Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Crash. Bang. Wallop. That’s The Transporter: Refueled in a nutshell. A smartly-dressed, grizzled hero drives fast cars, beats up bad guys, seduces a beautiful woman, cracks a one-liner and repeats this cycle a few more times until the credits roll.
It’s as formulaic a movie as you’re ever likely to see, but it’s a thrilling journey nonetheless, and one particularly enjoyable with the visual and audial extravaganza that is IMAX.
Yes, this was the first movie premiere held at the Novo Cinemas multiplex in Seef Mall Muharraq, and hundreds of eager movie fans turned out to sample the screen’s delights for the first time.
This was in fact my second time watching a film at IMAX, with the first being a showing of The Dark Knight Rises at the Liverpool Odeon a few years back. However, thanks to my ever-dawdling best friend, we strolled in late and had to make do with the ‘whiplash seats’, and with a screen that big it just wasn’t a nice experience at all.
This time, I had ever-punctual Deputy Editor Gopal to have a seat reserved for me halfway-up, and I can safely say that this was an occasion to remember.
Two projectors are used to beam the film onto the giant screen which stretches from the floor to the ceiling, and everything just had a little more clarity. Colours popped out of the screen with incredible vibrancy, and every fragment of glass from smashed cars (there were a lot of smashed cars …) was sparklingly visible.
The sound, which is usually just taken for granted and simply ‘there’, takes on a whole new dimension with deep rumbling bass for every explosion and it actually sounds like bullets are being fired around you.
The Transporter: Refueled with its relentless action and fast cars was definitely a wise choice to showcase what an IMAX screen can do, and it didn’t disappoint.
The story follows Frank Martin (Skrein), a former special-ops mercenary who is now living a (supposedly) less perilous life transporting classified packages for questionable people.
When Frank’s father (Stevenson) pays him a visit in the south of France, their father-son bonding weekend takes a turn for the worse when Frank is approached by a cunning femme-fatale, Anna (Chabanol), and her three seductive sidekicks to orchestrate an elaborate heist.
Frank must use his expert knowledge of driving, martial arts and weaponry to protect the girls and lead them to safety when the Russian kingpin they were targeting comes for revenge.
Skrein actually fits the role pretty well. He has huge shoes to fill in the form of Jason Statham, who stepped aside from the franchise after three movies, but he has the charisma, if not the gravitas, to pull it off. His one-liners are typically corny and you can almost guess them before they happen, although they still raise a laugh.
Oh, and Skrein is supposedly meant to be a younger and rawer version of Frank, but if this is a prequel to the series which started back in 2002, the writers have a daft way of showing it as characters flash their iPhone 6’s and Skrein bombs around in a brand-new Audi S8.
Stevenson, who I’m a big fan of thanks to his role in Rome, steals the show as the suave and cheeky father who knows he owes his life to his son but shows it through teasing and withering put-downs.
The women are less impressive, with their sole purpose to introduce the various plot beats while supplying the eye candy. Considering their legitimate reasons to want to exact revenge on those who have punished them for years, they show little emotional response to events and as a whole could have put a lot more effort into their acting.
The car chases and fight scenes are as solid as you’d expect considering that’s where most of the budget went, even if the film suffers a little bit of Fast and Furious syndrome, where a franchise built on driving has lost its foundations in favour of punch-ups and shootouts.
Still, Refueled is enjoyable popcorn fare. You won’t be able to distinguish it from 100 other movies you’ve seen before, but it’s a great way to pass the time, especially if you catch the IMAX experience.
As GulfWeekly competition winner Lorrine Michael put it after seeing the film: “IMAX is on an entirely different scale when compared to other cinemas. The screen looked amazing and everything shook with the sound. It was a great first experience and I can’t wait to come back for more.”
