by Emma Smith, Reporter

A lone wolf is mourning the violent deaths of his spouse and children. When the justice system fails him and the perpetrators go free, he takes matters into his own hands. Sound familiar? Switch out the male pronouns for female ones, and you have the plot of Peppermint. The movie is a competent example of the revenge film genre, but ultimately it offers nothing fresh and new beyond making the main character a woman. If you’re familiar with Death Wish, John Wick, Taken, The Punisher or their ilk, you’ve seen this story before. 

That is not to say there is nothing enjoyable about Peppermint. For fans of shoot ‘em up vengeance films, there is a lot to like. Jennifer Garner does action hero well and hopefully will have more opportunities to showcase her skills. The initial “wife and mother” portion of the movie feels almost constraining, and it is in the action sequences and raw emotional scenes that Garner shines. Like Keanu Reeves in the John Wick movies, she has the skill to make highly choreographed fight scenes look spontaneous. 

And the fight scenes in this movie are fun to watch. Director Pierre Morel does an excellent job of integrating the physicality of the locations – a modern house, a piñata store, even a car – into the fight scenes themselves. While there are plenty of guns, there are also clever uses of more ordinary objects. I would also wager that a good portion of the relatively low budget was spent on pyrotechnics, and who doesn’t like to see things explode? 

It is unfortunate that Morel seems to have given so little attention to the rest of the movie. The editing has a frenetic, shaky style reminiscent of the early 2000s, and not in a pleasant way.  The cast is given little to work with in terms of dialogue, something only Garner really manages to overcome. And while character development isn’t exactly a hallmark of revenge films, here it is basically non-existent. It feels almost unfair to criticize the cast given the poor script, but besides Garner the only memorable performance is given by Kyla Drew-Simmons as homeless child Maria.

For all its faults, it is refreshing to see a woman seeking revenge in a movie for something other than rape and to see a woman in an action movie who is not required to put on heels or a black tie gown even once. Maybe next time, someone can work those two into a better movie. But please still cast Jennifer Garner. 

If you are an Alias fan jonesing to see Garner kick some ass or a fan of revenge based action movies, Peppermint is worth a watch.

ComicsOnline give Peppermint 2.5 out of 5 knock off Peppermint Patties (™).

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