Stratton had the potential to be a pleasing mindless action thriller or something more relevant and timely with its terrorist threatening London plot, but it mostly fails on both counts.
Dominic Cooper plays the titular hero, a Special Boats Service commando who is leading a team attempting to thwart a chemical weapon attack on the capital. Cooper, despite being drafted in late on when Henry Cavill dropped out of the film, does an okay job in the lead role and Gemma Chan impresses as a member of his team. The rest of the cast, though, are pretty bland, with the exception of Connie Nielsen who is terrible and has a very dodgy English accent, as Stratton’s boss.
Despite her poor performance, the biggest problem with the film is Warren Davis’ and Duncan Falconer’s screenplay. There is a protracted action sequence to start the film, and director Simon West handles it efficiently enough, but without knowing who any of the characters are, it lacks any dramatic suspense. The story then proceeds in a very predictable fashion, with the requisite but obvious twist when a mole is uncovered, and with some clunky dialogue at times.
The story is taken from one of Falconer’s popular books, and it probably works better on the page than the screen, but Falconer appears to have struggled in adapting it. A potential complex plot is not properly developed whilst a character that is completely pointless to the story (played by a wasted Derek Jacobi) takes up valuable screen time.
West managed to inject a few thrills into the final act and the couple of good performances just about keep this film afloat.
Rating: 5 out of 10