“Columbiana” is a movie that really wants you to see a new side to the sometimes-cliche femme fatale assassin–the assassin with a heart. However, according to critics, the movie fails to deliver.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, the film was given a 37% rotten by critics. Audiences were kind, giving it a 64%, but let’s examine why the critics were far less kind:

“…Besson and his French collaborator, Robert Mark Kamen, have just taken a bit of their other, better work–‘The Fifth Element,’ ‘The Professional,’ ‘The Transporter,’ ‘Taken’–and put Saldana’s face on them. The director Olivier Megaton blows things up, demolishes a fruit market, and throws in some parkour foot-chases as if he’s completing a checklist. A movie like this can’t hurt Saldana…Nonetheless, she commits herself to slinking around in a catsuit, swimming with hilariously phony sharks, and firing two Uzis at a time.”–Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

“Turns out ‘Columbiana isn’t completely dreadful, if you ignore the holes in its Swiss cheese of a plot. As payback stories go, it’s pretty rote stuff, even with well-connected producer Luc Besson co-writing with Robert Mark Kame, the pens behind ‘Taken’ and ‘The Transporter.'” Peter Howell, Toronto Star

“…’Columbiana’ is disappointing Euro-cheese…If ‘Columbiana’ were 25 minutes shorter, it would probably be an agreeably dumb action flick…We all love a steamy pile of frivolous nonsense now and then, but it has to move quickly or we lose interest, like a joke that stops being funny.”–Eric D. Snider, Film.com

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