Stop me if you’ve heard this before: The new Jason Statham flick stars him as some form of former government agent who is forced to return to the life he gave up, embarking on a one-man ass-kicking crusade against a shadowy organization. I say that because Shelter isn’t any bit different from most of Statham’s catalogue. It’s still a solidly entertaining action flick, just don’t expect any major deviations from the tried-and-true formula.
To expand on that previous synopsis, Statham plays Michael Mason, a former MI6 “Black Kite” assassin now living in self-imposed exile at an abandoned lighthouse off the coast of Scotland. With only a dog as his companion, his only interaction with other people comes in the form of weekly deliveries from Jesse (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), a young girl alongside her uncle, an old military colleague of his.
During one of these deliveries, a brutal storm causes the boat to capsize, and Jesse nearly drowns. Mason manages to rescue her, although her uncle wasn’t so lucky. As he makes his way to the mainland for medicine to treat her infected wounds, his appearance is caught on a random camera, alerting MI6 to his existence, and forcing the duo to go on the run.
The key difference in Shelter’s approach compared to Statham’s other recent flicks is courtesy of director Ric Roman Waugh. Gone is the over-the-top goofiness from The Beekeeper and A Working Man. Instead, Waugh takes a more grounded approach to action films. In fact, the first act of the film is a quiet character piece between Statham and Brethnach in the lighthouse. As much as I had fun watching those last two Statham films, it was a nice change of pace to see him not spout one-liners and give a more internal performance, slowly regaining his humanity through his bond with Breathnach.
Granted, their father-daughter-esque relationship does feel rushed in the later acts when Jesse comes across as too attached for someone she’s barely known, but for the most part, the two of them are pretty solid together, and the emotional core mostly works more than it doesn’t.
“The key difference in Shelter’s approach compared to Statham’s other recent flicks is courtesy of director Ric Roman Waugh.”
Sure enough, Shelter is still a Jason Statham action flick, so even with the slow start, it’s not too long before guns and fists start flying. MI6 head Manafort (Bill Nighy), who created the Black Kites, harbours a grudge against Mason for disobeying orders and saving an innocent man he asked him to kill; he tracks the pair using a Big Brother-esque surveillance system called THEA, frames Mason as a terrorist and sends in another Black Kite assassin, Workman (Bryan Vigier), to take them out. The closest Shelter comes to the previous goofiness is in the first action scene, where an MI6 assault team makes their way to the island and is taken down by Mason’s litany of booby traps.
The rest of them run the gamut from car chases, hand-to-hand fights and various shootouts. Waugh is a solid action director, and each of the setpieces is appropriately gritty, especially one that takes place in a club where Mason tries to discreetly take out a quintet of suited assassins while not causing the crowd to panic. Statham’s multiple 1-on-1 brawls against Vigier are fun and well-choreographed, even if it never feels like Vigier is much of a threat outside of someone who can take more punches than the other nameless goons.
The reason I don’t love Shelter is that there’s still an overarching “been there, done that” feeling that the movie is unable to shake. Admittedly, I’m a sucker for Statham flicks, but there isn’t much here that he hasn’t done better in other films. The story (written by Ward Perry) is severely paint-by-numbers, and you can tell every beat the movie is going to make within the first five minutes. I’m glad it wasn’t hampered by unnecessary twists—I feared that it would be revealed that Jesse was secretly Mason’s daughter—but there isn’t a hint of originality throughout the whole film.
Additionally, despite the great cast, it doesn’t feel like most of them outside of the main pair have much to do. Nighy isn’t bad, but he also spends the near-entirety of the film just on a laptop watching everything. There’s a little subplot where the film briefly tackles the ethical dilemma of using THEA to spy on the population, but it never goes in any meaningful direction by the end of it.
Naomi Ackie, playing Manafort’s MI6 successor, feels especially wasted. The entirety of her screen time is spent barking orders and investigating Manafort’s shady decisions. She doesn’t feel like much too much about her character outside of one who’s barely catching up to Mason’s events.
Shelter isn’t a bad film by any means, and it’s nice to see a Jason Statham film that takes itself more seriously than the norm. That being said, it’s still one I can’t wholeheartedly recommend unless you’re already a big Statham fan.
