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No, you aren’t the only one who has noticed an increase in movies about sex trafficking. It’s a plot point that is rarely effective in showing the actual harm that victims face. It’s mainly used for shock value or to give the hero some kind of motivation, featuring over-the-top situations that focus on the badass hero breaking bones and blowing holes in predators’ heads. Protector is just another example of a poorly constructed attempt at sensationalizing victims’ trauma.

For director Adrian Grünberg, this is yet another film based around kidnapping and sex enslavement. With Rambo: Last Blood releasing in 2019, it would seem like Grünberg has more to say on the topic. Well, don’t get too excited, because Protector isn’t interested in doing anything more or differently than his previous work. In fact, both films feel incredibly similar, not just because they’re by the same person, but because their stories are nearly identical.

Instead of an old Rambo hunting for his maid’s daughter who was kidnapped and taken into sex slavery, it’s Nikki (Milla Jovovich). A combat veteran whom the film declares a hero for her efforts in some Middle Eastern conflict. Her daughter Chloe (Isabel Myers) is kidnapped after her 16th birthday party, and Nikki goes on the hunt. The film declares that the hours after a person goes missing are vital, giving us a countdown that seems to move at a turtle’s pace. Both films have a laundry list of motivations that could be used, and it’s confounding that Grünberg would rather just make the same movie again, this time with a female lead.

The backstory of Nikki is generic. She’s a veteran who has served her country proudly, as it would appear. She’s lost so much of her family life as a sacrifice, making her an absent parent while her husband is the more active one. When he is no longer in the picture, Nikki leaves her post to return home and make up for lost time. Protector chooses to speed through a lot of their family moments, and it’s obvious the film cares little about establishing who her daughter—the soon-to-be victim—even is. Rather, it wants to get to the action as quickly as possible.

The rest of Protector post-kidnapping is a repetitive slog of poorly acted action pieces that usually end with a male character being in awe that all this destruction was caused by a woman. With some random background police guy going, “A woman did this?” In 2026, why is it so hard to believe a woman would blow the brains out of men who are harboring her daughter for sex crimes? There’s little resolution, or even payoff, for Nikki. Especially in a film that, in the same breath, praises her for her combat skills while simultaneously doubting her abilities and calling her a “bitch.”

If Protector were just a film about abduction and rescue, it still wouldn’t be very remarkable. But writer Mun-Bong Seub and Grünberg place a real emphasis on sex trafficking. So much so that if you were to take a shot every time some random person said “whorehouse” when referring to places where victims are trafficked through, you’d surely pass out before the film ends. But no meaningful conversation is happening about the topic—only that these girls are sent around the world to be abused. Seub almost forgets to even give Chloe lines, with most of her dialogue being an argument with her mother pre-abduction. If victims aren’t even given a voice in the movies that exploit their pain, then what is the point?

Is there some gritty action? Yes. But that is the film’s main focus, especially a few days removed from seeing it. Jovovich is doing her best Liam Neeson in Taken impression. It’s fun to see a woman who is well into her career getting bone-snapping, headshot action roles. But outside of the physical acting, she isn’t given much to work with. A lot of Protector is her taking on groups of armed creeps, but once in a while she gets to go one-on-one, and that’s where she really shines. But it can’t be ignored that the town this all happens in, outside of the cast, feels like a ghost town. There aren’t many civilians walking the streets, and barely any witnesses when groups of men are violently killed in residential neighborhoods.

What holds Protector back from being entertaining in really any aspect is how hollow everything is. Even the film’s bad guy, The Chairman (Gabriel Sloyer), is forgettable. The film makes a big deal about what he’s doing and who he is, but once he finally comes face to face with the mother of one of his victims, the confrontation is rushed and rarely satisfying, leaving the film with a mountain of questions that it’s not interested in exploring. With a giant sex trafficking and abuse cover-up happening right here in the United States, it’s hard to see something like Protector and cheer on fictional justice when real justice is nowhere in sight.

Needless to say, Protector is one of the least interesting movies I’ve watched this year, and it’s hard even to recommend anyone use their free time to check it out. There are a few aspects that make the film worth watching, but it’s just another rehash of something Grünberg has already attempted. Perhaps when the real world wants to take sex trafficking seriously, these movies might have some value. But here we are.

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