Dave Wilson
49 connections found
Filmography
View:
Connections, in both directions
The most noticeable influence is “Universal Soldier,” a film that shares so many plot elements that “Bloodshot” can be classified as a blatant rip-off.
Wilson’s Bloodshot is a lame Universal Soldier ripoff starring an aged Vin Diesel as the title superhero.
Such a concept traverses much of the same territory as Universal Soldier and RoboCop , among others.
Bloodshot is based on a Valiant comic, but for less comic book literate viewers, it may remind you more of sci-fi films like Robocop or Universal Soldier .
Van Damme's biggest hit – debatably – was a cheerfully nonsensical load of rubbish called Universal Soldier , in which Van Damme starred alongside Dolph Lundgren as soldiers who had been killed in action, reanimated by some futuristic technology, to carry out nefarious missions under the cover of being, err, dead.
Hey, this critic’s pulse probably never broke 35 during the 109-minute runtime, and say what you want about the schlocky, soldiers-turned-cyborgs “Universal Soldier” (1992), but at least Dolph Lundgren stood opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme throughout the cheesy nonsense.
If trying to launch a brand new superhero cinematic universe, Sony could’ve done worse than Bloodshot, a character whose origin story is basically a ripoff of Robocop and Wolverine.
You don’t need to have seen Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop to know where this one is headed.
Such a concept traverses much of the same territory as Universal Soldier and RoboCop, among others.
Based on a bestselling Valiant comic book title, “Bloodshot” is a cousin to action films like “Robocop” and “Total Recall” where the hero survives death and finds themselves trapped in an uncertain reality.
“It’s Iron Man meets RoboCop by way of Wolverine.
It will also remind the viewer of Robocop at times (the original one not that remake wack one).
It couldn’t compare to The Dark Knight , Iron Man or Thor .
That’s when more of the story’s derivative nature comes to the forefront, with echoes of Terminator , RoboCop , Iron Man , and others all bouncing off each other.
“It’s Iron Man meets RoboCop by way of Wolverine .
Is it good enough to be Valiant’s Iron Man ?
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Directed by James Cameron
influenced Bloodshot (2020)
Visuals Themes Plot
Dave Wilson, a visual effects artist making his feature directing debut here, certainly knows his way around some striking body FX that are reminiscent of TERMINATOR 2 in their impact, without copying details.
Films like “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” “Robocop” and “Total Recall” are thrown into a blender and the diluted, flavorless results leave you hankering for the original ingredients.
Ray is now super-strong and has the power to immediately rejuvenate, sort of like the cyborg in “Terminator 2.” Ah, but he’s lost his memory and he’s forced to keep on living the same day (with certain variations) over and over again, like Drew Barrymore in “50 First Dates.”
Like many of its predecessors, Bloodshot tries to flip the concept introduced in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
There's a comforting familiarity to "Bloodshot," an assemblage of action clichés that cribs liberally from "The Matrix," "The Terminator" and even Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel."
This Escapist film critic says Vin Diesel’s new superhero venture, Bloodshot , is Universal Soldier crossed with The Matrix … a few decades too late.
In addition to being Captain America/Blade/Neo from The Matrix and literally Vin Diesel, Bloodshot is also the protagonist of Memento .
He is — this may not be the technical term — Wi-Fi-enabled, meaning he can instantly download and digest a piloting manual, just like in “The Matrix.”
Garrison also boasts trace elements of The Terminator (he’s an online-enabled murder borg), and his story is depicted with flourishes straight out of The Matrix (oh, the incessant slow-mo bullet-time and virtual-reality effects!) and Spider-Man 2 (one baddie employs Doctor Octopus-style mecha-arms during the finale).
Even the plot itself — credited to Jeff Wadlow (yes, the same guy who wrote and directed the horrendous Fantasy Island) and Eric Heisserer — is a mishmash of ideas borrowed from the likes of RoboCop, The Terminator and Edge of Tomorrow, with the latter has a Groundhog Day-like story device involving a dead U.S. marine (Vin Diesel’s Ray Garrison) brought back to life through a scientific experiment supervised by Dr Emil Harting (Guy Pearce) and turned him into a nanobot-enhanced super-soldier.
There's a comforting familiarity to "Bloodshot," an assemblage of action clichés that cribs liberally from "The Matrix," "The Terminator" and even Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel."
Garrison also boasts trace elements of The Terminator (he’s an online-enabled murder borg), and his story is depicted with flourishes straight out of The Matrix (oh, the incessant slow-mo bullet-time and virtual-reality effects!) and Spider-Man 2 (one baddie employs Doctor Octopus-style mecha-arms during the finale).
One could take the baseless Bloodshot as a poor man’s knockoff as The Terminator.
