Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
A black ops assassin is forced to fight for her own survival after a job goes dangerously wrong.
Ava is a thoroughly generic assassin thriller that recycles well-worn tropes without adding anything distinctive. The plot follows a painfully familiar template of a hitwoman going rogue after a botched job, with dysfunctional family drama awkwardly grafted on. The acting is the film's lone bright spot, with Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell, and John Malkovich elevating formulaic material. Cinematography is functional but unremarkable, with action sequences that lack style or memorable staging. Novelty is essentially nonexistent — the film feels like a direct-to-streaming assembly of genre clichés. The ending is unsatisfying and abrupt, failing to deliver on even the modest promises the setup made.