Colombiana

The impressive Zoe Soldana (Avatar) is on hand to bring some electricity to this bristling retread of producer Luc Besson’s La Femme Nikita formula—attractive young woman becomes killing machine. And the script (co-authored by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen) puts a quasi-contemporary spin on things via a tale of Colombian drug lords and other outlaws that sprawls into the USA and ends up involving both the FBI and the CIA as well. The crucial hook in this case is that the central character, Cataleya (Soldana), becomes a world-class contract killer for the sole purpose of exacting revenge on the drug lord responsible for killing her parents. She is witness to that event at age 10 and determines almost immediately to make herself into an unstoppable killer. That of course is less a character concept than a pro-forma excuse for the ballet fury and violence required from this kind of bloodlessly vengeful action fantasy. Soldana is sufficiently athletic to provide a measure of suspended disbelief, but for all its investment in hot-button emotions, Colombiana is very nearly all action and no heart. Cinemark 14 and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13