| Product: |
The Marine (DVD) |
| Date: |
19/05/08 (134 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: None at all
Disadvantages: Everything, a terrible terrible film.
The Marine is the 2nd major release from WWE films, the film production company set up by Vince McMahon, the head honcho of World Wrestling Entertainment. They used to just produce films with other film companies but since See No Evil they have branched out on their own a bit more.
The Marine takes John Cena, a WWE champion, and exports his wrestling persona, that of the patriotic soldier, the marine and all American boy, and creates a story around it.
John triton is a marine, not only is it his job but it is his calling and his life. Being a marine means absolutely everything to him. The brotherhood, the familiarity and the structure means more to him than anything, except his gorgeous wife.
At the start of the film he is on the battlefield and rescues some captured American soldiers by himself, disobeying direct orders in doing so. Whilst his commanding office appreciates his bravery the US Army doesn't like someone who disobeys direct orders from command.
Given a dishonourable discharge Triton goes home, to his wife and a new, civilian, life.
Travelling to the mountains the Tritons get caught up in a gas station hold up by a group of viscous armed robbers. Kate ends up as a hostage leaving the furious Triton having to chase them down, anyway he can!
The rest, or in fact the majority, of the running time is taken up by one long chase, along roads, at first, and then through swampland as the criminals try to get away with their ill gotten gains.
There is very little plot to The Marine at all, once the basics are set up the action doesn't let up. It is non stop from then on til the final credits start rolling.
This is a good point and a bad point. On the good side it gives you exactly what you expect from the film. If you watch this expecting anything highbrow or even remotely coherent story wise then you really do have no idea. This is a film starring someone only known to wrestling fans outside of the US and hence it is only really going to attract the kind of viewers who want the same kind of thing they see in the ring but with more meat to the story lines they get from wrestling. There is nothing wrong with this and there is obviously a big market for wrestling stars in the straight to DVD movie world.
On the negative side it means there is no depth at all to any of the characters or to the story, so much so that a couple of scenes seem to have been added just to give Cena another chance to have a random fight.
This is especially the case when he meets up with a couple of hillbillies in the swamp. Not only does their appearance really confuse you, and jar incredibly with the ongoing story, but the whole scene is there as padding, or maybe just because Cena hasn't shown of his only skills for a little while... wrestling moves and having a fight. Admittedly this may have been needed as most Wrestling fans might have started getting bored and restless wondering when the next bit of action was going to appear on screen. Problem is it really does stand out and doesn't fit in with the film story line at all.
Having said that the film is, overall, pretty awful it does become, like the previous WWE film 'See No Evil' very watchable. It is trash of the worst kind, Cena cannot act at all, but it is fun trash. You watch this kind of movie for fights, action and explosions and it does supply its quotient of those three things.
Robert Patrick is the villain of the piece and is the one class act in The Marine. He rants and raves his way through the film and is highly amusing to watch, pretty much everyone else is a complete waste of time. He may be chewing the scenery in every scene he is in but it is the kind of acting that this film deserves. Over the top makes you laugh and you need a bit of that in an action movie.
As a film in and of itself it is probably just barely a one star movie. As a stupid no brainer of an action film and for WWE fans it gets an extra 1 ½ stars... after all they know what they want and The Marine delivers it in spades!
DVD extras: -
WWE promo featurettes: 10 of them all from WWE shows , short little bits promoing the film to the fans watching the shows.
John Cena featurettes: His WWE history (very amusing seeing him as an Eminem wannabe at the start of his career, a bunch about the making of the movie, its fisrt showing to some marines on base, Cena going through Marine training. Fairly uninteresting in the main.
Summary: WWE wrestling produce an awful movie
|
|
