Barely Lethal (2015) Review!!

Synopsis – A teenage special ops agent coveting a “normal” adolescence fakes her own death and enrolls in a suburban high school. She quickly learns that surviving the treacherous waters of high school is more challenging than international espionage.

My Take – I am not sure if this is the same film whose exciting trailer intrigued me to watch it! The idea sounds really cool – set in a world where young girls are raised to become assassins by a secret government division, with the main character corrupted by an idea to live the life of a normal teenager. Ok agreed, it is not really the most novel idea, but it could work, if it was smarter or more imaginative, could it have been like a Black Widow (Marvel Universe character) origin story. But no matter how charming the tone and the actors are, one can’t help that there is still a lot of untouched potentials that may turn this at least a little cult classic or a stronger film. Instead it just follows the cliches which makes it rather forgettable. This film is basically a half quirkier version of an undercover spy movie and half a teen movie, like what if Mean Girls was a spy film? It may not sound so original, but there is some cases that may bring a different approach to this concept.

The story follows 16 year-old Megan Walsh (Hailee Steinfeld) is a trained international assassin, by a secret government division headed by Hardman (Samuel L. Jackson). Despite her being the best at her ‘job’ & her constant rivalry with Heather (Sophie Turner), Megan wishes for a life of a normal teenager. She gets her chance to escape on a mission to capture arms dealer Victoria Knox (Jessica Alba). Soon after being adopted by her foster family, she realizes high school may be more tougher than she thought! Yup! This premise already engages interest and holds so much potential, but it fails to deliver a satisfying result. The moment she escapes, the trajectory of the narrative disappoints immensely. It begins undermining the capacity of its lead character by dismissing the fact that she is a trained killer, exposing her vulnerabilities and teenage dramas, instead. This isn’t a totally a insane idea, she’s 16-year old, after all. But getting further dragged by bland one liners and intertwining subplots, makes it even worse. Eventually, in the wake of its competing concerns, it loses grip of its own direction and struggles to arrive to a decent endpoint. It talks about how lonely to be a secret agent and also how complicated high school is, but the film hardly explores these conflicts and rather follows the most familiar tropes. And there, the movie almost becomes a total teen comedy in the middle act, where it settles so much in whatever you’ll predictably get in this genre. This can be somewhat forgivable if the action movie side is creative or memorable, but it’s so underdeveloped, the film doesn’t fully acknowledge the consequences the characters will soon be facing, until it actually shows up. There’s just not enough enthusiasm involved when it comes to this area of the story. It also doesn’t succeed tapping the utmost potential of its strong supports by not giving them enough material to work with. Jessica Alba and Samuel Jackson barely do something here, though there may be some little moments with their presence, that aren’t really devoid of wit. Almost everything just falls flat, and the comic effort couldn’t provide any aid, either, to redeem its sagging narrative. Sure, it lightly pokes fun about the kids being trained as killers, Megan’s awkwardness in high school, and the parental advice from one of the characters, but that’s about it. The humor only works occasionally, some gets a little forced. To be fair, it’s all bearable.

Mostly thanks by its cast: Hailee Steinfeld helps elevating this rather bland character with a nice amount of likability. She may not convince that she’s a highly trained assassin that her behavior has presented, but she still makes for a competent hero for the movie, anyway. Well, you may want to blame that to her unconvincing chemistry (not saying there’s any) with both her love interests, and a boring villain whose presence may have only really felt during the last action sequence of the movie. Even Sophie Turner looks & acts awkward. The film could have done so much better, by either embracing its larger-than-life world of young killers or work more on its potential themes. But the film decided to choose the less compelling choices. It may have a likable personality that helped made it watchable, but there’s nothing else to enjoy in the end. The interesting stuff are underdeveloped and the story relies so much on the cliches. The premise sounds like it’s gonna be some cool YA action film, but the only thing it offers is attitude and that’s quite obvious for a movie with this title. On the whole, ‘Barely Lethal’, is a perfect example of an idea that doesn’t meet its potential. It wastes almost every promising attribute it has to live up to its overwhelming potential. In the end, it abandons what could be a unique take on the young espionage genre, and sets itself taking the leads of countless others it seems to emulate. The result is barely fulfilling. I rather watch ‘Kingsman : The Secret Service’ again!