Nathalie Emmanuel (Ramsey from the later “Fast and the Furious” films) plays the mysterious Zee, a secret assassin for a powerful organization run by the villainous Finn (Sam Worthington). The “Avatar” actor embodies a certain kind of slimy power figure who pretends to have your best interests at heart, but only as far as it suits him personally. When Zee is given a job that requires a samurai sword assassination attempt in a Paris nightclub, the job goes awry when a singer named Jenn (Diana Silvers) is blinded. Although she can’t point the finger directly at the killer, Finn insists that Zee take out the witness, causing a moral crisis for the assassin. While Zee tries to keep Jenn alive, a Paris cop named Sey (Omar Sy from “Lupin”) is given this incredible case and crosses paths with Zee’s. This is where “The Killer” gets most of its narrative momentum, as it tells the story of a criminal and a cop who may not be as different as they first believe.
Obviously, many of the narrative aspects of the original remain intact, although of course the gender swap makes a pretty big difference in both the relationship between Zee and Jenn and the dynamic between Zee and Sey. The kind of dance between a hitman and a cop that many over the years even found homoerotic in the original was shifted by the change, but barely anything was done with that change. The change in race, gender and location was meant to give “The Killer” a different flavor, but the truth is, there’s just no spice. It’s as if the writers (Brian Helgeland, Josh Campbell and Martin Stuecken) thought the swaps alone were interesting enough so they didn’t need to do anything else. It also just reeks of a script that was in development for so long that it had all the passion drained out of it through rewrites, producer notes and focus groups. The original is brimming with energy not only because of its top-notch cinematography but also because of its narrative structure, and in terms of plot there’s just nothing here to worry about, while additions like some flashbacks to Zee’s origin story feel half-hearted and cheap.
Part of the problem is that Emmanuel just isn’t interesting enough to convey the strong, silent cipher that Zee needs to be. I’m not usually a critic who likes to judge movies that don’t exist, but knowing that Lupita Nyong’o was once involved in this before COVID shut down production reveals even more flaws in Emmanuel’s work. Nyong’o can do so much with body language and her amazing eyes that you feel like “The Killer” has to work, and Emmanuel just doesn’t have the same skills. Sy comes off much better, reminding viewers how charming he can be, but Silvers is a non-character used almost entirely as a device.
