It’s really good to see Jessica Alba back doing a movie, even if it is something as underwhelming and forgettable as “Trigger Warning”. This pulpy action thriller from Netflix is her first film since 2019’s barely seen “Killers Anonymous”. I’ve always felt Alba was an underrated actress although making that case can be challenging considering the shaky material in some of her past roles. Sadly “Trigger Warning” doesn’t make it any easier.

Alba plays Parker, a special forces operator serving in Syria who returns to her hometown of Creation, New Mexico after learning her father was killed in a mining accident. Parker’s former boyfriend and current county sheriff, Jesse Swann (Mark Webber) tells her that it may have been a suicide, but she refuses to believe it. Determined to discover the truth, Parker sets out on her own investigation, recruiting a pot-growing old friend named Mike (Gabriel Basso) to give her a hand.

What she uncovers is quite the operation for the small one-horse town. She learns that Jesse’s shady and obnoxious brother Elvis (Jake Weary) has secretly been smuggling military grade weapons and selling them on the dark web. Some of his latest clients are domestic terrorists who Elvis is happy to supply for the right price. Adding to the complexity is Ezekiel Swann (Anthony Michael Hall), a powerful Senator up for re-election and the father of both Jesse and Elvis.

Ultimately the movie comes down to Parker linking the Swann family to her father’s death and finally confronting them. Are they all involved? How far does there illegal operation go? That’s about as close to suspense as we get. Unfortunately the screenwriting trio of John Brancato, Josh Olson, and Halley Gross skim over too many details to make things interesting and barely gesture at anything deeper or even marginally provocative. It leaves us with paper-thin villains who play more like caricatures from a page than people in real life.

Director Mouly Surya does piece together a couple of decent fight sequences that tap into Alba’s physicality in ways slightly reminiscent of her “Dark Angel” days. But most of the action is as bland as the plot itself, especially during the film’s final 15 minutes. That’s where the action takes an unintentionally comical turn before ending with a whimper. And despite Alba carrying it the best she can, narrative shortcuts, generic characters, and hokey dialogue only make things worse for this limp and lifeless attempt at an action thriller. “Trigger Warning” is streaming now on Netflix.

VERDICT – 1.5 STARS