Ava movie review by Movie Review Mom

MOVIE TITLE: AVA

RATING: R

LENGTH: 1 hour, 36 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: C

IN A NUTSHELL:

Not to be confused with the 2018 movie film also named Ava, this crime drama was directed by Tate Taylor. The film features the talented Jessica Chastain as a deadly assassin who works for a black ops organization killing people who have done “bad things.”

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Lots of F-bombs and other profanity
Cold-hearted murder. Violent deaths with blood.
Violence
Brief shots of skin during sensual moments.
This is not a movie for kids.

THEMES:

Good vs. evil and the blurry lines in between.
Family
Forgiveness
Loyalty

THINGS I LIKED:

Jessica Chastain is a force to be reckoned with. She’s beautiful and capable of any action scene. Rumor has it that between filming takes, she hosted dance parties and exercise classes for the crew.
During the rolling credits at the beginning of the movie, you’re given a ton of visual information about the protagonist in this story. It helps to quickly understand what she’s all about.
I loved seeing Geena Davis again! It’s been a while since I’ve seen her in anything. I’ve always adored her. She’s beautiful and super-smart, starring in over 27 movies and being a member of Mensa with an IQ score within the upper 2% of the general population.
I always get a kick out of John Malkovich too. Others in the talented cast include Colin Farrell, Common, and Joan Chen.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

All the action comes to a screeching halt when Ava goes back home to try to repair her family relationships. It’s a trite story and the action flick quickly becomes a soap opera.
No big surprises or twists which would have made the film more intriguing.
After filming, a decision was made to change Jessica Chastain’s character’s name from Eve to Ava. Because of that, they had to go back to refilm some parts. Why the name change? Did it make any difference at all? Eve is a much more symbolic name. It’s especially odd that the filmmakers would go to that much trouble to change the name of the character and movie when there was already a 2018 film called Ava.
John Malkovich appears to say some insightful lines at the end of the movie, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. If it was the big message of the movie, I missed it!
Unfortunately, the movie is mostly forgettable.
A big problem in the film is the villain. Normally, it’s fun to watch the cat and mouse relationship between a protagonist and villain throughout a movie, but in this film, they really don’t even occupy the screen together until the movie is almost over in the last 25 minutes. We don’t learn hardly anything about the villain.
Some of the action scenes are just not that great. Many of the moments look like old Hollywood punching fake-outs. In one of them, you even see a big lighting camera!