Ryan Shoots First: Armstrong (2017)
Armstrong is a movie of shadowy organizations, world ending nuclear threats, superhuman abilities and dealing with your past…. And 80% of it takes place in an ambulance. While the titular hero David Armstrong is played by Shawn Parsons the main character of this story is the EMT Lauren who is played by Vicky Jeudy. It is her first night on the graveyard shift as an EMT and as we see in an early scene as she prepares for her shift she is struggling to overcome some demons, there is an underlying theme in the movie with all of the main characters of dealing with your past, how it does not control you and the perseverance to move forward. Granted it is not explored on a very deep level I give the movie points for attempting to go somewhere more with the story and its characters.
Lauren begins the evening with fumbling through some rookie hazing by her less than ideal partner Eddie played by Jason Antoon but soon the jokes end when a sudden explosion happens at a warehouse nearby. I understand movies of this ilk save thousands on production by taking place in abandoned warehouse districts and construction yards but I got a chuckle when the “conspiracy theorist” Eddie who is listening to doomsday pirate radio in the ambulance hears that the coming invasion won’t happen in major cities but in the miles of abandoned warehouses littered around the country, convenient.
On their way to the scene, they come across what appears to be a homeless man in pain and rambling. After a dust-up with some government types in military gear, it is discovered that the man is actually our hero Armstrong, and he has a prosthetic arm that gives him multiple abilities including strength, an EMP blasts and some incendiary weaponry. He eventually enlists the EMT’s to his cause and they not only patch him up but assist in his mission to stop a shadow organization named the 5th Sun from destroying the world, starting with LA.
I have a soft spot in my heart for movies that take place in a single evening. There is something visceral and exciting about storytelling that completely takes place in the span of only a few hours. The idea that people just setting out on their routine can have one evening that irrevocably changes them forever. The issue with Armstrong though is that the movie fairly drags in the middle getting our characters from A to B. I joked above but I would be interested in clocking how much time is spent actually inside the ambulance in this movie, and while they are in there the movie is attempting to set up the motivations and backstories of the characters but it just feels like it is spinning its wheels and padding it’s run time till we get to the finale.
My largest gripe with the film is not the production values, or sets or even the elongated time spent setting up the next scene, I understand this type of film and those quirks are expected, the budget just isn’t there and that’s ok, I love the age we live in where filmmakers can even tackle these types of projects because of the tools that are available with a limited budget. The movie just doesn’t go far enough for me. You have a cult-like organization built on destroying the world and a dude with a super-powered prosthetic limb, the movie just doesn’t lean in enough into absurdity for me. There is a market for movies than go so full on absurdity they become admirable and entertaining and Armstrong just seemed to toe the line too far between grit and seriousness for my liking. Perhaps it is because there was an underlying theme of battling demons and our past that lead the creators to want a more grounded approach but I felt it missed the mark.
There is potential in the premise and setting of Armstrong it just played it a little too safe, however, I give them immense credit for and was delighted to see them throw in a mid-credits scene that if developed into a sequel looked much more in the realm of absurdity. I suppose we will just need to stay tuned for more in the Armstrong Movie Universe.
