‘Canary Black’ (2024) Movie Review - Intense Action But Weak Plot

Canary Black stars Kate Beckinsale as its female lead. She's seen playing the role of Avery Graves, a CIA agent who goes places to execute the tasks assigned to her. The movie begins with Agent Graves in Tokyo, Japan where she had to recruit some documents. She has a hundred percent success rate which means that every assignment assigned to her was successfully executed and she didn't have any place for error. Her life takes a major turn when her husband is threatened by enemies and for ransom they demand a document that can potentially threaten national security. In exchange for David (her husband), she has to deliver Canary Black, the same document on which the film has been named. Initially, it was thought that it contained blackmail material. When reality comes forward, it's a total shocker and the movie takes its time explaining how it could affect not just the US but the entire world.

The first fighting scene of Kate's in Japan was boring and didn't seem realistic. This mistake is quickly corrected as the rest of the action scenes are great. Talking about the plot of this action thriller film, I was hugely disappointed. The writers and makers had every opportunity to make it right for the audience and could have utilized their characters. Various plot twists in the film were too predictable. This movie doesn't feel like a breath of fresh air as you'd be constantly reminded of the fact that you've watched things like this. The enemies who wanted Canary Black were expected. This is what's usually shown that is Russian conspiring against the US. The quest that now remains is how will Avery get rid of this situation. When she slowly discovered that even her neighbors were spies, it didn't leave any space for the audience to leave her husband with a green flag.

In my opinion, Canary Black aimed high and fell flat on its face. The audience will appreciate the action scenes and they're well done however the problem lies in the plot of the film. The action and spy thriller isn't successful in creating intrigue in the audience. Several parts of the story don't feel relevant and the movie sometimes runs at a high pace making it difficult for the audience to understand what's going on. Canary Black has a duration of more than 100 minutes and with this time frame, a lot of elements could've been included. I think that as a first watch, the movie is average but if you're thinking of rewatching it then it will not be worth your effort. The actors have done average work and once the mystery is out, there'll be no fun watching it again.  One of the most memorable scenes comes when Agent Chu is getting in and out of the building on a drone. The number of times her character has asked for help and people said it would be the last is infuriating.

Final Score – [6/10]
Reviewed by - Riya Singh
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Publisher at Midgard Times