The Bad Batch (2016)

I loved Ana Lily Amirpour's A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night so I could tell you I watched The Bad Batch because of it. I could also tell you that I had high expectations about it. But the truth is I watched it because of Jason Momoa, which is why I didn't have a lot of expectations from it (also, I read m.brown's review months ago and it didn't sound that good).

The film is set in a near future and follows a young woman named Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) after she is dumped into the Texas desert with other rejects of the American society known as the bad batch. Eventually, she is captured by a tribe of cannibals, led by Miami Man (Jason Momoa), who severe her right arm and leg. She manages to escape and makes her way to another tribe, led by a man known as The Dream (Keanu Reeves).

There is no need to delve more into the plot as nothing really happens in the film. Just a lot of tedious nonsense and characters doing the most idiotic and crazy shit, which is a bummer since the beginning was quite interesting and gripping.

In addition to a non-existent plot that moves at a snail-like pace, The Bad Batch also has plenty of uninteresting and weird characters --I mean, cannibal bodybuilders? I think I've seen it all now. They are pretty thin and underdeveloped, they barely speak and you won't probably give a damn about any of them.

Considering that, it doesn't come as a surprise that the cast does a terrible job. Suki Waterhouse (I had to google her because I had no idea who she was. Apparently she is a British model. Which explains a lot) is a terrible lead. She doesn't have the charm needed to make you like the character, and she has the same blank expression from start to finish. Not to mention the awful, Texan I suppose, accent she is doing here. Unfortunately, hers isn't even the worst accent. That would be Momoa's accent. The guy is really struggling to do a Cuban accent and the result is that a, it sounds weird, and b, it's almost impossible to understand what he's saying. Jim Carrey, who plays a sunburnt, mute Hermit, looks like he can't believe he is in the movie. Keanu Reeves, on the other hand, seems to be having a lot of fun as the Dream.

Neon

Thankfully, The Bad Batch has some redeeming qualities. The film has a really great dystopian atmosphere which is enhanced by the great soundtrack Amirpour picked, and the cinematography is terrific (and Jason Momoa is shirtless). These few aspects alone aren't enough to make the film bearable though.