If you want to make a good-looking film these days, I’ve got one word for you: neon. It doesn’t matter your genre or budget; everybody’s doing it, from small-fry dystopia “The Bad Batch” to estrogen-pumping action flick “Atomic Blonde.” Some directors are even taking “neo-noir” to punnish levels, as films like “Gemini” and “Blade Runner 2049” max out the technicolor aesthetic. Now, Vaughn Stein has thrown his hat in that on-the-nose ring with his feature debut, “Terminal.”
The film follows Annie (Margot Robbie), a slinky seductress with “an unquenchable bloodthirst for darkness and depravity,” as she infiltrates a mercenary clan and turns their spy vs. spy antics into a game of cat and mouse. Along the way, she seduces and bamboozles dying English teacher Bill (Simon Pegg), cantankerous assassin Vince (Dexter Fletcher), and his doe-eyed apprentice Alf (Max Irons). This tightly-woven mystery unravels in a satisfying (if laborious) fashion, as it becomes clear that every word of dialogue is crucial, every visual hint substantiated. All told, “Terminal” has the trappings of a very smart movie – until the characters open their mouths.
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I imagine the “Terminal” script looks like what you’d get if you crammed Zack Snyder’s filmography and a Hot Topic training manual into a blender and pressed “puree.” The film oozes with try-hard edginess, from its shoehorned, done-to-death “Alice in Wonderland” references to its eye-roll-inducing, sexy-dangerous aesthetic. Annie is the centerpiece of that latter narrative flaw, as she struts about the film with a 1920s pout and hairdo and a decidedly 21st-century view on sexuality. She is a mainstream feminism nightmare come to life, a thousand “eyeliner so sharp you could kill a man” sentiments made manifest, but she is also decidedly Not Like Other Girls. She likes death and destruction, which makes her cool and weird – but don’t worry, boys, no threats here! She still spends several scenes done up in sheer lingerie.
Though “Terminal” supposedly empowers its protagonist because she spends its plot destroying a series of men, the film actually joins a storied legacy of hollow action films in which female protagonist enact male violence merely for the sake of titillation and badassery. Though she gets a hastily-sketched backstory (spoiler alert: like every other male fantasy of an interesting woman, it includes child rape!), Annie is little more than a sexy sociopath. She’s also a sassy waitress and a stripper as well as an assassin because apparently, they were having a sale in the fetish section of Vaughn Stein’s local Halloween store when he wrote this script.
It doesn’t help that Annie speaks like a non-playable character in a “Tropes vs. Women” video. In her first ever conversation with Billy, he blithely throws out the word “naughty.” Annie simpers, skulking toward the diner counter. “Naughty? As in spank me gently, I’ve been a naughty girl?”
“Rape away!” she crows to him in another scene, just in case the audience thought Stein was being too subtle. “Pillage me!”
These lines ostensibly have a purpose once the narrative expands and identities are revealed, but really, is there any real narrative justification for making Oscar-nominated actor Margot Robbie purr about kink fantasies or shout about rape? Is it strictly necessary to stick her in bunny ears and lacy panties? If you think the answer is “yes,” would you expect the same from her co-stars, Simon Pegg or Mike Myers? It’s not like Robbie is bad in these roles, it’s just that she shouldn’t have to occupy them. She was the only bright spot in “Suicide Squad,” where she played another sexy maniac, and she’s just as compelling here. Her exchanges with the equally game Simon Pegg are often delicious, if not filling, and she does her best with some idiotic lines. The film is blessed to have her, and would likely be insufferable with a less compelling lead.
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The most frustrating thing about “Terminal” isn’t its belligerent sexism or juvenile script, though – it’s that the movie is out-of-this-world gorgeous. Cinematographer Christopher Ross brings neon lighting to new heights, as primary colors drench each venue in vibrant hues and enhance the film’s vintage-dystopian aesthetic. The sparse locales look like something out of “BioShock,” before Rapture went subaqueous – a motif aided by the film’s decidedly old-fashioned art direction. Costumes by Julian Day and Richard Bullock’s production design cohere into a delightful, days-of-yore mélange. Is it 1940? Is it 2050? Who cares! Look at Margot Robbie’s coats!
At the end of the day, “Terminal” is like a prize calico hopped up on catnip. It’s beautiful, if not brilliant, and (aside from a final act that drags on way too long) fun to watch. In the alternate universe where I don’t care about misogyny and I decided to watch this movie on mute, it’s probably one of the best things I’ve seen all year. Unfortunately, like the characters in “Terminal,” I am stuck in a dreary timeline where sexual objectification is king and the plot is just not that innovative. [C]