• Release year: 2024
• Director: Mouly Surya.
• Producers: Esther Hornstein, Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee.
• Screenplay by: John Brancato, Josh Olson and Halley Wegryn Gross.
• Cinematography by: Zoë White.
• Music by: Enis Rotthoff.

Shotgun Commentary: your average Stallone movie but with a female protagonist.

Review

Trigger Warning is one of those action movies perfect for nap time or right before going to sleep. In it, Parker (Jessica Alba) takes a break from her work in special forces to prepare her father’s funeral. What seems to be an accident at first quickly begins to look more like cover-up for some shady business. Parker will use all her skills to figure out what is going on and what actually happened to her dad.

The other half

The subgenres of revenge and hometown vigilante were overdue some updates. A female protagonist is a refreshing change for this part of the action genre, one that was already smelling a bit rancid. Following the lead of films like Gunpowder Milkshake (2021), Kate (2021) and The Ship of the Damned (2024), Trigger Warning offers a change in gender that proves, once more, that the only thing you need to turn a sexist genre into an egalitarian one, is switch up names more often.

Sure, this movie is but another one of the long list of simple, predictable and stereotypical movies that form this specific area of cinema, but isn’t that rather the point? Things go from bad to worse, the bad guys are downright nauseating, and the good guy suffers a lot before actually deciding to kill everyone and get moral justice.

If anything, this film adds a bit of spice into the mix, offering some realistic female perspective and avoiding the all-too-common sexualised rapes that usually takes place. These two factors alone invite audiences to adopt a new point of view, one that represents female issues (very lightly, but you have to start somewhere) instead of just turning them into spectacle for the male gaze.

A long way to go still

After acknowledging its great contribution in terms of representation in the action genre, it’s time to point out the flaws of the feature. Like most films of the type, the plot is unsurprising to the point of infinite boredom. It seems like a recycled script of a recycled script

The conversations are monotone and cliché, but without any legendary one-liners nor silly jokes that get you chuckling. Everything is so flat that you will probably end up sleeping through most of it. If you are unlucky enough to stay awake for the whole duration, you’ll be treated to dull action scenes where yet another incredibly skinny woman overpowers huge men through sheer will and the magic of fiction, and a display of Jessica Alba’s acting abilities…or lack thereof.

If you are one of the people who have defended Alba’s talent their whole life, this film will make you question whose side you’re on. Granted, this kind of movie doesn’t require much acting, but when you are not able to pull off a simple five-second crying scene, you make everyone doubt, including big fans like yours truly.

As for the rest of the cast, Anthony Michael Hall and Jake Weary make their characters positively revolting, as one might expect from professionals with so much experience portraying the archetypes of corrupt man in power and entitled brat, respectively. Tone Bell and Gabriel Basso are adorable, although specially charismatic.

All in all, Trigger Warning is just as bad as all the other films of its genre, but incredibly relevant in the path of equality. Hopefully, it will soon be one of many movies that turn the mentality of its average viewers around into a more understanding, less sexualising way to view half of the world’s population.

Advice to take from this movie:

• Avoid crying scenes if your cast can’t cry.
• Trying to burn down your dad’s bar is a more than fair reason to kill a man.
• Politicians suck and, no matter how slimy you portray them, you’ll be right in most cases.

What’s your take? Have you watched Trigger Warning? Do you have a favourite female-led action movie?

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