Don't You Roll Your Bloodshot Eyes at Me

We weren't expecting much from Bloodshot (2020), except for Vin Diesel. And we got it.

It starts as a perfectly ordinary action movie - Diesel completes a dangerous mission and goes on a sweet getaway with his beloved. This was hokey enough that it drove Ms. Spenser to quit watching, although she dropped back in later. Then, to compound the corn, bad guys capture them, torture and kill the wife, then kill Diesel.

Wow, over so soon! Oh, no.

Diesel wakes up with no memory. Tech exec Guy Pearce explains that he is the first person brought back to life by their "Bloodshot" nanobot process. Now he can heal from any wound, as long as the nanites have power. He meets some of the other team members, most of them enhanced with a variety of prosthetic devices. Then he starts getting his memory back.

He goes out on his own to get the bad guys who killed him and his wife. Then he heads back to the company to get the nanites fueled up. SPOILER for big twist - there, he has his mind wiped and new memories are implanted. They show the same scenario as last time - mission, vacation, torture and kill wife, but this time with a different bad guy. So when he wakes up, he will go after this guy. 

This seems like a complicated way to get someone to do some killing for you. But it does explain why the first part of the movie was so corny - it was scripted! It wasn't real. Nice out for the scriptwriters.

All of this plot stuff is interesting: We have a hero who doesn't know who he is, and when he finds out, it isn't real. But it's kind of incoherent - we're not getting Inception here. But how is it as a hook to hang a bunch of action scenes on? Actually, not that great either. Since he can be reconstituted by his nanites, Diesel is kind of unstoppable. Also, most of his fighting is just computerized SFX. Makes sense since this is the first feature for Dave Wilson, who previously did mostly special effects work.

Bloodshot is based on a Valiant comic series, and was supposed to be the start of the Valiant Cinematic Universe. Since it was released during COVID quarantine, it might not be possible to judge its success fairly. But I don't think this franchise is going anywhere.