'Peppermint' Is a Lackluster Action Movie with a Cliché Story

I have this insane original idea for an action movie! So, the main hero loses their family to a bunch of bad guys. The hero then decides to start hunting them all down for revenge.

What a fantastic idea! I've never seen a movie like this in my life!

Peppermint is a vigilante action film written by Chad St. John and directed by Pierre Morel, the director of Taken. It stars Jennifer Garner as a woman whose husband and daughter get murdered in a drive-by shooting.

When the criminal justice system fails to put them in prison, she takes matters into her own hands, killing them all one by one.

Let's begin this review with the fact that this is a very cliché story. Earlier this year, a film called Death Wish was released, starring Bruce Willis as a father whose wife dies in a home invasion, and daughter gets severely injured. He then takes the law into his own hands.

Peppermint shares the same story. The film has a very typical action movie formula without introducing anything new to the idea.

The writing in this film was generally okay. But there were times where I felt like the dialogue was a little too simple. It sounded like a fifth grader wrote the dialogue in this movie, and in an R-rated movie, it's pretty surprising to not have any sort of sophistication in the dialogue.

Now, aside from the fact that the story is very familiar, it's not a very good story. There barely even feels like there's any story in the movie at all. Let me elaborate—

Most of the film's story takes place in the beginning when Riley North's family gets killed and the murderers walk free. But after that, the story essentially stops. From that point on, action scenes drive the story forward.

The story is honestly just bland and lacks any sort of substance. The film has no mysteries for Riley to uncover, nothing for Riley to be suspicious about or find, and nothing to get us to root for her journey.

As a result, this film has no tension at all. We aren't kept in any sort of suspense as she has to uncover some mystery she doesn't quite understand. The plot barely has any development and if you were to strip this movie of the action scenes, then absolutely nothing would keep us engaged in the story.

Now, action is supposed to play integral roles in action movies, but they need to have a good, interesting story as well. The film has no story. There isn't any real clear goal or objective that Riley really needs to struggle to reach.

When you have any sort of movie, your heroes should struggle. They should dig their way out of their situations, and get us to root for them. In Peppermint, we sympathize with Riley during the beginning of the movie, but after that, her journey to kill the cartel responsible is pretty easy for her.

There's a reason why Taken is so much better than Peppermint. It's because while Bryan Mills had little trouble killing bad guys, he had situations thrown towards him that he had to get around, and mysteries he had to solve. Everything was just too easy for Riley in this movie.

Now, what about Riley North as a character? Well, five years passed between when she lost her family and when she started killing the cartel members. And I felt like we should have gotten more insight on how she went from just another soccer mom to a ruthless vigilante.

The biggest development we get for her character is in one scene. I personally feel like Riley would have been so much better if we actually got to see more of what happened in the five years. I'd have wanted to see her actual training instead of having it just be alluded to.

My biggest praise for the movie? Jennifer Garner, who kicks some serious ass in this role. She finally returned to her action roots in Alias, and did not disappoint in this movie. Her performance and stunt work was really impressive.

However, I felt like Riley could have been done better. Her vulnerability is only shown in the beginning and in this scene where she mourns her family's death.

But throughout the film's main action, she has no vulnerability. She feels like a superhero. No one can beat her, no one can overpower her. Riley faces no equal adversary in this movie, and I believe that the best action movies have villains who are either stronger or a match for the hero.

There are barely any times in the movie where we feel like Riley's been defeated. At no point do the bad guys of the movie seem like they've gained the upper hand. Riley's always in control of the situation, and that's not how you create a compelling hero.

What about the action scenes? They were okay. I've just seen so many action movies that no particular scene in this movie stands out at all. There are no true BADASS moments in the movie. Most of the action gets boiled down to just shooting people.

There was little variety in the action scenes, either. We could have seen Riley PHYSICALLY fight some bad guys in a well-choreographed fight. But instead, for the most part, we just have her carrying a gun and shooting bad guys in the face. The woman doesn't even run out of bullets!

Now, Pierre Morel directed the film, and since he helmed Taken, it's safe to say he knows what he's doing when he directs action. The action in Peppermint was good, but there was nothing special.

I was much more impressed by the action scenes in John Wick than the scenes in this movie. However, the film's action was MILES better than the action in movies such as Taken 3 and Alex Cross.

Also, the acting performances were nothing special. While Garner was the stand-out star of the film, no one else was particularly good. I mean, Cailey Fleming (who played Riley's daughter) was okay, and it was interesting seeing her after she played young Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The soundtrack of the film...does its job. None of the music in this movie was memorable at all. The music simply did the bare minimum of what music needs to do in movies

By no means is Peppermint a bad movie. It's entertaining to watch, but there are just so many flaws in this movie in terms of its overall storytelling and character development.

This is a very tired movie. I've seen this exact same premise done so many times, and I've seen it done a lot better, quite honestly. This movie has an unbeatable hero, whose training is kind of obscure.

While it was EXTREMELY refreshing to finally see a female action hero headline a movie, the movie was just lacking in a compelling story that got us to root for Riley.

Because even the most invincible heroes should be overpowered at some point by the villains. An example is the "I'm back" scene in John Wick.

There's only one scene near the end where the main villain beats up Riley. But honestly, Riley didn't even look like she was trying at all during that scene. She never got back up and threw a punch once in that scene.

So much of this movie had the potential to be so much better. I mean, we could have seen more of Riley's journey to actually LOOK for the cartel members, instead of seeing her just shoot them. As a result, the film's story has absolutely no tension.

There's a scene in the movie where Riley ambushes her old rival, Peg, in her house. The scene was so unnecessary. It added nothing to the plot, it kind of made Riley look like an insane jerk, and it didn't even have any sort of witty dialogue.

I think this movie can best be compared to a grape lollipop. The wrapper says it's grape, and you're expecting grape. You taste the lollipop, and it's the most average lollipop you can ever have. It tastes like every other grape lollipop, but still tastes okay.

I'm Jonathan Sim, and I give Peppermint a 5/10.

Can we also talk about how weird the title of Peppermint is for the movie? I mean, peppermint is just the flavor of ice cream that Riley's daughter got before she died. It...never gets brought up again once for the rest of the movie.