In 2019, the TV series Luther wrapped up reasonably neatly, with a suitably downbeat ending. Luther (Idris Elba), a detective who’d been flouting the law for years, mostly with good intentions, was arrested, presumed on his way to jail. This movie never makes a compelling reason for restarting the story. While the scale is upped and there are some reasonable action sequences, it does little to advance the character and lacks the dark creativity of the show. Rather than sinister, it’s mostly just an uneasy mix of silly and nasty.
It begins with a jumbled set-up that mixes bits of the TV finale with a new story. A young man is kidnapped by a masked menace (Andy Serkis) who finds people’s darkest digital secrets and blackmails them into either doing his bidding or killing themselves. Luther promises the man’s mother he’ll get him back. The kidnapper leaks all Luther’s past illegal misdoings, which helps get him sent to jail. Despite being locked up, Luther vows to catch this twisted serial killer, so he breaks out and somehow joins uneasy forces with new Detective Superintendent, Odette Raine (Cynthia Erivo).
This is just nonsensical and violently bleak, rather than thrilling.
If this plot sounds lurching and farfetched, this is all before it gets completely ridiculous. Neil Cross’ series was often absurd, but it had imagination. It was peppered with nightmarish images that played to your most primitive fears. Who can forget the clown-masked man at the back of the bus or the killer emerging from under the bed? This is just nonsensical and violently bleak, rather than thrilling. While director Jamie Payne, who made several of the TV episodes, successfully broadens the canvas of Luther’s dark London, he fails to navigate the script’s many holes.
Andy Serkis makes a peculiar villain. With his lustrous blow-dry and leering grin, he looks like an '80s gameshow host, creepy but not frightening. He’s doing his best with an oddly cobbled together baddy, whose motives and ability to construct a secret digital empire are barely explained. By the time we’re at his elaborate secret Norwegian lair, all hope of a satisfying resolution is long gone.
Elba is as he always was in the role, worn down by the world yet somehow, deep down, still optimistic, but there’s nothing new for him to dig into. This all feels rather recycled. Digital paranoia. Dark web pervert secret societies. Fights on frozen lakes. It’s like a grab bag of Black Mirror episodes, the worst bits of Craig-era Bond and sundry Scandi noirs.
