Redeemer is Muddled and Suffers from Budgetary Constraints

Redeemer sees a former cartel hitman (Marko Zaror) take on the evil around him by becoming a vigilante in an attempt to atone for the sins of his past.

The Blu-ray disc for the film arrived with the dubbing automatically on. I would recommend adjusting it to its native Spanish language audio track with English subtitles. I would typically always recommend that but I am especially keen on suggesting you do so if you opt to watch this flick because the English language voice actors are really bad and the dubbing is awful.

Ernesto Díaz Espinoza directs and you almost get the impression that he really could have done something special with the requisite time and money required of the kind of film he set out to make. Unfortunately, as it stands, the picture feels like its going off half cocked. The budget was obviously low and the finished product suffers as a result. It’s almost impossible to make a revenge epic on a shoestring and Redeemer proves that. 

The effects look like bad CG and the overall production values are pretty poor as a whole. However, the fight scenes are well choreographed and that makes up for some of what’s wrong with the film. Unfortunately, the fight sequences are not plentiful enough or epic enough to make up for the film’s numerous shortcomings.

Another thing that frustrated me is that Redeemer is unduly dramatic. This is particularly evident in the flashback sequences. Some of the drama is warranted but it’s ultimately hammed up to unnecessary heights in several scenes.

There are also some definite pacing problems. I was asking myself when the film would be over by the middle of the second act. Things pick up steam by the third act but the pacing is up and down for a good deal of the second act.

As for the characters, the American drug dealer character is badly written and his overzealous recitation of dialogue is really obnoxious. He’s written to be sort of like the comic relief but he’s not funny and he just serves to derail the otherwise serious tone of the picture.

The Redeemer character comes off like a vigilante superhero in the vein of Marvel’s Daredevil but if that’s what you’re after, you’d be much better off just streaming the Netflix original series Daredevil. The show has much, much, much deeper pockets and gets right almost everything this film gets wrong. If you feel like checking Redeemer out, it is now available on DVD and Blu via Dark Sky today.

WICKED RATING: 3/10 

Director(s): Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
Writer(s):  Gina Aguad, Sanz Andrea, Diego Ayala, Ernesto Díaz Espinoza, Guillermo Prieto
Stars: Noah Segan, Marko Zaror, Loreto Aravena
Release Date: September 1, 2015
Studio/ Production Co: Dark Sky
Language: Spanish, English
Length: 88 Minutes
Sub-Genre: Action, Revenge