Miss Bala — Movie Review
“Miss Bala” stars Gina Rodriguez as Gloria, a girl who is visiting her friend in Mexico, only for said friend to disappear mysteriously. Now Gloria is coerced into working for the drug cartel as a mule whilst also dealing with DEA agents who are involved in the case along with trying to find her friend in the midst of all of this.
This movie is actually a remake of a 2011 film of the same name. I’ve never seen the original movie, though I can only imagine that it’s miles better than this movie for two reasons: One, the rule of thumb with remakes is that they’re generally inferior to the original product and two, this movie is just bad on its own and I don’t think we need a good remake in order to properly criticize this movie for being the bore that it is.
The big problem with this movie is the character of Gloria. Gina Rodriguez is perfectly functional in the role in terms of her performance, but the problem is that Gloria as a character has nothing interesting about her. She’s essentially just an empty vessel whose sole purpose is to just scream, get yanked around, look confused, and have all the cartel intricacies explained to her in some very dull exposition scenes. She doesn’t really develop in anyway outside of her learning how to pick up a gun in one sequence and that’s one of, if not the biggest sin a movie can commit: Having a boring main character. If the lead protagonist isn’t interesting, then you’re not going to be on board with their journey and that’s the case here.
And what’s worse is that this movie tries to give us some type of romance between Gloria and the cartel guy who kidnaps and trains her. He has some generic backstory about growing up in rough times and she connects with him on that level, but it doesn’t feel earned and it even feels kind of creepy. The movie is trying to go for some Stockholm syndrome angle, but neither character is interesting enough for it to be engaging and it feels like the director just putting a check mark in the checklist of cliches that you expect to see in a kidnapping/hostage movie like this. Simply put, the needless romantic subplot just adds to a movie that’s already muddled by other boring storylines.
From a technical level, the movie is also incompetently made. On the one hand, a couple of the action sequences are serviceable enough to make the film somewhat watchable, but on the other hand it’s also an ugly looking movie. The cinematography is too dark in many scenes as you’re not able to make out something as simple as the character’s face even when it’s right in front of the camera and the overall look of the film gives it a made-for-TV movie. It’s actually kind of embarrassing that this movie has a Hollywood budget just so it can be shot with grade school level cinematography.
This movie also has the audacity to set up for a sequel by the end, which is what I’ve grown to really despise with Hollywood lately. As much as I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s unfortunately lead to many other directors and studios trying too hard to partake in franchise film-making. They’ll make a movie for the sole purpose of setting up a sequel, spin-off, or even a full on shared universe, but they’ll do so without even focusing on the one movie at hand. “Miss Bala” comes along with its head up its own ass and it’s so confident in sequel-baiting that it forgets to be its own good movie.
In the end, “Miss Bala” is a boring mess. The characters are dull, the technical aspects are poor, and it’s a messy plot that’s ripe with cheesy dialogue and predictable cliches. It’s watchable in the sense that there’s one or two OK action set-pieces, but I can’t recommend sending anyone out to see this movie. More than anything, it’s just a sad reminder that we’re still in that early part of the year where most of the bad movies are still being released.
Rating: Some Ol’ Bullshit
