A review of The Transporter. The most satisfying action movie in a long time.

Rating: Null/10 (14 October 2002)

The Transporter is an action flick that doesn't pretend to be anything else. It also happens to be one of the most satisfying movies I have seen in a long time. The movie starts off slowly, with Frank Martin, The Transporter, played by Jason Statham, sitting calmly in his car waiting. The entire first part of the story is designed to set up who he is and what he does. The Transporter is a man who will take anything wherever it needs to go for a price. In the opening sequence he transports a group of thieves from the location they have just robbed to a designated meeting point. As he does so, we learn a little about his way of doing business (no nonsense) and get treated to one of the best car chase scenes the big screen has seen in a long time. The Transporter is obviously very good at what he does and Statham portrays him marvelously. He doesn't come off as an Arnold type super hero, willing to kill anything. He remains cool, but not glacial as surprises pop up. He tries to avoid fights in most of the movie, only kicking ass when he has to. Statham's performance was one of the big parts of the movie I really enjoyed. Martin is obviously supposed to be a typical action star character, involved in high-speed car chases and running away from expanding fireballs, but he still manages to come off as human. The fact that Statham is a really good actor (as demonstrated in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch) is a big part of what made the movie above average.
The other really great part of this movie is the departure from the usual `hero meets pretty girl, falls in love and agrees to help her defeat bad guys' storyline. It takes the better part of the movie for the female lead (Qi Shu) to convince him to help, and when she does it's only in part because he's going to be stuck in jail if he doesn't. There is no final showdown with the big boss in a burning building, or prolonged kung fu battle and despite some of the seeming absurdities and a couple of Deus Ex Machina scenes, the story is completely believable in the world it sets itself up in. Every part fits in well to the story and doesn't leave and blatant plot holes. The acting and basic plot alone would not be enough to make the movie truly enjoyable without the action and the liberal application of humor. The movie is quite obviously an action movie. If you hadn't figured it out from the advertisements and posters, it becomes blatant in the first 10 minutes. The advertisements promise car chases, fight scenes and explosions and the movie certainly delivers. Apart from the usual action fare is a really entertaining fight involving a lot of oil, a high-speed chase in an 18-wheeler and a hijacked crop duster. The originality keeps the audience from tuning out parts of the action as being simply rehashed from another movie. My favorite part about this movie though is that it's really pretty funny. It's not really a comedy, but there are a lot of little humorous movements spread throughout the story that keeps the audience awake and alert. I went into this movie expecting the usual formulaic action movie, and came out more satisfied than I had for any other movie I've seen in a long time. The action was amazing, the humor was subtle, and the story was head and shoulders above most of the action movies out there.