnecessary flashback moments. When you see the antagonists of the film for the second time, they flashback to the beginning of the movie. They show what they looked like “back then”. The two scenes have about ten minutes between them. I don’t think we forgot what the obvious “bad guys” looked like from ten minutes ago. Plus, they didn’t even change drastically enough for us to need it explained. It was overly dramatic for nothing. I started to lose interest right after that.
However, I will say Ed Skrein does a decent job and deserves some credit. I believe he suits the role well and he did have big shoes to fill. In that regard, I find he was a good choice for the role. Even a great actor can’t magically fix a bad script.
I guess Statham was wise in not accepting the role without reading the scripts after all.
Overall
I would not pay to watch this film and while I usually watch movies several times, I will not be watching this one again. It makes me question whether or not the next two films will even be able to make a comeback and somehow save this new trilogy. So far, it is not looking good.
Have you seen Transporter Refueled yet? Or are you refusing to watch it without it starring Statham? Let me know in the comments!