Til Death Do Us Part

             It is really easy to get excited for a movie based on its trailer or synopsis. Till Death Do Us Part gave me warm fuzzy feelings with its story of a bride who must fight off seven angry groomsmen in order to survive her night. To me, this sounded like a rockin’ good time and I was ready to get lost in watching some groomsmen get decimated. However that’s not what happened. Instead, screenwriters Chad Law and Shane Dax Taylor, as well as director Timothy Woodward Jr. may have stumbled on their way to the alter.

The Bride (Natalie Burn) looks like she is ready for her happily ever after as we see her all smiles and ready for her big day. Something happens. And the next time we see The Bride is at a house, alone and looking like she just made a hard decision. That solitary experience doesn’t last long as soon the groomsmen, led by the Best Man (Cam Gigandet) show up, and this is not a cordial visit. Instead they have strict instructions from the Groom (Ser’Darius Blain) to not let her leave, as it seems she left the wedding on bad terms with everyone on the other side of the aisle. What we do learn, in between some nice ass-kicking scenes on The Bride’s part is that her, the Groom and the Groomsman are part of a school that train assassins. It seems this is one of those groups that once you are in, there is only one way out, and that is no longer breathing. The Bride just wants to go her own way, but in this case it’s going to take a lot of death for her to move on.

Sometimes it doesn’t take long to figure out that something may not be for you and for me, it was pretty clear pretty quick here. Til Death Do Us Part wants to be in the same conversation with films like Ready or Not and John Wick, but lacks the entertainment and the gusto those films possess. Writers Chad Law and Shane Dax Taylor decide that telling the story in two points of time was the right course and instead turn a fun premise into quite the tedious exercise to watch. Every second of the second time-line should have seen the cutting floor as it only serves to bog the story down, instead of giving us have what we came for.

I really wanted to enjoy Til Death Do Us Part, but this is not the movie that was advertised. Too often it chases things unearned, like emotional payoffs all while barley delivering on the action with its short burst of fight scenes. When you add the not-so-good plot and characters you either don’t like (the Best Man) or forgettable characters (which is pretty much them all) it equals not much else. I will give some kudos for the fight choreography, as a lot of  the fight scenes shine, but if only there were enough, it might had made this more watchable. I hoped this was going to be a must-watch, but less than halfway through, I was wishing I was at a real wedding instead of witnessing this.