Getting Even
Having just landed from a business trip away from home, Stanley Hill's (John Travolta) happiness to be met by his wife quickly turns to sorrow when in the car park they are attacked by a street gang who murder his wife. But when the police let the main suspect go, Stanley calls on his former Black Ops training and the help of a former Black Ops colleague, Dennis (Christopher Meloni), to take matters in to his own hands. But in seeking justice Stanley finds a chain of corruption heading right up to a government official.
I wonder when they were pitching "I Am Wrath" to actors whether they kept on mentioning "Taken" because this clearly has a similar idea with Stanley Hill being a former Black Ops agent who uses his training and an old contact when things become personal. As such what you get is John Travolta sneaking around, dodging bullets and finding that his wife's murder was not a random act and in fact she had been sticking her nose into business at work which some people were not happy about. Yes it is all pretty routine as is the fact that Stanley has a daughter and a grandchild and you can bet on her ending up in danger at some point because that is the sort of standard idea which fills "I Am Wrath".
Now in fairness there are some nice character connection twists in "I Am Wrath" but beyond that everything else in this movie is functional at best. The characters are routine but forgettable, well forgettable up to a point as sadly Travolta's hair seems to dominate scenes due to its unnatural nature. The action is just as routine with Christopher Meloni having one of the better fight scenes although some of the violence is on the graphic side with the use of slow motion to heighten it. But to be honest there is very little out of the ordinary in "I Am Wrath" which also makes it a movie which struggles to fully keep you entertained.
What this all boils down to is that "I Am Wrath" feels like one of those action movies which on a coin toss might have gone straight to DVD rather than getting a theatrical run as there is nothing in this which makes it worth going to the pictures to see.
