Hunter Killer

Tense submarine dramas have been hit-or-miss in the past, but the claustrophobia, tension, and fate of the world hanging in the balance of the captain’s commands is a common theme. Taking more than a few ideas from “The Hunt for Red October,” and “Crimson Tide,” Gerard Butler tries his hand as an American bubblehead in this film by untested director Donovan Marsh.

After a skirmish under the ice in Russian waters, the US military sends a Hunter Killer class submarine to investigate the aftermath. Led by newbie captain Joe Glass (Gerard Butler), he leads his men into certain conflict while a Navy SEAL team drops into enemy territory, discovering a nefarious coup that threatens the safety of not just the two countries, but the entire world. I know, sounds kind of cool, right? It is for about the first 45 minutes.

The action is undeniably entertaining. From submarine dogfights (is that what they’re called?) to Navy SEAL incursions, director Donovan Marsh shows he can handle a big-budget feature film targeting the action-hungry audiences that haven’t seen the military on full display on screen since the summer. Unfortunately, the plot, characters, and dialogue trip up the action more than they should have.

The story dictating the action is a gross display of American military ineptitude, which is a disheartening thing to see on-screen. Never before have so many military members disregarded direct orders or questioned authority to the extent shown in “Hunter Killer.” Insubordination abounds as Russian and American sailors recklessly play moral roulette with seven billion lives as the fate of the world rests on this nuclear military standoff. The sailors trust their adversaries far more than their superiors as if the fraternity of submariners is stronger than nationalism, duty, or prevention of imminent war. In addition to being rife with clichés that we’ve seen before in this type of film, the realism falls off a cliff and never quite recovers. But maybe that was by design.

Gary Oldman’s precious scenes are wrought with overacting and a misguided character portrayal. He goes from zero to sixty like a bomb going off, and never convinces me that he has the temperament for the leader of the entire Navy.

Gerard Butler is simply an enigma. Introduced in the film bow hunting in Scotland, only to be picked up by helicopter and rushed to his first command on a submarine, he displays all of two emotions; focusing on his lines, and trying not to let his Scottish accent slip out. I’m not saying it’s worthy of a Razzie or anything, but he drops the ball in a role that demands a higher caliber of emotional display.

The Navy SEALs are fun to watch as always, but the film could have made a vast improvement by inserting a more recognizable actor in one of the four roles. They are the most interesting characters of the film, and led by Bill Beaman (Toby Stevens), there was an opportunity to resuscitate some of the shortcomings from the main storyline and inject some macho adrenaline, but alas, it fell victim to the 1990’s action film curse; nameless, faceless heroes conducting war games behind enemy lines.

This was Michael Nvyquist’s last film before his death in 2017. He plays the one Russian who has that cold war intimidating presence that is critical for an antagonist, but he’s not the bad guy, so it’s a little wasted. All in all, the film stumbles early and often, but the action keeps it moving at a decent clip. I wanted more twists and turns, and I don’t know if I can ever endorse a Gerard Butler film (although “300” was pretty cool).

It’s a cookie-cutter submarine war film with lots of posturing, but little payoff. “Hunter Killer” just can’t seem to stay afloat. 5/10.