It sounds like Jessica Alba’s new Netflix action movie Trigger Warning needs a different kind of warning: The film is currently sporting a review score even lower than Jennifer Lopez’s sci-fi bomb, Atlas.
That film currently boasts an 18% critic score and a 45% audience score on the review aggregator. But it gets worse. Alba’s new action flick, Indonesian director Mouly Surya’s English-language debut, is scoring even worse than Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon Part II: The Scargiver, which has a dismal 15% with critics and 48% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.
I don’t always agree with the critic consensus, but in my review of Rebel Moon Part II I called the film “Tedious, derivative and implausible beyond belief” and remain baffled at how an experienced director like Snyder can still make such horrendous films.
And yet somehow, Trigger Warning has fared even worse than both of these. It’s currently sitting at a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 20% audience score, though this is likely going to change as more reviews come in now that the movie is live on Netflix. Behold:
The official description of Trigger Warning reads:
Special Forces commando Parker (Jessica Alba) is on active duty overseas when she gets called back to her hometown with the tragic news that her father has suddenly died. Now the owner of the family bar, Parker reconnects with her former boyfriend-turned-sheriff Jesse (Mark Webber), his hot-tempered brother Elvis (Jake Weary) and their powerful father Senator Swann (Anthony Michael Hall), as she looks to understand what actually happened to her dad. Parker’s search for answers quickly goes south and she soon finds herself at odds with a violent gang running rampant in her hometown. Unsure of who she can truly trust, Parker draws on her commando training and proves herself a force to be reckoned with as she hunts down the truth and attempts to right what has gone wrong in Swann County, with the help of her covert ops partner and hacker Spider (Tone Bell) and connected local dealer Mike (Gabriel Basso).
Here’s the trailer:
The Telegraph says that Trigger Warning “is about as inflammatory as a cheese sandwich.”
IndieWire’s David Ehrlich says the film is “lifeless and instantly forgettable” which isn’t exactly what you want to hear about an action movie involving a spec ops soldier battling a nefarious gang of violent criminals to protect her family bar. Ehrlich adds “Even the needlessly provocative title of this movie — which promises a degree of political confrontation that is all but absent from the movie itself — feels like the byproduct of a culture that’s delegated its last traces of critical thinking and/or curatorial agency to the “For You” tabs of the world.”
Variety’s Dennis Harvey is a bit more optimistic, calling the film “too formulaically contrived to qualify as “elevated genre” or to boast the personal stamp of her prior work” but noting that “it’s an entertaining, pacey action melodrama that should do well for Netflix”.
The AV Club’s Courtney Howard says the film is a missed opportunity for Netflix. “What should serve as a warm welcome for Mouly Surya (helming her first English-language picture) and a kick-ass welcome back to lead roles for star Jessica Alba turns into a congealed mess of squandered potential.”
As I’m writing this post, one lone Fresh score has popped up from The Daily Beast’s Emma Stefansky. “Given how terrible other Netflix action movies starring A-list actresses have been lately (looking at you, Atlas, and you, Heart of Stone, and you, Damsel), it feels almost revolutionary to watch one that’s actually engaging. Plus, there’s an iguana in this one.”
Readers are equally unimpressed. “For a movie self billed as the female John Wick,” one audience review reads, “it does nothing that made John Wick special. There is no attention to detail, no care for firearm accuracy, and certainly no care for the script and locations. Jessica Alba’s effort is the only thing that makes this watchable.”
“Jun 21, 2024 I wish I could give it zero stars,” writes another. “The acting is terrible. The gun fighting scenes are unbearable to watch. I would rather watch a tubi movie marathon.”
Those who did seem to enjoy it have one thing in common: They’re Jessica Alba fans. “Really enjoyed it! Jessica Alba is back!” one audience reviewer puts it, succinctly. And maybe that’s enough. Sometimes even a dumb action movie can be fun if you go into it with the right mentality.
Trigger Warning is now streaming on Netflix. I’ll update this post if/when the Rotten Tomatoes score changes.
Note: As of publication, 1 out of 8 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes gives this a Fresh score, which equals 12.5%. It is still showing up as 0% on the main page (see screenshot).
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