A Potpourri of Vestiges Review
Murtaza Ali Khan
Over
the last decade or so, Chris Pratt seems to have overtaken everybody else to
become a leading blockbuster action hero in Hollywood. He brings with him just
the right mix of charisma and rugged machismo. Not many are aware that there
was a time when Pratt failed the auditions for J. J. Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ and
James Cameron's ‘Avatar.’ But, it all changed for Pratt with ‘Zero Dark Thirty,’
wherein he played one of the soldiers who took part in the eventual
assassination mission to take down Osama bin Laden. He followed it up with ‘Guardians
of the Galaxy,’ wherein he essays the part of a brash space adventurer named
Peter Quill who gets hunted by relentless bounty hunters after he steals an orb
coveted by Ronan, the Supreme Accuser of the Kree Empire. Subsequently, he went
on to star in films like ‘Jurassic World,’ wherein he undertakes the seemingly
impossible task of training raptors, ‘The Magnificent Seven,’ wherein Pratt stars
as a member of a band of cowboys who are hired to protect a small town from an
evil baron, and ‘The Tomorrow War,’ which stars Pratt in the role of a man
recruited to fight an invasion taking place in the future.
With such hard hitting
action thrillers under his belt, Chris Pratt looks the ideal choice to play the
part of James Reece in the new Amazon Prime Video series ‘The Terminal List,’ which
is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Jack Carr. The series
follows Reece after his entire platoon of Navy SEALs is ambushed during a
high-stakes covert mission. Reece returns home to his family with conflicting
memories of the event and questions about his culpability. However, as new
evidence comes to light, Reece discovers dark forces working against him,
endangering not only his life, but the lives of those he loves. The
series stars Constance Wu, Taylor Kitsch, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Riley Keough,
Arlo Mertz, Jai Courtney, JD Pardo, and Patrick Schwarzenegger, among others. Antoine
Fuqua, the veteran director of films such as ‘The Equalizer,’ ‘Training Day,’
serves as an executive producer (he also is a director) on the series. The show
is written by David DiGilio (‘Strange Angel’), who is also an executive
producer on the show alongside Fuqua and Pratt.
To help with authenticity, ‘The
Terminal List’ engaged veterans and their families as part of multiple aspects
of the series production. For example, half the show’s writing staffers are
either veterans themselves or have veterans in their families. ‘The Terminal
List’ adds to the list of action thrillers which are already a part of Amazon
Prime Video’s catalog such as ‘Jack Ryan,’ ‘Hanna,’ ‘Reacher,’ and ‘Bosch,’
among others. And, despite the promise, it doesn’t really offer anything new to
the world of action thrillers. Yes, there is Chris Pratt and the wonderful
supporting cast, Jack Carr’s bestselling novel, and Fuqua’s direction. But, it
just doesn’t add up in a way the makers would have hoped and fails to live up
to the hype of this big game changer of an action show that marks Pratt’s
highly anticipated return to television.
A show like ‘The Terminal
List’ could have been a trendsetter had it come out a decade back but today
there is so much of solid action content out there that it’s very difficult to
stand out in the crowd. And if anyone could have delivered it, it’s the team of
Pratt and Fuqua but unfortunately ‘The Terminal List’ falls short by some distance.
A much better option with the story on offer and the chosen treatment perhaps
would have been a four episode miniseries or a feature film rather than a
full-fledged series. However, the show isn’t without merits. There are loads
and loads of action on offer and even though most of it is pretty predictable
the action lovers wouldn’t be disappointed. Fans of Chris Pratt too wouldn’t
mind seeing him beating the bad guys to pulp. Some of the old action buffs
might even be reminded of films of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone,
notwithstanding the lack of novelty or surprise on offer.
A version of this review was first published in The Daily Guardian.
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