If you’ve seen even just one mid-budget and completely forgettable action movie in the last fifteen years, then there’s a distinct possibility that Luc Besson may have been involved.
The writer, director and producer has delivered some solid genre work behind the camera with the likes of La Femme Nikita, Leon: The Professional, The Fifth Element and Lucy, but his EuropaCorp production company made their name churning out a series of generic shoot em’ ups that convinced a roster of A-list talents to try their luck at becoming action stars.
The most successful experiment by far was Taken, which launched Liam Neeson towards an unlikely late-career resurgence as an action hero, but for the most part, EuropaCorp’s output has been characterized by tepid reviews and lukewarm box office numbers. The Transporter was the only other movie lucky enough to spawn a franchise, but Jet Li’s Unleashed, the first attempt at a Hitman adaptation, John Travolta’s From Paris with Love, Guy Pearce’s Lockout and Kevin Costner’s 3 Days to Kill all followed the same formula by having a recognizable face headline an underwhelming actioner.
Originally written as a sequel to Leon, 2011’s Colombiana was retrofitted as a standard revenge story with Zoe Saldana in the lead role, and despite acquitting herself very well when it came to the shootouts and fist fights, the movie followed the standard EuropaCorp template by gaining a weak 28% score on Rotten Tomatoes and earning just $63 million at the box office on a $40 million budget.
A sequel was rumored to be in development in 2015, but given the lack of movement since then, it seems unlikely to happen at this stage. That being said, Colombiana might yet turn out to be the latest forgotten movie to trouble Netflix’s Top 10 most-watched list when it hits the streaming service next month on October 4th, as you can bet that a number of MCU fans will be curious to see a pre-Marvel Zoe Saldana.