Enjoyable action film.

Rating: 6/10 (1 May 2010)

The Transporter is set in Marseille in France where ex-military man Frank Martin (Jason Statham) is known to the criminal underworld as a 'Transporter', a man who who can act as a getaway driver or deliver an illegal cargo from one place to another. Frank accepts a job to transport a bag across France, on the way to his destination Frank gets a flat tyre & has to get the spare from the boot & notices that the bag is moving. Curious Frank takes a look inside the bag & sees a Chinese woman named Lai (Qi Shu), Frank delivers the cargo to the destination & gangster Wall Street (Matt Schulze) gives Frank a suitcase to take back with him but it turns out it's packed with explosive & blows Frank's car up while he is inside a roadside café. Wall Street wants Frank dead & sets out to kill him while Frank reluctantly rescues Lai who tells him of an operation to smuggle hundreds of Chinese through Marseille...
This French American co-production was directed by Louis Leterrier & Cory Yuen & is a fun & energetic light hearted action film that could be described as a sort of cross between James Bond & Die Hard which has already been said about The Transporter franchise as a whole before, I must admit I did actually quite enjoy The Transporter for what it was. The script isn't the best with several poorly thought out moments like when one moment we see the kidnapped Lai is tied to a chair & then the next she's in the back of a car that Frank steals still tied to a chair. I mean how did she open the car door? How did she get in the car tied to a chair? How does a chair even fit inside the back of a car? How did she close the door once she was inside? How did Frank not notice a fully grown woman tied to a chair in the back of a car he just got in? Why did they kidnap Lai anyway? Why did they hire Frank to take her to that Château? Why is she free to do anything she wants at the end? What happened to the second truck full of Chinese at the end? How did Lai's father get to the truck Frank was driving so quickly? How did Lai get the gun off the Chinese gangster when we clearly hear her scream? Some sloppy writing & plotting hurts the film (alos, tellingly only four character's in the entire film are given names) but on the positive side The Transporter is quite likable, the main character played by Statham is likable & although his forced relationship with Lai seems clunky they make a nice couple & have a certain on screen spark, the bad guy's are alright if a little faceless & generic while the good natured cop has his moments. At a shade under 90 minutes at least it's short & moves along at breakneck pace, your never too far from something blowing up, a gun being fired or a fight scene which is definitely a good thing.
To be honest where The Transporter excels are it's action scenes which are great, from car chases to exploding houses to shoot-outs to imaginative fight scenes that have an air of Jackie Chan about them as Statham pulls out all the moves & uses various random objects to help him like his jumper or barrels of oil. Thankfully there's none of that horrible quick editing, everything here is well photographed & it's clear to see what's going on, who everyone is & where they are in fight scenes. The car chases are cool too although I wish they had used the huge trucks at the end a bit more. The ending itself is a bit of a let down with a brief stand-off & a rushed final few minutes that would have benefited from better send-offs for the villains. A word also goes for the French locations which are really nice, shot mainly in bright daylight the locations look really nice.
Filmed in France the production values are good, there's a lack of CGI computer effects & to my eye most of the stunts were real time stunts performed on set which helps the look of the film enormously. The acting is fine, Jason Statham was made for roles like this where he plays a likable action hero & he's pretty good here while Qi Shu is attractive as the love interest.
The Transporter is a fun & enjoyable action comedy with energetic fight scenes & some cool explosions & car chases, Statham is likable as the hero & despite some poor writing I liked it for what it was. Not a masterpiece by any means but an enjoyable way to spend 88 minutes. Followed by Transporter 2 (2005) & Transporter 3 (2008) both of which drop the 'The' from the title.