Liam Neeson has had a very fascinating and interesting career. His career is also full of variety, solely based on the roles that he’s tackled. Whether you’re talking about his role in Schindler’s List, the voice of Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia trilogy, Qui-Gon Jin from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace or his role as Ra’s al Ghul from Batman Begins. The man’s career is full of spectacle and the heavy dramatic side. He’s an Academy Award nominated actor, for good reason, and one could make a solid argument that he’s the best actor that’s yet to win an Oscar. In 2009, Liam Neeson takes on something completely different for him and for the time, in the realm of the action genre, and that was this small action movie called Taken. A movie that was so simple and less complex, yet was so undeniably fun and slick and it proved that Liam Neeson was a competent action lead, even for someone of his age. But ever since the release of Taken, Liam Neeson was getting type casted as the rusty and grim action hero, some with grand effect and some that felt like a carbon copy of the first Taken movie. The Taken sequels are what they are, which were terrible and miscalculated retreads of what we already saw. The Commuter, a fairly recent film, felt a little dull and eventless, despite the cool concept. Having said all that, there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had with a lot of recent Liam Neeson action movies. The Grey, Unknown, Non Stop, Run All Night and even Cold Pursuit are enjoyable and fun movies to watch, if you disassociate your deep admiration for the first Taken movie. With that being the case, The Marksman is by no means the worst motion picture of the year, but it is a bit generic, formulaic and tad bit redundant. Granted, this still has a small amount of enjoyment because Liam Neeson is always fun to watch in these types of roles.
Set near the border between Mexico and somewhere in Arizona, Retired U.S. Marine, Jim Hanson, scouts out for any illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border. He lives a solitary lifestyle as this rancher and along side him his dog, Jackson, by making sure no harm comes his way. Things then shift drastically when this young woman and a boy cross his path, who are being hunted by the Mexican cartel. Jim then makes a promise to the boy’s mom to protect him at all costs and to get him to a much safer place.
Much like any of the other action roles that Liam Neeson has portrayed over the last 5+ years, his performance in The Marksman is more than serviceable. Sure, some actors might want to stretch their wings and expand into some new and exciting territory, but Liam Neeson seems like he’s having a lot of fun in roles like this and his role as Jim Hanson is entertaining to watch. For a man who’s 68 years old, Liam Neeson still looks a man that could put you in your sleep faster than the blinking eye. He seemed very committed in this role and as long as he’s having fun with these characters. He also shares a touching and slightly intimate relationship with the child, Miguel. No fault for the young actor who played Miguel, but the kid’s performance felt thin and a tad expressionless. There’s enough of attachment to be had between them, but it never was as impactful as the script may have wanted it to be.
But the main problem with Liam Neeson’s character really has to do with his past occupation and his capabilities. Now, when you see a movie called The Marksman, you expect to see a movie about who’s expertly skilled at shooting or any other form of weaponry. In the Rambo movies, we see how skilled how John Rambo is at the act of taking out his enemies with his own hands or any kind of trap he’s laid out. In the John Wick movies, the character of capability of John Wick is laid out perfectly by one visceral action set piece set in his house. Even in the first Taken film, by one scene, set during a concert, we see how intimidating and imposing Bryan Mills is. Aside from one cool and impressive action set piece in The Marksman, we never see any of Jim Hanson’s abilities as someone who’s said to be a skilled marksman. There’s not a whole lot of action in this movie, but the movie never spent a lot of time to showcase Jim Hanson’s potential by developing him or to make the audience fully grasp at how good he actually as a soldier and someone who knows how to shoot a gun. It was by far the most disappointing aspect of this movie.
The Marksman is the perfect kind of cable watch. It’s doesn’t really contribute much in the action genre and it’s storytelling comes a bit cut and dry. Overall, The Marksman is fun enough to watch with Liam Neeson having a fun performance.
My grade for The Marksman: C
Zane's take at the Cinema's 