American Assassin Review: 2 Ups & 8 Downs

7. Taylor Kitsch's Terrible Villain

Taylor Kitsch does a reasonable job as Ghost, the movie's big bad who wishes to get hold of some plutonium for his own nefarious purposes, but the character itself just isn't good. Not at all.

For starters, it's a long time before Ghost even shows up, and even then, his appearances are relatively fleeting until the second half, where his disappointingly simplistic and predictable motives are finally revealed.

While the movie seems to think it's making some sort of potent statement about the state of American intelligence, Ghost's main reason for going on a murderous terror spree comes off as childish and unconvincing.

Kitsch can't do much but try, and that he certainly does, but it's hardly a good look for him.