Ben Affleck’s ‘Inception’ Replacement Thriller Refuses To Back Down on Streaming
Anthony Crislip has always loved movies and television, and has been published in outlets such as SlashFilm and Ultimate Classic Rock. While working as a film programmer or judge at a film festival, he has striven to develop interest in underseen films. He is a particular fan of digging deep into forgotten corners of film history.
Considering the pedigree of 2023’s Hypnotic, a sci-fi action thriller starring Ben Affleck from director Robert Rodriguez, it has surprisingly run below the radar, and has only been able to find its audience with its recent release on Hulu, where it's been among its top 10 most-streamed films for several weeks. The mind-bending story throws as many psychological thriller and sci-fi archetypes into a blender as possible, complete with an X Files-esque secret government operation and a haunted but mission-oriented father not far off from Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception (albeit with a twisty nature closer to Shutter Island). In fact, due to the shifting nature of its reality, the movie was called “Inception for Dummies” in Rolling Stone. But you can also see the DNA of a movie like Source Code or Blade Runner — as well as hundreds of detective movies about a man barely keeping his head above water in a complex mystery.
Following grieving father Detective Rourke (Affleck) as he finds himself caught in the battle between “Hypnotics” and the government “Division” trying to catch them, Hypnotic is neither its director nor lead actor’s best work. With a Robert Rodriguez movie, you might expect some classic junky silliness and expressive camerawork that is unafraid to be ridiculous, but Hypnotic is a little too indebted to its more serious psychological thriller forebears to be as fun as the director's campier movies like Desperado, Machete, or Sin City. In this case, the fun is submitting to the cable TV thrills and convoluted story unfolding before you, diving into twists that are both predictable and genuinely surprising. Affleck carries a perpetual grimace as the details of the case are unearthed, and Rourke's connection slowly becomes more clear.
'Hypnotic' Might Be a Little Derivative, but It Kicks off With a Bang
Within 10 minutes of Hypnotic's opening, there’s already a bank robbery, a rooftop chase, and a woman taking off her shirt as she walks into moving traffic. As well as an explosion, and Detective Rourke’s therapy session retelling the story of the final day he saw his daughter. The movie’s quick pace leaves little time for reflection — even Rourke’s discovery of a Polaroid of his daughter in a bank vault only leads to the next leg of the action. The leader of the heist, Lev Dellrayne (William Fichtner), is also evidently controlling the actions of people around him, in a scene that could have been borrowed by 2026’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day. As Rourke soon learns, Dellrayne is a Hypnotic, fully capable of mind control. There isn’t much time to question this.
With a low-key supernatural twist on a traditional hard-boiled narrative, Hypnotic begins with a feeling reminiscent of Stephen King (with a much faster pace). Deaths, wild reveals, and even a trip to Mexico might all happen within the span of minutes, but it’s in service of a story that quickly begins to defy its own reality. As Dellrayne soon circles in on Rourke and his new psychic ally Cruz (Alice Braga), Rourke discovers he is unable to be influenced by the Hypnotics (although he does get a cool, Inception-esque vision of trains circling in on themselves in the air). Rodriguez’s ability to keep the filmmaking tight, with minimal flourishes, might prevent the movie from ascending to the heights of Christopher Nolan’s dream heist thriller, but it delivers a solid B-movie. For as busy as the movie is, he’s able to keep it moving, even with scene after scene of exposition.
Robert Rodriguez Wrote 'Hypnotic' In 2002 — and It Shows
At its best, Hypnotic is a throwback to classic B-movies, like ‘40s noir with its endless parade of character actors (including Shutter Island's Jackie Earle Haley) and ‘70s thrillers that demanded action beats every ten minutes. Affleck’s performance deals more in the brutal violence of his Batman performance than his more thoughtful work, as he grumbles and barks his way through the movie’s labyrinth of conspiracies. Rodriguez’s use of contrast, neon lighting, and sleazy motels reflects the movie’s noir inspiration, but its weaknesses become more apparent as the movie reveals what it’s actually doing in the second half.
Rodriguez claimed to have written the movie’s first draft in 2002 (where he also likened it to a "Hitchcock thriller on steroids"), and held onto the story for 20 years before eventually bringing it to life. That puts its inspiration closer to reality-shifting movies like 1999’s Fight Club, with twists that play on the question of identity. Given the movie’s tight focus, its eventual development feels more like a rug pull, turning all the fun cinematic trickery the movie had played with into something more bland. Still, it’s capable of wrapping up on a good note thanks to Rodriguez’s sturdy direction, and the climax has plenty of satisfying mind-bending shifts into psychological thriller territory.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.