Not expected this from the director. For a title called 'Sabotage' which had one of our times greatest action hero in it the story drags with lots of drama than stunts. Arnold Schwarzenegger is not young anymore and he's not capable of heavy stunts, but still he handled well those crucial parts. No doubt he was good, and also the direction, but the story was not well written. Especially the twist was so pale and the supporting characters were hyped better than the Arnie's, but failed to hold and deliver when the story needed them.
Due to create the suspense some of the assassins were kept undisplayed for the viewers and that is another let down. Because in the whole movie action sequences were the weakest except the opening scene and those murders were somehow produced expectancy. This movie was not bad, but an average. It can be watched once though it may not fulfill your thirst for fine enjoyment. You may like what I did not, so I can't put it to discardable list.
6½/10
**A hopeless mess from start to finish, unfortunately.**
This is not a good film, not even to watch with your buddies while drinking beer (which I did). It has some promise in its premise, and at one point we actually wanted to know how the actual betrayal was done, but that feeling soon vanished.
I personally think that Arnold does a decent job with what he has to work with, the rest of the actors are pretty atrocious though. Sam Worthington is the best of the rest but that isn't saying much. Pair this with some of the most clichéd, over-the-top, obnoxious personalities ever put on film and sprinkle some next level cringeworthy dialogue on top and you have a recipe for characters you will actively despise. We actually cheered when they got killed off.
The biggest flaw of the movie is the editing though. As I mentioned we really wanted to be invested in this movie but either the director or the editor was really hung-over - or possibly still drunk - when they cut this movie. Multiple scenes and situations made less than no sense, and the final nail in the coffin was the realization that the inciting moment, the very reason the entire movie exists, was so badly edited that none of us understood what actually had happened until it was explained by a character much later.
The final ten minutes of the movie made it painfully clear that it wouldn't have mattered if we had understood it, or anything really, as the "twist" (I wish I could use even bigger quotation marks) is both underwhelming and as twisted as metal ruler. You get no explanation of how the betrayal is done, no explanation why the events that are portrayed in the movie ever take place, nor why the characters act the way they did.
Honestly though, it's our own fault to expect any sort of arc or depth to characters that probably has fewer than two lines of description in the script. It made for some relatively entertaining moments though when all of a sudden characters acted even more erratic and confusing than usual. It became a game of sorts to try and figure out if this was because one or more scenes were cut or if the writer/director actually was that incompetent.
The one redeeming quality of this movie is that they took their blood and splatter of said blood seriously. There are a couple of almost intense moments solely due to some realistic gore. There isn't enough to entice any fans of gore and splatter to watch this though.
Give this one a pass unless you're really acing for some sub-par action with a mediocre performance from Arnold.