‘Trigger Warning’ Netflix Movie Review - Jessica Alba Appears With a Bang and Goes Out With a Whimper

When - to promote Trigger Warning - Jessica Alba appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, she said she wanted to have a "grounded, cool, female-driven action movie" and that "the director was a woman, and the writer who did the last pass was a woman. The producers were women. The DP is a woman. Set dec women." Alba proudly praised this Netflix production for its inclusion of so many women, and while it's always good to have a diverse group of people on the sets, one ultimately craves an excellent cinematic experience. After watching Trigger Warning, you feel that the movie could have benefitted more from including a creative, talented group of people. All the celebration around gender comes across as hollow when the final result looks so horrible.

Alba, apart from playing the lead role, serves as an executive producer for this film, which Wikipedia describes as a female-led cross between John Wick and First Blood. You see, this is the very first problem: A lack of great ambition. The filmmakers made Trigger Warning with the aim that they just want to execute stunts. As a Special Forces officer named Parker, Alba gets plenty of opportunities to kick butts. The movie opens with Parker taking down two men. She is then sent to her hometown, where she, at first, confronts some robbers and then later uncovers an illegal arms deal operation, which gives her more hateful stick figures to tackle. The script is written not with the intent of telling a story but with the purpose of highlighting the skills of Alba, the Action Star.

The actress was last seen in L.A.'s Finest (TV show) and Killers Anonymous (film). Now, Alba has returned to films after five years, and in Trigger Warning, she appears with a bang (the movie opens with a chase and explosion) and goes out with a whimper. Trigger Warning is thin and bland, and it wears you down. Nothing here feels worth paying attention to because all the energy is directed towards embellishing Alba's physical presence. How did Parker's dad meet his maker? What's up with those illegal arms deals happening in her hometown? If Parker and Jesse (Mark Webber) are old lovers, why is there no chemistry between them? If Trigger Warning wants to be a solid action entertainer, why are the fight sequences so dull? You do initially wait for the answers or try to figure out what's going on. Slowly, however, the flat filmmaking merely leaves you eagerly waiting for the arrival of the end credits to save you from boredom.

What the hell is this film? It combines America's gun problem with a trite message like "Politicians can be terrible" and creates an inept vehicle for its leading lady to show off her muscles. Director Mouly Surya drains the energy out of every frame and points the camera towards emotional emptiness. Characters cry, receive shocks, and get hit by bullets, but the audience remains unmoved by their situation. No wonder the title actually ends up making sense. Collins Dictionary defines trigger warning as "a warning before something such as a film or piece of writing that suggests that it may particularly upset some people, especially people who have had a traumatic experience." Trigger Warning does upset its viewers, especially those like me who have had traumatic experiences with other similarly dull Netflix productions.

Final Score- [3/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times