Matthew D
Surprisingly cool stunts in the beginning and end, but the middle flashback feels interminable.
I thought Ad Vitam would be worse considering it’s an actioner movie on Netflix, but it’s alright.
Director Rodolphe Lauga’s French action thriller Ad Vitam (2025) on Netflix is fairly average. Lauga tries a few interesting things visually as a director to make Ad Vitam engaging. I loved the opening sequence scaling the church with the ropes and the scary fall freaked me out. Cafer Ilhan’s neat lighting is quite absorbing immediately in the opening night scene, then continues throughout like the icy blue lighting in the home. The home invasion scene is pretty frightening right off the bat. I didn’t care for the extended flashbacks in the middle that interrupt the flow of the action. However, the resulting search for the hero’s wife is alright. Writers Rodolphe Lauga and Guillaume Canet’s story of a former agent’s wife getting kidnapped, so he hunts down her attackers is generic, but sets up for some cool stunts. I am surprised that so much of the movie is a flashback to the hero’s past in special forces.
As far as Ad Vitam’s visuals go, there’s some nice scenic views of Paris’ cityscape, pools, streets, and landmarks captured by the pretty wide shots. The medium and close-up shots are engaging, but the shaky camera choices didn’t make me feel immersed enough. The shaking movements ruined the decently gritty and realistic fight scenes. Climbing on the rooftops is super cool. There’s some exciting chase scenes with wild angles that are striking. Maud Spriet’s art director looks nice and grounded. The stunt team is excellent at close quarters combat and does some cool things for the chases. That opening fall on the climbing rope is terrifying. There’s a lot more parkour, kickboxing, grappling and a variety of stunts than I was expecting.
Guillaume Canet is likable enough as the former special forces agent and action hero Franck Lazareff with his vicious fights, stern manner, daring stunts, and raw emotions. When he’s expressive, he’s quite good, but he can be too stoic at times. Stéphane Caillard is good as Franck’s pregnant wife Léo, who is skeptical of his excuses and suspicious behavior in the present. Her past scenes in the special forces with him are far more engaging to me. Nassim Lyes is pretty engaging and intriguing as the recruit Ben. Zita Hanrot is okay as Manon too. Everyone else is pretty bad and forgettable. I should mention that I did enjoy the pretty film score.
Overall, Ad Vitam is a fine watch for 97 minutes with plenty of stunts scattered across an intense story. I wish the middle story was more streamlined to perhaps show us the past first, then just get to the more exciting chase afterwards. Breaking up the story as it is was jarring. It’s not groundbreaking, but I had a good time with Ad Vitam.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
05/27/25
Full Review
J D
This is totally crap!!! Unless you want to be misled by 5min of actions but dragged into meaningless and extremely boring not-even-romantic-nor-police-like 70min VIDEO, then this is the movie for you... even the last 10min of actions are boring, empty and dumb...
I never learn... Netflix has been making crappy movies continuously... but I still watched because my partner insisted, I never learn...!!!!!!!!!(ANGER)
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
04/19/25
Full Review
Juju S
Franchement pas terrible... Sympa de voir ce genre de film en France, mais ça ne vaut pas vraiment les bons films d'action...
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
05/17/25
Full Review
Jose p
It's a good movie, honestly. I love stories where the main character does everything to get his girl, and I love the tension in the last act. Even though you know what's going to happen, you still get excited. It's a little slow, but it gets better in the end. Watch it when you actually have some free time.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
04/06/25
Full Review
Gabriel S
Ad Vitam is one of those films that might entertain casuals, appealing to their need of high-action scenes and over-the-top thrilling plot points, but critics should catch the flaws of the story upfront, and, through exposure, diminish the payoff of this film.
The story starts strong: Franck is a former GIGN agent and is hiding a secret. Because of this sin, he is being chased by some high-profile hitmen searching for a particular item. This premise appeals to any action thriller fan in the world, but unfortunately, Ad Vitam just does it all wrong.
First, we start in media res, which is a turn down. This means we start at the middle, then we jump back to get some backstory, then we are back to the present for the finale. This technique sometimes work, but I feel it does not for Ad Vitam. The change of pace is abrupt, and the backstory is not that thrilling altogether. It is like we start with an action thriller film, then we jump to a love story, then we jump back to what I can only call pure action.
The chemistry between characters Léo and Franck work, but only because of actress Stéphane Caillard. She gives her heart trying to make their relationship work onscreen, while Guillaume Cane is just this wood plank too traumatized by whatever his dad did — though, cudos to Canet for the emotion-packed scene when his friend Nico dies.
Then there are two big problems with this film: the plot and the villain.
The story is full of holes to keep what I call convenience suspense, which is when events serve the purpose of just keeping the protagonist alive, rather than playing out in a logical way. These type of events happen throughout the whole plotline of Ad Vitam, a series of unforgivable conveniences after the other. To give you an example of such events, imagine Villain has Protag overwhelmed at gunpoint, but Villain decides to let Protag live out of dumb decisions like a stupid, elaborate plan he wants to follow to the details (instead of adjusting to the situation), or out of pure pride or mockery, the old “I will let you live because I want to make you suffer” (rather than just winning altogether).
The plot seems to reach high-profile, scaling up towards Government conspiracy levels, but then things resolve in the most uninterested and low-key way possible. I started wondering how Franck would get out of the mess he got himself into, but what should I have hoped for: of course the story just disregards all the stakes it created, later focusing only on Franck and Léo.
And the villain ended up being a shocker, in a bad sense: a full transition from someone that the story introduced as a cunning man to a buffoon. Disappointing.
Director Rodolphe Lauga is a newbie on the industry, with only 4 entries into his portfolio. I think this lack of experience might have had a toll on the film performance.
Ad Vitam fails in most aspects, unredeemable. It starts out nicely but then raises the stakes high without creating payoff. Plot points are a series of off-track beats after another, culminating in an anticlimactic ending that does not make justice to the stakes at play.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
03/24/25
Full Review
Bilim M
Génial comme films je le recommande
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
03/22/25
Full Review
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