POLAR: A Joyless & Idealess Barren Tundra

There’s a growing appetite for the kind of comic book adaptations that happened before the Marvel and DC rush when, for better or worse, the adaptations at least felt novel. Polar is clearly born from this idea – it takes a ’90s style of comic book movie with the exaggerated grit and noir that’d feel at home in Blade. Unfortunately, it translates too many of the boring and tired traits, and too few strands of fun, to compare to other comic adaptations.

Polar tells the story of a retiring assassin (Mads Mikkelsen), whose employer decides to kill to save money – and if that premise doesn’t sound cliché enough already, the “quirky” band of antagonist assassins, the woman who changes the assassin’s perspective on life (Vanessa Hudgens), and the conniving evil mastermind (Matt Lucas), all conspire to make the film as uninspired as possible.

An uninspired plot isn’t Polar’s only crime – director Jonas Åkerlund tries to embrace a comic-book style and aesthetic that is wholly inappropriate for the rest of the content, the performances are a wildly mixed bag, and the treatment of female characters feels awfully close to objectification at times.

Taking the Comic Book out of the Adaptation

Polar is based on a comic of the same name (technically a webcomic, although it later saw physical release) and the film wants you to know it. Characters are introduced with colourful freeze-frames, locations are introduced with graffiti-esque fonts, and certain action scenes are executed with joyful goofiness. However, at other times the film is a solemn noir, or a hyper violent neo-noir, or a character thriller, and the different styles and tones juxtapose in ugly and confused ways.

For example, there are various action scenes throughout. One is a brawl in which Mikkelsen punches and kicks his way through countless goons in a dingy hallway, all while covered in blood and bruises. It’s a joyless action scene that would be more at home in The Bourne Identity. However, it’s preceded by an action scene in which he battles a team of assassins in a snowy forest while naked, briefly turning into a nude Batman, and is followed by him using laser-pointer gloves to control a wall of guns in a shootout. The tone of the action scenes vary wildly, but the imaginative and interesting scenes are too few and far between.

The “dramatic” scenes follow the same fate, although even some of the goofy ones don’t work. The brief moments of joy, such as Mikkelsen using experiences from his past assassinations to teach a class of school kids (undoubtedly the best scene from the film), are dwarfed by too many scenes of dry characterization or uncomfortable attempts by Lucas to provide an entertaining performance.

The existence of these few fun scenes shows that Åkerlund had a mind to embrace the quirky and fun style that fellow comic book films Kick-Ass and Ghost Rider utilized. Not enough scenes work like this, however, and Polar’s split identity leaves it always floating in limbo.

Kill the Audience

The quality of performances in Polar varies wildly – Åkerlund is an established director of music videos, which obviously requires less character work, and it tells in the hit-or-miss range of actors.

Mikkelsen carries his character well enough, however easy it may be to play a stoic loner. He really shines in certain scenes, such as the aforementioned school scene, but is only given the opportunity to shine in the certain interesting scenes. Similarly, Hudgens does well with the few scenes she’s given, and until her final scene she brings her character a level of dignity that few actresses could.

Hudgens’ character is also of note for being one of only two named female characters who don’t feel included purely for objectification. Multiple scenes of women being treated as toys for the other characters, or titillation for the audience, seem unapologetic in their brazenness, and it becomes very uncomfortable to watch.

The real weak link in terms of acting is Lucas playing the stereotypical “camp” villain. At times he’s Blofeld, others Dr. Evil, and he ricochets between overserious evilness and comedic attempts at chewing scenery, veering into overacting at both ends of the spectrum. At no point does he ever seem like a malevolent force, or any kind of competent antagonist to the main character.

Lucas’ tiring performance is reflected in the achingly clichéd performances from the team of assassins that chase the protagonist – each character leans far too hard on the “quirky” style of acting that was bad enough in Suicide Squad, but here just seem like bad imitations of those bad performances. The overall poor acting from the antagonising forces negates any menace or terror they could possess, and robs the film of a lot of dramatic tension.

Polar: Conclusion

Polar could probably have successfully built on its clichéd plot if the execution was great, but too few of the scenes hit the level of imagination or wit needed. Nearly all the scenes are uninspired, laden with bad acting, or presented without any style or substance. In addition, a baffling last-minute twist seems to intentionally leave a bad taste in the mouth after watching.

Perhaps with many more ideas Polar could have been enjoyable (or, alternatively, less ideas taken from the plethora of similar films). Unfortunately, it’s just another Netflix film release that’ll be forgotten almost immediately.

How could Polar have adapted some of its scenes to make them more novel?

Polar was released on Netflix on 25 January 2019.