Gavin O’Connor’s  latest action flick, The Accountant, had a tremendous amount of promise. Prominent actors and actresses such as Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, JK Simmons and Jeffrey Tambor add up to a very experienced and all around stellar cast. The trailer, featuring Radiohead’s Everything In Its Right Place, presented an artsy divulgence of a successful accountant whose secrets involves gun chambers, money laundering and a childhood filled with violence. Whilst The Accountant has all of the puzzle pieces to be an amazing movie, they sadly don’t come together as sharply as they should.

The story follows accountant Christian Wolff’s (Ben Affleck) job to find the source of a large loss of money in a company. He teams up with fellow accountant Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick) as they try to uncover the truth, digging deeper in a multi-layered conspiracy. Meanwhile, Treasury Department agent Ray King (JK Simmons) is getting closer to finding an unknown accountant, involved with managing the books for powerful elites around the world.

Starting slow, the movie’s beginning consists of long scenes building up the characters’ introductions. The scenes in the first quarter in the movie are heavy in interaction between all the characters, providing charisma to understanding the motivations of each of the characters. Although the movie does a good job in building up these characters, it becomes too reliant on these conversations and flashbacks. There are few instances in which we see the actions of the characters conveying who they are, alternatively spoonfeeding us with memories and moments of the past.

The structure of the film suffers due to all the flashbacks. Plot progression is often sacrificed for a deeper understanding in the characters, and these sacrifices sometimes are rarely justified. Ben Affleck’s character is very intriguing, providing many twists throughout the movie. The main flaw is all the other characters. Even though the acting is excellent, most of the supporting characters feel forced in. There are legitimate attempts for us to like these characters, but the audience never gets to fully connect. And it’s not because the movie isn’t long enough or anything. At 128 minutes, pacing in the movie is often all over the place,

The movie doesn’t feel like an action thriller. On the surface, yes, it very much is a traditional beat em’ up flick, delving deeper into a mystery that is all revealed at the end. In reality, it comes off like a superhero origin story. We learn more and more about Christian Wolff, understanding his motivations. The problem is that the movie doesn’t identify itself as one. Instead of being a superhero story, the movie tries to have a entertain us with subplots involving the job he got hired in (not interesting), the Treasury Agents obsession of him (also not interesting) and the inclusion of an unpredictable assassin (who happens to be very predictable).

What The Accountant does well carries the movie to be an enjoyable experience. Like other superhero movies, the action scenes in this movie are great. The fight scenes are tightly choreographed, exemplifying heavy weight with every punch thrown. Even the gun battles are well produced, with each shot heard loud and always sustaining intensity.

Ben Affleck’s character is also very well developed, as previously mentioned. His character provides a good amount of mystery, sprinkled with some heartfelt scenes explaining his past. I do hope this is not the last time we see Christian Wolff, because all the build up from this movie is more than enough to launch a franchise that well has the potential to be great.

But for now, all we have is The Accountant. A movie where the good parts struggle to cancel out the bad and settles at painfully mediocre.