Netflix’s ‘Man on Fire’ has no heat

When I first heard Netflix was making a new adaptation ofMan on Fire, I thought to myself that this would probably be another unnecessary reboot but I kept an open mind. Having seen his performances in films likeThe Trial of the Chicago 7andCandyman, I’ve come to regard Mateen as one of the most underrated leading men in Hollywood. Earlier this year, he starred in the Marvel seriesWonder Man, which I absolutely loved.

It took full advantage of Mateen’s natural charisma and his chemistry with Ben Kingsley, resulting in a show that felt more like a buddy comedy than a conventional superhero origin story. It was with this in mind that I fired up Netflix to see Mateen’s latest performance.Man on Firedrops us into the action immediately, as we first meet Mateen’s John Creasy during a tactical operation in Mexico City. Things go terribly wrong and Creasy is forced to watch his comrades get executed.

Cut to four years later: Creasy is an alcoholic, struggling with PTSD and soon attempts to end his own life by ramming his car into a wall. While recovering in hospital, he’s approached by his old friend Paul Rayburn (Bobby Cannavale), who recruits him for a security job in Brazil and offers him a place to stay. Not long after Creasy arrives, Rayburn and most of his family are killed when a bomb detonates in their building.

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The only survivor is Poe Rayburn (Billie Boullet), Paul’s 16-year-old daughter, leaving Creasy as the closest thing she has to family in a foreign country. All this unfolds in the first episode. From there, the plot expands in increasingly wild directions.

Without venturing into spoiler territory, the story pulls in a crowded ensemble of players: the Brazilian president and his head of security, a domestic terror group, the CIA and various gang factions in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. What begins as a revenge story quickly shapeshifts into a political thriller and at one point even veers into heist territory. Mateen’s performance exists within a story that has a long and varied history.

Like many people, my first introduction toMan on Firewas the 2004 film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Denzel Washington alongside Dakota Fanning and Christopher Walken. The plot there was simple: a burnt-out former CIA agent is hired to protect a girl in Mexico City, only to embark on a brutal revenge spree after she’s kidnapped.

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