The trailers for The Edge of Darkness had me sold on the film for three reasons only. One, it was Mel Gibsons first major starring role since Signs and he was kicking all sorts of ass in it, second, it was directed by Martin Campbell who helmed Casino Royale which demonstrated that he's certainly no stranger to action, and third, Gibsons character says the line "You're either hangin from the cross, or bangin in the nails" as he's bustin some poor dude up against the wall. Yes, those three things had me sold on this film before I even saw it. But in the end....sadly I had been misguided.
The film centers around Detective Thomas Craven investigating the death of his activist daughter. Everyone else on the force thinks that Craven was the real target for the killer, but Craven knows it was for his daughter and what he unravels is a large cooperate cover-up. He soon finds himself being chased around the city of Boston as well as doing some chasing himself. The story is way over the top and feels very unrealistic. The ending is one of the cheesiest anti-climatic endings I've seen in a while and I was not expecting this from Campbell nor Gibson. The film is honestly kind of boring as well with all the action scenes in the trailer.
With that being said it was still good to see Gibson on the big screen again and although his Boston accent was nowhere near as good as Dicaprio's in The Departed, I mostly blame director Campbell for this failed Boston cop story. I never saw the show that this is based on, also bearing the same name and created by Campbell that aired in 1985, but I heard that that is the one to watch and saw that it got great reviews. Still like I said, it's great to have Mel back as an actor on the big screen, that's for damn sure, and I'll be looking forward to his next project The Beaver which looks damn entertaining. The Edge of Darkness gets a 2 and a 1/2 outa 5.
