WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Bloodshot, in theaters now.
Nobody would at be at fault for expecting Sony's Bloodshot to be all about Vin Diesel's Ray Garrison. As trailers indicate, he's been turned from a soldier into a weapon of mass destruction capable of regenerating and healing at will, giving America the super-soldier its always wanted.
However, the owner of Rising Spirit, Dr. Emil Harting (Guy Pearce), views Ray as his crown jewel and wants to peddle him to other buyers. But as Ray embarks on his revenge quest, it becomes clear that the soldier isn't even the best character in the movie. It's actually Alex Hernandez's Tibbs, one of Ray's colleagues at Rising Spirit, but unfortunately, he's drastically wasted by the script.
Tibbs is introduced when Ray wakes up after his programming and initial transformation. Emil has him meet his covert ops team and in the training area, Tibbs is seen working out. Ray's shocked as Tibbs is blind, having lost his sight in battle, but Emil has rewired his body so he can pull footage from cameras, computers, phones and all tech around to give him 360-degree sight.
Tibbs also has upped his reflexes and thanks to his sight, he has precision in the field, making him one of Emil's most underrated weapons. He's also a pretty decent guy because while other members of the team are jealous or don't get along well with Ray, Tibbs has respect for his work with the army and is a true brother-in-arms. This is why when they eventually have to hunt Ray down when he goes rogue, it's set up something deep. Unfortunately, Tibbs is thrown into a peripheral position and feels like furniture as opposed to someone who was just set up for something more.
When he chases Ray down on his bike, he comes off with a sleek helmet covering his face as if he's from the future. He also throws drones up in the air and is a cyber-god racing around and trailing Ray. But their brawl is cut short, giving Tibbs just one chance to cut Ray and inject him with EMP-tech to weaken his nanites. Other than that, the potential is thrown out the window, which is unfortunate because Ray even acknowledged that Tibbs is a great soldier.
The audience doesn't get to see them tussle again until the end when Tibbs and Jimmy (Sam Heughan) -- with his robotic limbs -- try to takedown Ray. It's a two-on-one but Jimmy's bland so there's no emotional connection to him. Somehow, though, the script decides to make Jimmy the focus because he hates Ray, even though Tibbs would have been the better option. This storyline could have focused on Tibbs wanting to change the world for the better.
This confrontation would have been substance and style, not to mention an action spectacle. Tibbs would have been a sympathetic villain to be redeemed, and given how he's a scene-stealer in the few sequences he's in, it'd just feel like a much better foil than Jimmy who wanted to be an alpha for the sake of it. Ultimately, Tibbs has more of a personality and has more chemistry with Ray is better when they're off-field. Their dynamic really gives off a rivalry that feels much more organic than what the one-dimensional Jimmy has to offer.
Directed by Dave Wilson (VFX Supervisor for Avengers: Age of Ultron) with a script by Eric Heisserer (Arrival) and Jeff Wadlow (Truth or Dare), Bloodshot stars Vin Diesel, Guy Pearce and Toby Kebbell. The film is in theaters now.