What drew me to G20 was its premise and cast. Viola Davis is one of the best actresses in Hollywood right now, and after watching The Woman King, I knew exactly what she could bring to the table as the President of the United States. We have seen plenty of movies where the president has to be saved by someone else, but I often enjoy it when that dynamic is shifted. Davis always brings a serious tone to her characters, and so I was intrigued by how that would clash onscreen with Antony Starr as the film’s villain.
As a big fan of The Boys, I’m convinced Starr should be in everything and then some. I was excited to see him opposite the powerhouse that is Davis and playing a character that might also be a villain but behaves very differently from The Boys‘ Homelander. While G20‘s cast certainly drew my eye, the movie’s premise, with the leaders of the most economically powerful nations being held hostage at their annual G20 Summit, was what really sparked my curiosity. I’ve always enjoyed straightforward action movies, so doing something like that with a fresh dynamic sounded interesting.
G20 Delivers Exciting Action But Has Few Surprises
The Movie’s Attempts At Social Commentary Fall Flat
I was looking forward to what kind of hand-to-hand combat and gunplay G20 had in store. I’m happy to report that I was entertained by the film’s action scenes. While I don’t think its script is anything to write home about, the film did a good job of creating opportunities for fights to take place in unexpected settings and not always with characters who knew their way around a gun. In some ways, I felt some of the action sequences ended up being more unpredictable than G20‘s reveals and twists.
With the leaders of many of the world’s key nations held hostage, G20 had the opportunity to present its criticisms of how politicians handle war and the economy hand-in-hand better.
Davis, as President Danielle Sutton, and Starr, as Rutledge, were part of many exciting action sequences that ended with bloody deaths. But when it came to the action beats, my favorite character was Ramón Rodríguez’s Manny Ruiz, who was always by his president’s side and did not stop helping her even when hurt. To that end, G20 did a good job of building the friendship between Danielle and Manny through their action scenes together, playing on their military/marine backgrounds as they became closer.
While the action sequences are the film’s key aspect, there was another element that I felt needed to work better than it did to make G20 click. The story centers on how the world’s governments should pay for the wars they fight at the expense of citizens, which fuels Rutledge’s rage. With the leaders of many of the world’s key nations held hostage, G20 had the opportunity to present its criticisms of how politicians handle war and the economy better. However, whenever the film tried to do so, it was too by-the-numbers with no real punch to it.
Viola Davis’ President Sutton Shows She Is A Threat On The Field
Antony Starr’s Rutledge Could Have Been Further Developed
When it comes to the cast, I enjoyed the dynamic of the Sutton family. The complicated relationship between Davis’ Danielle and her daughter, Marsai Martin’s Serena, was set up from the start. The way their bond developed throughout the film felt natural, and I was glad to see where their story ended when all was said and done. Anthony Anderson’s Derek was used so that Danielle could be on the field. As long as her husband kept her children safe, the president could get into gritty combat.
I believe we needed to have flashbacks of his villain origin story, per se, to make us feel for Rutledge and add to the impact of his speeches.
While Rodríguez’s Manny was the most charismatic in the movie, Sabrina Impacciatore’s Elena Romano also had plenty of charisma to spare. I had wanted to see more of her after The White Lotus season 2, and I was not disappointed, as the actress brought her characteristic energy to the role and helped add a dose of needed fun to G20.
With Rutledge, however, the film tried to tell us there was more to the character than the typical bad guy plan of getting rich at the world’s expense, but I never felt like his reasons for doing what he did were properly tackled. We needed to have more development, such as flashbacks to his villain origin story, to make us feel for Rutledge and add to the impact of his speeches.
Still, Starr did great with the thin material available, and Rutledge’s presence brought a sense of danger to the film. In the end, though, the movie had some good ideas and even made room for some shocking deaths, but both fake-outs it pulled were so obvious that my opinion of G20 was taken down a notch. With the film’s attempts at social commentary falling flat, G20 turns into a paint-by-numbers actioner that is merely serviceable.
