Mina has no idea why someone would want to kill her parents. Even less what could drive several men to forcibly invade their home to kill them in cold blood.
Nonetheless that’s what happens, leaving Mina and her younger daughter confused and orphaned.
British Intelligence come. They have the answers Mina seeks to questions she didn’t even know needed answering. Her family has been targeted by a Arab warlords, a terrorist faction known to kill anyone in their way.
And in this case anyone who they feel has wronged them.
More revelations. Mina has been pronounced dead, and is seen to be safer that way. Not even her younger sister – now in foster care – can know of her existence. Mina is given a new identity and placed in a safe house under the watch of a mercenary hired by British Intelligence, who have decided to distance themselves from allegations of taking sides.
Wouldn’t want to be seen as opposing terrorism would we?
Now ‘safe house’ is a term bandied about, but in this case it is far from a literal use. Within hours of being dubbed ‘safe’ Mina is once again the target of a home invasion of sorts.
Someone really wants her dead. And someone really wants this film to be more than it is…
… It seems mean to denigrate a low budget passion piece like Born of War, but it really isn’t very good despite the effort. In an attempt to make the action POP we are expected to overlook basic logic; like not going back into the apartment you just escaped certain death from while the bad guys are still in there. Like not overhearing a deadly plot inside another room then standing outside on the front step and discussing what to do. Like not ‘hiding’ – twice – in plain view of those looking for you; once by scooching down in the back seat of a sedan while the bad guys walk past. Like not trying to cut something from your body with a big round rock.
Like not expecting us to believe that you just cut something from your body with that big round rock…
In any case young Mina, the innocent young girl who a couple days previous was an everyday college student with zero battle experience, gets tired of making bad decisions on the run, and decides to make bad decisions in attack.
Cue even more unlikely developments and I’ll thought out twists.
Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. Brain-damaged Bourne on a budget.
