Protector
It's probably best to protect yourself from "Protector."
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I love revenge pictures and am a bigger fan of director Adrian Grünberg’s “Rambo: Last Blood” and action actress Milla Jovovich than the average bear. I should’ve been in the bag for the pair’s collaboration “Protector” (in theaters beginning Friday, March 6), but alas I was not.
Nikki (Jovovich) is a spec ops soldier who has spent so much of her life fighting for God and country that she’s missed many integral moments in the life of her daughter Chloe (Isabel Myers).
Nikki intends for this to change after her husband and Chloe’s father passes from leukemia. She wants to be more of a fixture in her daughter’s life and goes out of her way to celebrate the girl’s birthday, but 16-year-old Chloe would prefer to hang with her homies.
Lo and behold, Chloe goes out partying and gets herself kidnapped by a sex slavery ring overseen by The Chairman (Gabriel Sloyer) and Sullivan (Don Harvey).
Nikki uses her particular set of skills in hopes of retrieving Chloe, but this gets her in trouble with local police including Capt. Michaels (D.B. Sweeney) and his subordinates Det. John Blake (Michael Stahl-David), Det. Jane (Lydia Hull) and Det. Woo (Chase E. Kim).
These cops seem more concerned with Nikki burning down a nightclub and slaying syndicate members than they are with busting up a sex trafficking ring … this checks out in Donald Trump’s America in the year of our Lord 2026.
Also on the scene is Nikki’s former commanding officer Col. Joseph Lavelle (Matthew Modine, doing his best impression of Richard Crenna’s Col. Sam Trautman), who’s trying to assist the authorities in bringing Nikki in without further bloodshed.
“Protector” very much feels like a reskinning of Grünberg’s “Rambo: Last Blood” only on a far lower budget and without that franchise’s weight.
The script by rookie screenwriter Bong-Seob Mun doesn’t really give us a whole lot aside from poorly written and performed voiceover from Jovovich’s Nikki. We don’t get much insight into Nikki and Chloe’s relationship nor the relationship between Nikki and Lavelle. Additionally, Big Bad The Chairman isn’t developed enough to be truly hissable despite being a sex trafficker. “Protector” is a mere 90 minutes and probably would’ve benefitted from further fleshing out. There’s also a misguided last-minute twist that makes the entire enterprise come across as tasteless.
It’s fun to watch Jovovich beat the asses of bastards who really deserve it. It’s also cool to see Sweeney reunited with former co-stars Harvey (“Eight Men Out”) and Modine (“Memphis Belle”), but at the end of the day it’s probably best to protect yourself from “Protector.”