Netflix's 'Man on Fire' Series Stretches a Lean Thriller Into a Bloated Seven-Part Misfire

Key facts

• Netflix's 'Man on Fire' premieres April 30 as a seven-part series.
• The series runs five and a half hours, compared to Tony Scott's 146-minute film.
• Yahya Abdul-Mateen II stars as John Creasy, a PTSD-wracked Special Forces veteran.
• Showrunner Kyle Killen expanded the story with extraneous subplots and dull supporting characters.
• The series was partially shot on location in Rio de Janeiro.
• Stephen J. Caple directed the first two episodes.
• Alice Braga plays Valeria Melo, a car service driver who aids Creasy.
• Billie Boullet portrays Poe, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Creasy's friend Rayburn.

A Bloated Adaptation That Loses Its Way

The problem with turning successful movies into long-form TV series isn't just that it leads to lethargy—it's that the new material added to these stories is almost uniformly clichéd. It’s padding of the most banal and unnecessary sort, and Netflix's 'Man on Fire' (April 30) suffers from this malady to a fatal degree. Stretching its source in ways that are unoriginal and insufferable, it stands as proof positive of this streaming strategy’s misguidedness. Whereas Tony Scott’s Denzel Washington-headlined 2004 thriller 'Man on Fire' clocked in at a hefty 146 minutes, Netflix’s seven-part adaptation of A.J. Quinnell’s 1980 book takes a whopping five-and-a-half hours to tell its tale about a downtrodden Special Forces vet who gets a shot at redemption by caring for a young girl. That extra time is largely spent on extraneous subplots, dull supporting characters, snoozy set pieces, and foreseeable twists, with showrunner Kyle Killen inflating his saga with elements that were old hat three decades ago. The result is a lose-lose proposition, adding much but providing far less bang for one’s buck.

A Cast That Can't Elevate the Material

Scott’s film boasted Washington, Christopher Walken, Mickey Rourke, and Dakota Fanning at the height of her adolescent power. The new 'Man on Fire' boasts a far less illustrious cast led by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, a fine actor (fresh off the sturdy 'Wonder Man') who’s asked to hit one tortured-angry note over and over in the hope that it’ll eventually ring true. It doesn’t, as his John Creasy, four years after a mission gone awry, is a PTSD-wracked mess whose life and career are in shambles. Creasy sleeps with a hood over his head (in an echo of his mates’ demise) and tries to kill himself by driving into a bridge pillar. He survives and is then given a second chance by old mate Rayburn (Bobby Cannavale), who takes him to Rio de Janeiro, where he now lives with his family. Despite Creasy being a boozy headcase with diminished skills, Rayburn helps get him back on his feet by working security for a series of construction projects that Brazilian President Carmo (Billy Blanco Jr.) believes might be targets for terrorists.

A Plot That Relies on Convenient Allies and Predictable Twists

As it turns out, the bad guys blow up Rayburn’s apartment building with him and his family inside, save for his sixteen-year-old daughter Poe (Billie Boullet), who witnesses the explosion after crossing paths with (and seeing the face of) the perpetrator. This puts her in grave danger, and it’s up to Creasy to protect her—a mission that dovetails nicely with his hunger for vengeance. Abdul-Mateen’s physicality and fury can’t change the fact that Creasy is a bland avenger, and unlike in Scott’s film, there’s no serious religious component to his quest for salvation. Rather, he’s just a scarred killer motivated by circumstances to pick himself up off the proverbial floor and get back to his lethal business. To do that, he enlists the aid of Valeria Melo (Alice Braga), a car service driver with experience “finding things” who becomes his de facto right-hand woman, offering him assistance and intel. Because she witnessed Creasy take down muggers and covets immigration papers for herself and her daughter, Melo is eager to collaborate and quickly introduces Creasy to her cousin, who operates the unofficial police force in the favelas. To fill out its runtime, 'Man on Fire' gives Creasy various folks to partner with: wimpy Livro (Jeferson Baptista) and roughneck Vico (Iago Xavier), who eventually decide to throw their lot in with Creasy because, well, why not. There’s also Ivan (Alex Ozerov-Meyer), a Russian buddy who appears out of the blue to furnish Creasy with all kinds of handy support. And there’s Creasy’s old CIA contact Henry Tappen (Scoot McNairy), who’s back in the States and oh-so-very concerned about the rogue former agent’s rampage through Rio in search of the bombing’s perpetrators.

Underwhelming Direction and Visuals

Man on Fire’s first two episodes are helmed by 'Creed II' and 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' director Stephen J. Caple, although you wouldn’t know it from the action’s perfunctory visuals and staging. At least the series was partially shot on location, which gives it some colorful energy. That’s not enough, however, to overshadow the dreariness of its every step, with Creasy bonding with Poe (a process that involves a meaningful penny and talk about chess) as he slowly makes his way up the criminal ladder, torturing adversaries for information and executing them with extreme prejudice.

A Missed Opportunity for Depth

The series fails to capture the religious undertones that gave the original film its moral weight. Instead, Creasy is reduced to a scarred killer motivated solely by circumstance. The padding of the narrative with clichéd elements—like the convenient allies and foreseeable twists—undermines any potential for genuine tension or character development. The result is a series that feels both overstuffed and hollow, a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of stretching a lean thriller into a lengthy episodic format.

The bottom line

• Netflix's 'Man on Fire' expands the 146-minute film into a five-and-a-half-hour series, adding clichéd subplots and dull characters.
• Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's portrayal of John Creasy lacks the depth and religious dimension of Denzel Washington's performance.
• The series relies on convenient allies and predictable twists, diluting the impact of the original story.
• Partial location shooting in Rio de Janeiro provides some visual energy, but the action sequences are perfunctory.
• The adaptation exemplifies the pitfalls of stretching a successful movie into a long-form series without meaningful new content.
• The show's premiere on April 30 is likely to disappoint fans of the 2004 film and newcomers alike.