Empire magazine's review of "Trigger Warning" (2024) begins with a critique, questioning how the film's title is irrelevant to its content. Yet, this oddity is just the tip of the iceberg for Netflix's new movie, "Trigger Warning." The most intriguing aspect is why Jessica Alba, who established her business empire a decade ago, returned to Hollywood for a physically demanding role.
Jessica Alba stars as Parker, a special forces operative who has just returned from a foreign war only to rush back to the US because her father, Harry, died in a mining collapse. Harry's bar has become a burden, and Parker plans to leave her hometown for good after the funeral. However, Parker, being a soldier, notices something strange in the cave where Harry died… She soon uncovers the town's dark secrets, launching her into combat mode for a personal war.
Where Has Jessica Alba Been?
Many believed Jessica Alba was gone for good. Her last mainstream Hollywood film was "Mechanic: Resurrection" (2016), a mid-budget film by Lionsgate Films, which cost $40 million to produce. Despite being a B-grade sequel starring Jason Statham, it garnered a global box office of $120 million. Alba's role was minor, as she was already focused on other ventures by then.
In 2012, Alba founded The Honest Company, a consumer goods enterprise. By the time "Mechanic: Resurrection" hit theaters, the two-year-old company had already reached a valuation of $1 billion. After nearly a decade, The Honest Company went public on Nasdaq.
Alba's striking face graced the covers of business magazines like Forbes, which cared little about her acting career or her long absence from Hollywood. Instead, they focused on how one of 2016's most successful self-made female entrepreneurs built and rebranded her company, carving out a niche in the household products market.
"Trigger Warning" Aims to Make Jessica Alba the Female John Wick
Once a Hollywood darling with roles in "Honey" (2003), "Sin City" (2005), and "Fantastic Four" (2005), Jessica Alba returns to the screen in Netflix's "Trigger Warning." Interestingly, a thread connects this film to "Mechanic: Resurrection". In both, she plays a special forces operative seeking a new life after leaving the battlefield.
Can you imagine sweet-faced Jessica Alba as a highly skilled special forces soldier? It's a stretch. "Trigger Warning" tries hard to position Alba as the female John Wick, showcasing her in intense combat scenes. While Alba performs some fight sequences, the film must maintain credibility. From the opening scenes to the script, character development, and even primary special effects, "Trigger Warning" feels awkwardly directionless.
A Mishmash of Classic Action Film Concepts
Does "John Wick" (2014) have any script at all? It seems not, but "Trigger Warning" makes "John Wick" look like an epic masterpiece. The plot of "John Wick" is straightforward: we know a man lost his loved one, and that loved one left him a dog, for which he seeks revenge. The story is straightforward, and Keanu Reeves' performance focuses on transitioning from melancholy to sadness to anger and relentless vengeance. The audience clearly understands his motivations, and this simplicity makes "John Wick" compelling. "Trigger Warning," while simple in its story, lacks the straightforward intuition of "John Wick."
It's hard to imagine that Netflix's "Trigger Warning" had three writers working on the script. Yet, they failed to embody the saying "three heads are better than one," the script was flawed from the start. Indonesian director Mouly Surya also didn't manage to elevate the material.
"Trigger Warning" begins in a computer-animated Syrian desert, with Jessica Alba sitting in a green-screen truck, avoiding pursuers. She repeatedly shouts, "Don't let them get within firing range," while dramatically firing backward. This opening sequence includes the confusing phrase "firing range" twice. A sniper on a hill manages to headshot the pursuers in the speeding truck with CGI bullets. After Jessica Alba's character, Parker, is rescued, she stops a comrade from killing a captured pursuer, leading to a struggle between two American soldiers, which ends with Parker stabbing the other soldier's hand with a knife.
What is this entire sequence meant to convey? Is it to show the harsh conditions in Syria? To highlight Parker's compassionate nature? Or to showcase Parker's knife skills? It needs to be clarified. Soon after, Parker receives news of her father's death, and the Syrian battlefield is quickly abandoned. The film transitions into a bizarre amalgamation of "John Wick," "Road House" (1989), "The Stand at Paxton County" (2020), and "First Blood" (1982). Each of these films has a higher concept than "Trigger Warning," and the audience understands from the first second what kind of entertainment these films aim to provide.
"Trigger Warning" doesn't have a complicated plot; it's just that viewers may not understand what kind of entertainment the film aims to deliver. As each character appears, you can guess their role and fate. "Road House" and "John Wick" do this too, but their focus isn't on the plot. They know the audience is there to see good versus evil, preferably in brutal combat. The fight scenes are their highlight.
However, in the 100-minute "Trigger Warning," there aren't many adrenaline-pumping fight scenes in the first 30 minutes, except for the lazy opening sequence in Syria and a brief scene where Jessica Alba takes down three petty thieves (lasting only one minute). The rest of the time, we see Jessica Alba's weathered face as she cryptically investigates her father's death—this already takes up almost a third of the film's runtime.
"Trigger Warning" Takes a Clear Political Stance
Interestingly, for a film that should be a mindless action flick, "Trigger Warning" takes an explicit political stance. Parker, who refuses to kill prisoners, clearly embraces progressive thinking. At the same time, the film's apparent antagonists champion the traditional rhetoric that "progressive thinking is useless."
"Trigger Warning" resembles a Democratic nightmare: a fierce advocate for women's empowerment is forced to return to a conservative, pro-gun, racially discriminatory small town filled with white trash. Even more interestingly, the protagonist, Parker, doesn't use guns but is a soldier skilled in melee weapons, complete with a pretentious scene where she practices with a knife at sunset. Parker's friends are all people of color, opposing an all-white antagonist lineup. The dialogue even includes a satirical jab at "weapons of mass destruction." This film steadfastly maintains its progressive stance from start to finish.
The problem with the film's attempt to emphasize its political stance is that the character's motivations and actions could be more reasonable, drawing attention to the meaningless subtext. Why does Parker's family become the biggest thorn in the side of the town's most powerful family? How does a country boy manage to trade arms with terrorists?
The film provides some answers, but they are all arbitrary and wishful, making it hard to feel any part of the characters is noteworthy. They seem to be dragged reluctantly from some cheerful party to act in this movie—one scene features a character just standing by and watching an escape unfold.
Will "Trigger Warning" be Jessica Alba's comeback? Hopefully not, because it doesn't look promising. She might be better off returning to the business battlefield to find another entrepreneurial opportunity. That might be simpler than portraying an unconvincing special forces soldier, and it would undoubtedly be more fulfilling.
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