Susan Granger’s review of “Colombiana” (Sony)
Move over, Angelina Jolie – acrobatic Zoe Saldana (“Avatar”) is the new female action star to watch!
It begins in crime-riddled Bogota, Colombia, where wide-eyed, nine year-old Cataleya (Amandla Stenberg) sees her parents gunned down on orders from drug cartel kingpin Don Luis (Beto Benites). Diving out a window, she evades the killers and makes her way to the US Embassy, where a microchip with vital information ‘buys’ her a passport to the US, where she finds her Chicago gangster Uncle Emilio (Cliff Curtis).
“I used to want to be Xena, Warrior Princess, but now, when I grow up, I want to be a killer. Will you help me?” she asks him. “Sure,” he replies, explaining that to be a good assassin, you have to go to school and learn to be smart.
15 years pass – and Cataleya (now played by Saldana) is determined to wreak her own brand of brutal revenge on bad guys. Slithering through air ducts, elevator shafts and shark tanks, she’s a fearless animal pursuing its prey. On each victim, she sketches the outline of her namesake Cataleya orchid, native to South America. While the seemingly un-connected homicides baffle a persistent FBI agent (Lennie James), it’s all part of a master plan to bring Cataleya closer to the man who ordered her parents’ murder.
Cautious of emotional intimacy, Cataleya is sexually attracted to Danny (Michael Vartan), a hunky artist, whom she visits in his studio. But when he gets inquisitive about her life, Cataleya instinctively knows that whatever knowledge he acquires will make them both far too vulnerable.
Ever since French filmmaker Luc Besson startled moviegoers with “La Femme Nikita” and “The Professional,” he’s churned out much the same violent retribution storyline. Collaborating with writer Robert Mark Kamen and director Olivier Megaton, Besson has created another vengeful, lethal waif whose life was traumatized at an early age. And credit the astounding action sequences to cinematographer Romain Lacourbas, who collaborated with Megaton on “Transporter 3.”
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Colombiana” is a scorching 6, oozing female empowerment.
