Many Guy Ritchie fans were disappointed with this film, arguing that it is a typical crime thriller lacking the director's signature style. However, that is not entirely true, and in this breakdown, I will aim to prove it.

Just like in The Gentlemen, the main theme of Guy Ritchie's new film becomes the animalistic nature of humans, and men in particular. That is exactly why women are practically absent from both films. Even in the very first scene of Wrath of Man featuring a woman, the others already want to kick her out.

At the same time, the character herself sports a short haircut and exhibits masculine mannerisms. But what else can be expected when the group dynamic is built primarily on ostentatious masculinity and sexist jokes? As the saying goes, if you run with wolves, you have to howl like one.

While Matthew McConaughey's character in The Gentlemen was associated with a lion, the king of beasts, Ritchie views Statham's character and his main adversary, played by Scott Eastwood, as snakes or wolves (whose images appear in the film's opening sequence).

This is reflected not only in the characters' behavior — H is cold-blooded and seems to stalk his prey while hiding behind a cash truck guard's uniform — but also in their appearance. The swollen eye and scar on Jan's face give him a predatory look.

And wherever there are predators, there must be prey; the cash truck guards, trapped inside the back of the truck and unable to properly defend themselves, fit this role perfectly.

Scott Eastwood was the perfect choice for the role of the antagonist. This is all thanks to his physical resemblance to his father, Clint Eastwood, who possesses that famous predatory squint. Ritchie makes full use of this likeness, initially showing us only Jan's eyes.

Throughout the film, we repeatedly hear discussions about the decline of modern man, who has "evolved" from a hunter into a couch potato watching TV.

Essentially, this is what plagues the group of former soldiers who later turn to robbery. They were molded into real fighters, but when the war ended, they returned home to find their talents no longer needed. They languish in boredom, but more importantly, they have lost their self-respect while living off their parents.

In my breakdown of Guy Ritchie’s Revolver — the director’s last collaboration with Jason Statham before a long hiatus — I pointed out that Ritchie often references biblical motifs. For instance, Jake Green, played by Statham, appeared as a Christ-like figure "resurrected" after the three days the doctors gave him to live (in the plot, the character was diagnosed with a terminal illness). Furthermore, the names of the main characters — Avi, Zach, and Jake himself — represented abbreviations for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the biblical patriarchs. In Wrath of Man, Ritchie pulls the same trick, giving Statham's character the nickname "H," thereby associating him with Christ.

Admittedly, there is an interesting nuance here: in English, Christ starts with a "C," not an "H." However, the character nicknamed Bullet pronounces the name as "Jesus H." in one scene. "Jesus H. Christ" is used either as an expletive or a joke, and in the context of the scene, it was clearly the latter.

This fact, along with the observation that the protagonist's associations with Christ don't carry much deep meaning within the film, might suggest that Ritchie is simply joking and referencing his own film, Revolver, and Statham's role in it. All in all, fans of the Brit's fourth film should appreciate it (I certainly did).

Furthermore, H also experiences a sort of resurrection, though not after three days (which would have been too short to recover from the injuries the character sustained), but after three weeks. Such is Statham's second coming.

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