Francis Lawrence and Jennifer Lawrence team up once again, following their previous collaborations with all three Hunger Games sequels with the spy thriller Red Sparrow. Both Francis and Jennifer have been able to deliver suspenseful and entertaining work in the past, but Sparrow surprisingly misses the mark. Its story is compelling, and its performances are great, but as a film, it is very much style over substance, leading to a rather dull and forgettable mess that relies on shock value rather than intrigue.

Due to Jennifer’s great success as a leading actress, and due to her aforementioned collaborations with Francis, the majority of the film rests on her shoulders, and she pulls off her character Dominika rather well. Dominka’s stoicism works, not only due to Jennifer’s talents but within the context of the story. There’s enough of an aura and mystery to her character that one doesn’t quite know who she allies with, which makes her journey more compelling, if a touch more  complicated than it needs to be. Matthias Schoenaerts also delivers an enjoyable performance as Dominika’s twisted uncle, ending up as one of the most entertaining characters in the film. It’s a shame really that Joel Edgerton as the CIA operative Nate fails to make an impression, and the rest of the supporting cast doesn’t offer much else to the film.

The setting of Budapest is also a refreshing and enjoyable location. Moving away from the typical Russian setting, Francis Lawrence puts the setting in Hungary to great effect, as the director of photography, Jo Willems, really takes advantage of the sights and sounds of the city, offering both a unique location and an entertaining backdrop for the film’s events.

But even with some of these high points, the film as a whole is rather uneven. Even with the solid direction, the actual screenplay is something to be desired. It’s slow and methodical, but fails to offer any intrigue on the viewer, with forgettable dialogue, dull exposition, and hit-and-miss sequences. To say nothing of the convoluted story, which combined with the aforementioned elements, make the film an overall chore to sit through. While a few of the more intense moments in the film are gripping, the majority of this film’s sequences are generic and dull, including one sequence with Mary Louise-Parker trying to act drunk that is close to cringeworthy, leading to an overall sloppy and inconsistent feature.

Although what is the worst element in Red Sparrow is the intense violence and gore, arguably the main selling point for the feature. The film pushes its “R” rating to the utmost extreme, with bone crunches, mutilation, blood, and gore, all throughout the film’s runtime. While it is understandable why Francis Lawrence went in this specific direction, as the graphic nature only further heightened the dangerous world and mission Dominika is a part of, the excessive imagery is more often than not a complete distraction and takes one out of the viewer. While there are a handful of times the harsh action does further the tension of the film, it feels as if the moments are only placed for shock value purposes, especially the moments that involve Dominika almost being sexually assaulted by another character, only for said abuser being beaten to a pulp, with their blood splatted all over the wall in a hyper-styilzed fashion. With how much Francis Lawrence and screenwriter Justin Haythe attempt to make both the violent deaths and the horrible rape acts into something “cool”, it leaves a bad taste in the viewer’s mouth, and offers both a confusing message and faux female empowerment.

There’s much to admire when it comes to Red Sparrow, especially when it comes to Jennifer Lawrence and Matthias Schoenaerts, but much of the thriller’s positives are overshadowed by the negatives, including uneven pacing, forgettable supporting cast, regressive treatment of its lead character, and the film either being disgusting and hard to sit through, or dull and boring, leading to a mediocre and largely forgettable film. Hopefully Francis and Jennifer’s next projects will be stronger and more entertaining.