My quick rating – 4.7/10. Wildcat follows an ex–black ops team that reunites for one last desperate heist, all to save the life of an eight-year-old girl. I’m always a sucker for a Kate Beckinsale action flick. If you’ve seen any of the Underworld movies, you get it. She opens the film with a quick burst of exposition before the story jumps in with both feet, and the movie wastes no time delivering its heist, which is over before the 80s-style Bond credits start rolling. That’s certainly one way to pace a film.
We flash back to “10 years earlier,” where Ada (Beckinsale) and Roman (Lewis Tan) reappear to ponder the idea of kids and admit they’re both married to the job. It’s a quiet moment, but the movie doesn’t let it breathe. Instead, it vaults ahead to “10 days before the heist,” suggesting the past didn’t have much left to say. If you’re enjoying the bouncing timeline, the film then jumps again – this time to “10 hours before the heist” – where the real story finally decides to begin.
Alice Krige steps in as Ms. Vine, a villain with a perfectly sharpened tone that fits the role like a glove. The script scatters extra plot threads around in an attempt to elevate the film above a standard heist setup. A detour through the wrong London neighborhood that erupts into a full-on gang riot adds some needed chaos, and for a moment, you can see the movie shooting for something wilder. But most sequences stretch longer than they should, and even with a few solid pieces of choreography, the momentum stalls more than it sprints.
It’s impossible for me not to mention Beckinsale’s appearance. Whether the culprit is CGI smoothing or heavy makeup, the effect gives her a strangely plastic sheen. The inconsistency becomes distracting, especially when her look shifts between flashbacks. I hate calling it out, but it pulls attention away from her performance, and that’s never ideal when she’s the biggest draw.
The action scenes that do land are fine. Serviceable, competent, easy to follow, but rarely push past average. The whole movie carries that familiar STS energy: a mid-budget action project built to spotlight a recognizable star. There’s nothing wrong with that lane, but Wildcat doesn’t do much to stand out. It moves from beat to beat without ever gripping me, and even the higher-stakes moments never rise above “just okay.”
Beckinsale deserves scripts with more bite because she still sells intensity better than most. Wildcat, meanwhile, sits firmly in the middle of the action-movie pack – watchable enough, but unlikely to leave much of an impression after the credits fade.
