John Triton (John Cena) is a former marine looking for purpose.
When his wife Kate (Kelly Carlson) is kidnapped by a gang of bloodthirsty bank robbers led by Rome (Robert Patrick), he finds that purpose.
Cue much shooting, chasing and explosions.
A couple years ago, I reviewed Marines 5 & 6. Since I haven't learned my lesson from the Spider-Man/Cutting Edge catastrophes, here we are with 2006's The Marine, the first instalment in the long-running Marine franchise!
CUE EXPLOSIONS!
I remember seeing the poster for The Marine advertised in the middle of town. From memory, it stuck out because it was up for far longer than the movie was in theatres.
The Marine stars John Cena in his first attempt to become a movie star. The movie was part of WWE's broader strategy of moving into motion pictures.
What initially struck me about The Marine is how small-scale it feels.
This is ironic because the Marines I have seen had far lower budgets and set their action in one location. Those movies were directed by James Nunn, who knows how to wring every dollar to make something cinematic. While Marine 5 and 6 are low budget DTV movies, they make that lo-fi-ness a part of their storytelling.
Plus they still feature plenty of action and unique set pieces.
By contrast, The Marine features plenty of explosions but the action is pretty rote.
Since this movie was made for the big screen I was expecting the canvas to be bigger - the most action movie set-piece is Cena’s introduction - he does a one-man-army and rescues a group of captured Marines from a compound in Iraq.
Otherwise, we get a couple of shootouts, a car chase and a finale of bigger explosions. While the action scenes are flashy, there is not a lot going on in them.
The filmmakers know how to stage an explosion, but other than that, the action is shot and cut like a tribute to Michael Bay - cut too fast and lacking in a sense of geography or narrative coherence.
With hindsight, the big problem with The Marine is how badly it misjudges Cena’s screen appeal.
Sure, Cena is a mountain of muscle but he is not intimidating.
Even in this early role, Cena is too expressive to convince as a no-nonsense killing machine. It is the reason why he was a babyface/good guy in wrestling.
The Marine feels like it wants to be Commando - the hilariously big explosions certainly feel in that universe - but it lacks the wit and the right star to make it as fun as it wants to be.
It's not terrible, but it is easy to see why The Marine was not hit in cinemas.
RANKING (so far)
1. The Marine 5: Battleground (old review)
2. The Marine 6: No Quarter (old review)
3. The Marine
If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour.
You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.
No comments:
Post a Comment