In the age of three-minute YouTube videos and flashing Instagram stories, 6 Underground is siren-loud in a bid to deafen us long enough to make away with our attention spans. Like a child riding out a sugar rush, it guarantees a sensory overload - and a drilling migraine.

The opening of Michael Bay's 2019 action thriller presents us with not one, but six impossibly witty, dexterous and specialized agents led by Gray (Ryan Reynolds), who go on to act as nameless Robin Hoods in a world controlled by soulless, cackling dictators.

The opening car chase scene introduces us to the protagonists, thrusting us into their speeding Lamborghini as they annihilate the streets of Italy while trying to get away from the black-robed mafia. Pedestrians are arm-flailing bowling pins to them. For a group of self-proclaimed saviors of humanity, that in itself seems like a contradiction.

But it takes us about five minutes to realize that we're going to have to work overtime to connect with any of the characters. Those familiar with Ryan Reynolds' work will perhaps relate to Gray, as he is basically playing himself.

How is it possible to engage the audience if the main characters are as disposable as tissues? It's not. They are nameless even within their own circle, choosing to exist as numbers instead, dumping each other's lifeless bodies into the river without shedding a tear. The unnecessarily gory scenes, featuring smashed noses, a gelatinous eye dangling from a squishy optic nerve and harmoniously snapping bones, do little to drive the story forward. If anything, they seem to be a desperate embodiment of the belief that we simply can't look away from a car crash.

The movie seems to follow in the footsteps of Zack Snyder's 2011 Sucker Punch. It knits the plot into a video game. There is no concrete goal that the characters are working towards. No single aim to justify their morally-dubious behaviour. Instead, we are gifted with countless villains, popping up at the same time. Again, 6 Underground seems to have adapted the materialistic approach. The more one-dimensional, cartoon-ish criminals, the better.

What could save the film in the eyes of a selected few would be the explosive visuals and eye-catching cinematography. Like a beautifully designed video game providing surface-level engagement. Stupefying our senses.

All in all, maybe skipping certain parts, like the story intervals interrupting an action-packed video game, would make it more bearable. Letting your thoughts race and hover somewhere above the television screen. Then again, I can't imagine a three-minute YouTube video failing to divert your attention from the flashing screen while 6 Underground is on.