Kate review

Aside from some impressively laid out action sequences, Kate struggles and quickly fails to overcome two preposterous script decisions.

Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Birds of Prey) is a highly skilled assassin that’s brutally efficient at taking down her mark. As part of an ongoing mission, she took down a top member of a syndicate. What’s still sticking with Kate is her network approved the hit even though it went against one of its mandates of no killing in front of children. The grief of the mark’s daughter, Ani (Miku Patricia Martineau), still haunts Kate 10 months later.

Unable to shake it, Kate’s ready to get out of the assassin game. Her handler, Varrick (Woody Harrelson, Solo: A Star Wars Story), encourages her to stick around as a few trips to Wal-Mart would make anyone get back into the profession.

Just before her final mission, Kate starts feeling weird. A trip to the doctor confirms the worst — she’s been poisoned by a radioactive substance and has less than 12 hours to live. Deciding to make the most of it, Kate goes on a rip-roaring revenge tour to take down everyone associated with those who marked her for death. Kate either hasn’t watched a lot of these hitman/hitwoman movies or just wanted to take the long road to vengeance.

For the record, before this death sentence declaration, everything with Kate suggested a fun action movie with Winstead a charismatic lead more than capable enough to smooth over any rough script issues.

Screenwriter Umair Aleem has a misguided sense of pacing in terms of the progression of the poisoning. Kate doubles over vomiting, fighting through exhaustion and extreme fatigue only when it’s absolutely convenient. The rest of the time she’s fully capable of taking down an army with little indication she’s having any physical problems. 

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When Kate is feeling a little yucky, she’s got a medicine cocktail she injects to give her a boost for an hour or so. Aleem probably should have just stated the poisoning will get worse, but the initial hospital treatment would allow Kate to function fairly normal in the interim. And when needed, the injections could get her back to baseline.

Establishing a significant character weakness and then failing to incorporate it when it would matter most — during fighting scenes — feels lazy.

Director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (The Huntsman: Winter’s War) has no issues with the action sequences. They’re easily Kate’s highlights with some stellar physicality from Winstead and creative destruction of the various battlegrounds.

Of course, it starts to feel somewhat ridiculous when an assassin — dealing with a fatal poisoning — is able to take down 20-30 guys at a time. Kate’s biggest problem with these goons isn’t fatigue, but having to reload.

Nicolas-Troyan struggles with trying to make Kate a superwoman fighter and the realities of her physical state. It would have been nice to see Kate struggle with her aim, seeing double and occasionally swinging at air just to reinforce her deteriorating condition.

At 5’8″, Winstead isn’t necessarily short and Kate doesn’t exactly blend in undetected anywhere. Kate’s also very sloppy about her infiltration, not bothering to even go through the pretense of wearing a disguise or swapping out her clothes for attire that’s not so bloody. And as a tall white woman in Tokyo, Kate naturally stands out in any setting, but she barely draws a second glance from anyone even in places where she definitely should warrant attention.

Quentin Tarantino decked Uma Thurman out as one of his cinematic heroes, Bruce Lee, for the big climactic action scene in Kill Bill Vol. 1. Nicolas-Troyer does the same by having Kate don a green bomber jacket and cut her hair to look closer to Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley from Aliens.

While Tarantino kept the Lee homage to the wardrobe, Nicolas-Troyer takes it a step further in attempting to do a bizarre take on the Ripley and Newt dynamic as well. Kate kidnaps Ani in hopes of luring out her reclusive uncle Kijima (Jun Kunimura, Kill Bill, Vol. 1). That plan doesn’t go smoothly and Kate ends up having to protect Ani. Of course the big catch in Aliens was Ripley didn’t actually kill Newt’s father.

It feels weird watching Ani so quickly latch on to Kate like she’s her surrogate bodyguard/BFF/assassin mother knowing “our hero” is the reason she’s in this predicament. That was a similar premise of Gunpowder Milkshake and it was just as ludicrous there too.

Cinematographer Lyle Vincent makes excellent use of the Tokyo skyline and neon signs. There’s some nice contrasts in the fight locations from a Kabuki theater largely set in a black white motif to crowded dark alleys. Ignoring the fact that Kate should be dead or significantly affected by her illness, the action scenes are very well structured and paced.

Kate’s biggest issues are self-imposed. It could have been a much stronger film with just a couple of tweaks that would have prevented so many credibility-straining moments into a simple, enjoyable action film.

Rating: 4 out of 10

Photo Credit: Netflix