A fun piece of trivia is that Alien’s Ripley was supposed to be a male character. Nothing was changed, but Sigourney Weaver was cast as Ripley, and movie history was made. Taking Lives feels like the polar opposite. When I found out that it was based on a book, and that Angelina Jolie’s FBI character may not have been a character in the novel, I was disgusted. It felt like a torture porn fantasy of how some people would want to victimize in a gender specific way a woman in the FBI then not get in trouble at the very end by screaming, “Just kidding!”

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

It was clear that Taking Lives’ filmmakers had a wish list of things that they wanted to do to a female FBI agent to take her down a peg or alternatively and more optimistically take advantage of Jolie’s weird off screen persona: slap her, have the murderer “fuck” her, have her covered in blood, make her the victim. Sure she wins, but only after countless moments of degradation. Also the minute that I saw Ethan Hawke, I knew that he was the killer. It was so obvious. Visually the film was very inconsistent: at times, it would take weird Hitchcock angles to increase tension then abruptly abandon it for more standard shots. If it was an attempt at mirroring the killer’s identity, it was a failed one. What a waste of Gena Rowlands! The plot holes were gaping. I don’t care if you’re a fan of anyone in Taking Lives’ roster, it isn’t worth the time wasted to watch it.