Robert Rodriguez's new sci-fi thriller, Hypnotic, is an overcomplicated mess.
Hypnotic Score Details “Hypnotic is an ambitious but ultimately lackluster sci-fi thriller from director Robert Rodriguez and star Ben Affleck.” Pros Cons An eye opens. A pen taps against a notepad. These are images synonymous with the concept of hypnotism, so it only makes sense that they’re the first things viewers see in Hypnotic.
The problem? Rodriguez is a far different director than Nolan, Garland, or any of the other contemporary filmmakers he tries to pay tribute to in Hypnotic. Rodriguez’s films have never been known for their narrative ingenuity or ambitious plots. He’s a scrappy filmmaker who works best when he’s producing lighthearted genre fare, which is why it’s so disappointing that everything in Hypnotic is played with such a straight face rather than a playful wink.
Along the way, Rourke crosses paths with Diana Cruz , a small-time hypnotic whose relationship with Dellrayne may hold the key to tracking him down and stopping him. The further into his mission he gets, however, the more Rourke begins to question his own reality. Behind the camera, Rodriguez visualizes Rourke’s increasingly loose control of his senses via a series of action sequences in which the world seems to fold in on itself and the walls around him seem to bend and transform.
Narratively, Hypnotic is a multi-layered puzzle of a film that never quite hits the highs that it so clearly wants to. Part of that is due to the film’s overreliance on exposition dumps and Rodriguez’s unerringly clichéd, on-the-nose dialogue. Most of the film’s narrative issues, however, stem from its insistence on overexplaining every single one of its beats and third-act twists, of which there are many.
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