The concept owes a debt to Edge of Tomorrow and Memento , the latter of which Bloodshot winks at by casting in a major role Guy Pearce, the star of Memento .
Even the plot itself — credited to Jeff Wadlow (yes, the same guy who wrote and directed the horrendous Fantasy Island) and Eric Heisserer — is a mishmash of ideas borrowed from the likes of RoboCop, The Terminator and Edge of Tomorrow, with the latter has a Groundhog Day-like story device involving a dead U.S. marine (Vin Diesel’s Ray Garrison) brought back to life through a scientific experiment supervised by Dr Emil Harting (Guy Pearce) and turned him into a nanobot-enhanced super-soldier.
This is an action romp in the vein of films like “Edge of Tomorrow,” where it also likes to mess with our perceptions by screwing with reality.
Even the plot itself — credited to Jeff Wadlow (yes, the same guy who wrote and directed the horrendous Fantasy Island ) and Eric Heisserer — is a mishmash of ideas borrowed from the likes of RoboCop, The Terminator and Edge of Tomorrow, with the latter has a Groundhog Day-like story device involving a dead U.S. marine (Vin Diesel’s Ray Garrison) brought back to life through a scientific experiment supervised by Dr Emil Harting (Guy Pearce) and turned him into a nanobot-enhanced super-soldier.
Bloodshot is a new Vin Diesel action movie that was based on a 1992 Valiant comic book of the same name, optioned by Sony in 2015 with a plan to turn it into “an R-rated adaptation that will be tonally and aesthetically influenced by high-concept, sci-fi blockbusters of the late ’80s including Robocop , Terminator , and Total Recall .”
OCP built Robocop but he remembers being Alex Murphy (Peter Weller).
Think of Garrison as the big screen’s version of The Six Million Dollar Man crossed with the revenge factor of Clint Eastwood’s spaghetti western Hang ‘Em High.
A bad guy, Martin Axe (Tony Kebbell), shimmies into a meat locker to the ominous bop of Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” (his dance moves are pure Michael Madsen from “Reservoir Dogs”) and once there proceeds to threaten Garrison with executing his wife, Gina (Talulah Riley), right in front of him.
In follow-up scenes, Ray’s beloved wife Gina (Talulah Riley of TV’s “Westworld”) goes with him to the Amalfi Coast where they are then kidnapped by Martin Axe (Toby Kebbell), who, after performing a dance familiar to fans of “Reservoir Dogs” to the tune of the Talking Heads’ classic “Psycho Killer” in trademark canvas sandals, kills Gina and Ray.
Where something like Birds Of Prey instantly hooks into Harley Quinn’s color-poppin’ personality, Bloodshot lurches forward like an autopilot hunter-prey scenario which references everything from Terminator to A Nightmare On Elm Street to Spider-Man.
It’s like Sylvester Stallone’s breakdown at the end of First Blood as applied to popping the balloon on bros’ predatory behavior.
Think of Garrison as the big screen’s version of The Six Million Dollar Man crossed with the revenge factor of Clint Eastwood’s spaghetti western Hang ‘Em High.
“The Six Million Dollar Man” gets a multi-billion dollars upgrade and a nasty twist in this bombastic action movie adapted from Valiant’s comic-book series, which started in 1992.
Had the movie been made 30+ years ago, it likely would have starred Arnold Schwarzenegger; there are some narrative similarities to Total Recall, a science fiction film that spent more time focused on Schwarzenegger’s biceps and Sharon Stone’s cleavage than on far more interesting things associated with the core technology of memory implantation.
Clearly intended to jumpstart a new superhero franchise, Bloodshot frequently feels like a holdover of a bygone era – the type of superhero movie they were making around the time of Ben Affleck’s Daredevil , or Nicolas Cage’s Ghost Rider .
In fact, Jimmy (Heughan) dons a pair of elongated arms – possibly inspired by Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) human forklift suit in “Aliens” (1986) – in the third act, which makes one wonder: Why all the previous fuss with his legs?
Ray is now super-strong and has the power to immediately rejuvenate, sort of like the cyborg in “Terminator 2.” Ah, but he’s lost his memory and he’s forced to keep on living the same day (with certain variations) over and over again, like Drew Barrymore in “50 First Dates.”
Almost in-production since 2012, this might have once starred Jared Leto and/or been directed by John Wick main-man Chad Stahelski, and yet here it is with Diesel, Wilson and more credibility gaps than you could shake Vin’s leathery chrome-dome at.
Originally to be helmed by John Wick co-filmmakers Chad Stahelski and David Leitch but chose to pass on the project, former visual effects supervisor-turned-director Dave Wilson failed to do enough to generate any worthwhile entertainment.
(That movie was going to be directed by the directors of John Wick , with Jared Leto in talks to star.)
1997’s Batman & Robin and Spawn as well as 2005’s Elektra).