Netflix’s newest in a long line of action flicks, The Gray Man struggles to get its feet off the ground as meaningless plot gives way to even more redundant fight scenes, the first just as forgetful as the last.

While I may be outspoken in my frustration towards Marvel’s spiralling cinematic universe, the Russo brothers are of the few creatives that have added to the franchise rather than settling on the same old mediocrity. Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Civil War dual-wield action and espionage seamlessly while staying true to Cap’s comic roots, and Avengers: Endgame is the climax to over a decade worth of build-up that still sits at number two in all time box office. But it is Infinity War that truly strikes me; on every possible axis, the Russo’s created a film that cinematically captures comics as each subplot blooms individually and contributes collectively. Yet, with a quick snap, all that excitement turns to dust as they settle on yet another uninspired, Netflix-produced action-thriller.

With as much creativity as an O-Level essay, The Gray Man follows Sierra Six (Ryan Gosling), an ex-convict who works as an international CIA assassin – think James Bond but less charming and more American. After being told to hunt down a fellow Sierra, Six goes rogue when his target hands him a McGuffin pen drive with all the dirty laundry on a rising CIA agent. Once the premise lands, the Russo’s quickly forget about the story and focus on three things: the good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, and every scene needs a repetitive fight.

Just like most of Netflix’s action popcorn flicks, the drive of the film isn’t its ingenuity nor its engagement (as there is very little) but its marketability via its recognisable names. Ryan Gosling’s ‘witty’ agent, Ana de Armas’ stock female sidekick (Miranda), and Chris Evans’ cocky villain (Hansen) all share common ground: none of them came prepared. When Hansen and Six bicker over the phone or just before the climactic fight, there is no chemistry, only professional actors reading lines to quickly get to the next brawl. What little chemistry the trio have is overshadowed by their previous work together – Gosling and Armas shared a dissonant love in Blade Runner 2049 while Armas and Evans had a rocky alliance in Knives Out – yet none of it is here. Instead, their few encounters never escape their manufactured relationships, further damaging an already broken plot.

Without the buddy-cop vibe that normally drives these carbon copy films (Red Notice, Rush Hour, Bad Boys), The Gray Man ends up with a series of unmotivated eye candy sequences that, overall, aren’t as sweet as they want to be. The bright neon colours attempt to add some diversity amidst the bland hand-to-hand choreography but end up looking like a bad John Wick rip-off. The sets look empty and inhuman; in other words, they look like sets – a stark contrast to the level of quality expected from the Russos.

Or maybe it isn’t. Perhaps, this low-level of originality has always been there but was hidden away behind Marvel’s wall of superhero fever. Marvel have taken the sunk cost fallacy and used it to force audience’s into caring for one-dimensional characters simply because they ‘add to the universe’, a universe which we have spent too much time in as we fall in love with the company that is taking cinema hostage. Or maybe I am being too dramatic. It is unfair to judge a career by one movie, but it certainly does make me wonder: how long will it be till the MCU becomes the same film re-hashed over and over again. I’d argue it has already begun and now it is spreading – The Gray Man the same Marvel film, this time without any of the pre-investment.