'Stratton' Trailer: Dominic Cooper Blasts His Way Through An Anti-Terrorism Thriller

Dominic Cooper has been doing excellent work in the greatly-improved second season of AMC's TV adaptation of the Preacher comic series, but the former Howard Stark actor has another adaptation lined up – and this one's on the big screen. He plays an MI6 agent in Stratton, an action thriller from Con Air director Simon West that's based on a popular series of novels, and a trailer for the film has arrived.

This Stratton trailer was just uploaded to Vertigo Releasing's YouTube channel, but it's actually a revamped version of an international trailer that came out about a year ago. Back then, I noticed something totally ridiculous snuck into the final edit of the trailer, and that has somehow made it through again here: at the thirty second mark, Wonder Woman star Connie Nielsen's MI6 character introduces the film's villain as "the most dangerous man I've ever met," and we cut to this supposedly terrifying man repeatedly punching a guy who's strapped to a chair. But if you look closely, you'll notice that he's very obviously not making contact and the guy in the chair is just wildly throwing his head back as if he's been punched in the jaw.

"That's called acting," some of you will surely say. But the idea that West – who is at least a capable director, though maybe not a standout one – chose to shoot that sequence from this angle instead of how every other fight scene in Hollywood is shot (read: where you can hide the fact that the actors aren't really punching each other) doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that this is going to be a good movie. If this is the best they have for the trailer, I cringe at what else might make the final cut.

Add to that the generic plot, flat cinematography, and questionable dialogue, and Stratton looks like it might be something I end up watching on an airplane than something I go out of my way to catch in theaters. This film is based on a series of books by author Duncan Falconer, so maybe those of you who've read any of those could chime in and let us know if this looks like an accurate adaptation.

Stratton will hit theaters in the United Kingdom on September 1, but the movie doesn't have a U.S. release date yet.

The enemy has a weapon. So do we. A British Special Boat Service commando named John Stratton (Cooper) tracks down an international terrorist cell.