The dark, glamorous English-language debut by director Mouly Surya, which centers on a daughter’s return to her birthplace and her desire for vengeance, is difficult.

Trigger Warning has everything needed to be a cunning modern Western, and it also provides two women with possibilities that will change their careers and showcase their amazing abilities. There are several excellent setups for profound dramatics in this narrative, including a corrupt politician manipulating a criminal enterprise, brothers on different sides of the law, and a lady seeking revenge for the death of her father. However, it’s annoying that the filmmakers don’t delve more into the well-known area they’re navigating. Congealed tangle of wasted promise replaces what ought to be a warm homecoming for Mouly Surya (directing her debut English-language feature) and a fierce welcome return to starring parts for actress Jessica Alba.

Even though Trigger Warning’s attention-grabbing pursuit through the Syrian desert is dictated by an algorithm, it starts out with a lot of promise in showcasing the protagonist’s distinguishing traits. Parker (Alba), a Special Forces commando, never backs down from a struggle for justice, whether it’s taking out terrorists who want to murder her or protecting captives from racists on her team who are perpetually on the verge of breaking. She receives a concerning call from her ex-boyfriend and local sheriff Jesse (Mark Webber) as she is about to conclude her most recent trip abroad. He tells her that her father has passed away in a mine collapse and that she must return home to take care of his business. But when she gets to Creation (a made-up town in the New Mexico region used for the film), she discovers that sadness isn’t the only feeling that permeates her life.

Parker senses the terror instilled in the populace by a group of lawless thugs led by Jesse’s edgy brother Elvis (Jake Weary), whose mullet is almost as noticeable as his casual bigotry. Her community is currently a hub for criminal activity, ranging from store raids and muggings to sophisticated gun runners providing homegrown terrorists with weapons of mass destruction. Additionally, she believes that Jesse and Elvis’ father, Republican Senator Swann (Anthony Michael Hall), is somehow connected to her father’s murder as well as the crimes. Naturally, Elvis’ vicious cronies are dispatched to thwart her while she investigates with her reliable friend Mike (Gabriel Basso). Before she can properly lay her father’s memory to rest, she is summoned to battle in his honor, using his dependable blade.

Along with authors John Brancato, Josh Olson, and Halley Wegryn Gross, Surya mimeographs archetypes, dilemmas, and tensions from movies like Walking Tall and Road House. The villains even own a monstrous vehicle, maybe paying homage to the legendary Swayze action figure. Trigger Warning pays little attention to the finer details that result in absurd contrivances and tangles itself up in detailing intricate criminal plots. The dialogue is uncomfortable and clumsily artificial, yet it is commendable that the authors refrained from using the cliche “Elvis has left the building.” A person could never say with the same emotion as Alba did when she said, “He really loved that cave,” referring to the actual man-cave in where her father died.

Furthermore, Trigger Warning stumbles when attempting to come up with novel concepts. Its internal logic is mostly ill-constructed and hard to take seriously. It’s frustrating when Jesse discovers Parker’s cellphone password, when Parker doesn’t try to access her father’s password-protected video, or when Parker recognizes hints to unsolved murders but ignores a gunshot hole on her father’s body. By employing computer hacker Spider (Tone Bell) as bait, they deftly parody the third act damsel-in-distress cliché, but they then smugly give themselves a pat on the back by bringing this up in the conversation. Thus, there are also no points given there.

Then, to round out the image, there are a few dead ends involving some of the characters. The death of Parker’s attorney doesn’t make the situation any worse, nor does the scene inside Mike’s underground hydroponic marijuana farm provide any answers. It’s strange that she doesn’t give his absence any thought. Even worse, and strangely at odds with Surya’s other female-led Indonesian movies, the story’s forward momentum is hampered by a conspicuous absence of satisfying payoffs. Off-screen, Parker engages in combat with the wicked senator, who is strangely calm when she discovers him. This is a major disappointment because the entire movie has been building to this disdainful confrontation.

Parker’s long-festering wrath does not permeate the final combat; instead, it feels emotionless, as though she is facing off against a generic Henchman #3. With no way out of his predicament and the three credited screenwriters having penned themselves into a position, Jesse’s swan song is weak and ridiculous.

Still, there are some advantages. Whether deliberate or not, the excessively serious antics are interspersed with a feeling of textured levity. A drinking game might be inspired by Andy, an iguana that appears to be just as tired with the dramatics as we are. To our campy joy, bar owner Mo’s (Hari Dhillon) supply closet is well stocked. The melancholy music by Enis Rotthoff gives away clear clues about the bitter notes that Parker and Jesse’s romance would eventually take. Although Surya’s decision to include a mini-scene in which a detained alcoholic laments that her husband would enroll her in AA within a bigger scenario in which Parker breaks into the police station is a ridiculously inventive one, she does it with skill.

With the exception of the dusk shadow sequence when Parker practices with a machete, even the forgettable action set pieces have some positive aspects. Alba’s methodical fighting technique serves as a useful guide for self-defense.

Not that Alba is miscast, exactly. It’s that the content seldom lives up to her portrayal of a wise, unflappable thirtysomething seeking revenge. There is so little chemistry between her and Webber that it begs the question of how Parker and Jesse were ever a couple in the first place. Webber’s rendition of the role is excessively intellectual for the content, while Hall’s depiction of a cunning politician is, at most, clichéd. His slippery senator lacks any real threat or intimidation factor.

Trigger Warning obviously borrowed from the general Western model, particularly from the films listed above in which a veteran goes back to his hometown to clean up the criminality that has taken over. Nevertheless, their implementation of this formula falls flat. The ending lacks resonance because of a number of tiny and major errors, like failing to give Parker’s friends any personality or giving the villains a raw, terrifying presence, and failing to give our heroine’s grieving journey any weight or to allow her rage to drive her fights. This movie falls well short of the expectations set by its concept, so proceed with caution.