SCORCHED EARTH (2018)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *sociological*

The above poster for Gina Carano's post-apoc adventure is at least indirectly honest in emphasizing her heroine's dependence on a gun. Her futuristic bounty hunter Attica Gage shoots a lot, uses a knife once or twice, and gets into some free-form brawls. But if anyone came to this movie looking for the kind of hard hitting martial-arts fights for which Carano first became known, like her MMA competitions and films like 2011's HAYWIRE.

Though the opening narration provides more detail about this future-Earth than a lot of MAD MAX imitations-- including, to be sure, the original MAX-- it's still pretty dull detail, and none of it gives the world any particular resonance. 

Gage is no better. She's a ruthless bounty hunter motivated only by gain, though arguably she serves the cause of justice by corralling lowlifes for the remaining civil authorities. She has one sympathy-point in her backstory: that long ago her sister was killed by a raider, and she nurtures the desire to find the murderer.

She takes on the identity of a dead quarry in order to capture a high-dollar bounty, Jackson (Ryan Robbins), who's heavily protected by a gang of henchmen in a bandit-town in "New Montana." Gage successfully worms her way into Jackson's confidence, largely because he's smitten with her. However, mirabile dictu, Jackson turns out to be the man who murdered Gage's sister. Naturally, violence ensues, but it's all very pedestrian-- like the dialogue, the performances, and even the characters' attire, which is almost all grey. Gage makes a couple of minor efforts toward helping some of the downtrodden in the town, but she still never transcends the level of "accidental hero."

Director Peter Howitt previously helmed projects as distinct from one another as the 1998 SLIDING DOORS and the 2003 JOHNNY ENGLISH, but this material was entirely out of his wheelhouse.