Hypnotic is a movie that really, really, really, REALLY wants to blow your mind. And maybe it will if you haven’t seen a lot of twisty, clever films. It tries to do something interesting… but it doesn’t do it in an interesting way. It feels very low energy and poorly thought out.

The flick stars Ben Affleck as a cop on the trail of a bad guy (William Fitchner!) who uses the power of suggestion to rob banks. He’s in way over his head and unsure of what’s real and what’s not as he chases down the bad guys.

This film tries to be so twisty that, by the time it gets to its big twist, I saw it coming (similar to the recent con-man film Sharper). They set up a scenario that’s inherently mind-bendy in the first place… and then they proceed to a twist that’s within the exact same framework. A better script would have introduced one idea and then given a twist that took the story in a whole other direction.

But also… the movie is kind of low effort and a little pedestrian. It feels like a massively average film… not trying hard enough to be anything but a mid-budget sci-fi concept film. Since it stars Affleck, I kept thinking about Paycheck… another average concept film that was no greater than its least interesting idea. <insert: Ben Affleck in another paycheck film joke here>

I can see some people getting something out of this film. I genuinely (and non-condescendingly) think it could surprise someone who hasn’t seen many Big Idea twisty, clever mindtrip movies. But that’s not me. This script needed a rewrite to make it nearly as clever as it thinks it is.

Score: 72