DIABLO (2025) - Mark Reviews Movies

Diablo, Lionsgate

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 12, 2025

There's an undeniable appeal to a movie like Diablo. It tells a simple story, which serves as a fine excuse to fill that plot with several action sequences, and when that action does come, it's executed by performers who clearly know what they're doing. The movie stars Scott Adkins, as an ex-convict who travels to Colombia for a personal mission, and Marko Zaror, as a villain we'll definitely discuss later. Both of these men are fighters first and actors second, which isn't to say anything about their performances but is to point out that it's obvious where their priorities lie.

Adkins is well-known among those who keep up with smaller-budgeted and direct-to-video action fare, but he has recently broken out to some notable roles in bigger productions, while his other projects are being looked at with some legitimacy—mainly because of how skilled he is as a fighter. Meanwhile, Zaror, a Chilean martial artist, could be on a similar path as his co-star, especially if people notice his work in this movie. Not only does he play a ruthless villain with a memorable hook, but also, Zaror is the fight choreographer for the production. When the fights arrive here, they're worth noticing, too.

In fact, the movie might have succeeded with a bit more action. There's plenty of it, to be sure, as Adkins' Kris attempts to find and protect his estranged daughter from all sorts of threats. Director Ernesto Díaz Espinoza, though, never quite finds the right rhythm for the action or everything between those sequences. We keep wanting more of the good stuff, and when the movie gives it to us, those action sequences stop short of fully taking advantage of the assorted dynamics each one establishes.

Take the opening fight as a quick and, well, too-quick example. It has Kris sneaking across the border into Colombia in the back of a truck, being extorted into paying the guys who arranged his crossing more money, and knocking them out as soon as they start to become violent. Adkins has a way of making every punch and kick look as if it's doing considerable damage to his opponent, even though he must be holding back to some degree because this is just a movie, after all. That's showcased in the opening, and it's also the end of that bit.

The rest of the plot follows Kris as he finds Elisa (Alanna De La Rossa), technically kidnaps her from bodyguards hired by the teen girl's guardian Vincente (Lucho Velasco), and tries to convince her of two things. First, that Vincente is a really, really bad guy, who almost certainly orchestrated the death of the girl's mother. Second, Kris is her father, who was betrayed by Vincente and has come to save her from a life in the care of a criminal.

There's not much to this relationship, except that Elisa doesn't trust Kris at first and gradually decides that a man who's willing to risk his life for her must be her father. The screenplay by Mat Sansom, though, doesn't need to do much more than this (although fleshing out any of these characters and relationships might have helped the movie, too). Everyone here knows the main thing that matters for this movie is to come up with as many excuses for as many fights as possible.

Vincente sends his goons to find his old associate and his teenage ward, and of course, Kris fights them in various locations in scenes that might have felt more repetitive, if not for how convincing Adkins' repeated blows against opponents look on screen. There's also the added benefit of Zaror's "El Corvo," a rogue bounty hunter of sorts who basically seems to operate as an agent of pure chaos. He has a grudge against Vincente, too, so when he discovers that Elisa is no longer under his foe's protection, El Corvo sets out to find her to get some leverage against his enemy.

By the way, Zaror's character has a metallic hand, too, which can twist off to reveal a curved knife that appears to be grafted onto his wrist. The actor is a hulk of a man, which is saying something when he's put against a muscular brawler like Adkins. Zaror is imposing enough, as his villain shoves or throws anyone who gets in his way to the ground or across the room. When he punches or slams someone with that metal fist, though, the loud clank and sheer stopping force of that tool adds considerably to what a threat El Corvo already is, simply by the natures of his physicality and his brutal mindset.

Of course, there's plenty of shooting, too, which mostly gets in the way of Adkins and Zaror showing off their martial arts prowess. It's a bit disappointing that every fight the two characters have is cut off by some business that's far less exciting, and the big climax, set in a tall structure with an industrial pulverizing machine of some sort, is doing way too much to have such predictable payoffs.

Diablo does come close to accomplishing its basest goals—of letting two powerhouse performers beat up other people and each other as much and as often as possible. When a movie exists almost exclusively on that base level, however, it needs to embrace it a bit more than this movie does.

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