Of Thinly Disguised Identities.

Rating: 2/10 (26 February 2018)

These fracnhises have replaced the weejkkly adventure series on televvision. It doesn't matter who the stars are or what the plot is. Everything and everyone are replaceable. Okay, Connery and Stallone are out, but Damon and Cruise are now in. No more SMERSH but then we have "The Syndicate." If there are any consistent themes, they are advanced technology and the superior combat skills of the protagonist.
Well, I suppose there are other iterated shots at a more molecular level -- an armed man is fighting an unarmed man and there is a shot of the weapon skidding across the floor; one combatant slams his forehead against that of the other and disables him, and to hell with Newton; a shoe stomps on the accelerator cut to a tire burning rubber and raising a cloud of dust. This film as at least one example of each cliché. It's just added evidence that the fall of civilization is at hand.
Here's another I'll throw in for the cognocenti among us. An assassination attempt -- mostly out of Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much" -- takes place during an opera. It's "Madam Butterfly." Now guess which aria you're going to hear. At least no one will sleep during the bullets and acrobatics.
The villainous organization here has no particular plan in mind. It's not an underground nest of rich Nazis or rabid drug dealers. It's only purpose, we're told, is to "destroy the system that created it." Right.
You can watch it if you like. Personally, these sequels drain me of energy in the way that Hollywood has been drained of imagination.