Review of The Marine (2006) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

This is very much an action film, featuring plenty of explosions and fights. However, that aside there is the ocassional amusing scene too, so it does have an element of comedy in it. The dialogue is (as may be expected) fairly macho in tone and there is a definite element of predictability present with various cliches used but I did feel it was relatively easy to watch and somewhat entertaining nevertheless. Its a bit hard to say what themes are covered, as I usually include in film reviews - the plot is a little bit thin and nothing very obvious stands out but I guess you could say it includes vengence.

The music was a bit sleazy in parts - in some scenes, it resembled the formula of a James Bond film or some such similar spy franchise, with there being the token love interest, characters trying to keep information on the 'down low' (aka communicating quite quietly, actively looking like their hoping not to be seen etc.), that sort of thing. I felt the incident music/muzack was, if anything, a little too loud on ocassion, to the extent that I felt it was in danger of entering the 'overkill zone' (apologies for the action film related pun).

I didn't feel like this film kept me guessing much at all - if anything, I could pretty easily guess what would happen next, as some moments were shown in a slowed down sort of a way, with minutes passing by quite slowly, presumably to add to the sense of tension and possibly mystery or worry for the viewer, although, as I say, I didn't feel especially worried(!). I have seen a fair number of action films but I'd easily say this is among the more dud ones - its not the worst but its certainly not among the best.

I found myself thinking that the film could almost pass as one made for TV, so I think its fair to say that the budget didn't appear to be spectactular. The special effects weren't awful as such, nor were they mind-blowing but somewhere inbetween. I think it was perhaps more the lack of a properly developed plot and the sheer predictability and presence of cliches that made me lose interest in it after half an hour or so. Cast wise, this film stars John Cena as the marine in question. Cena is a WWF wrestler and this is one of his first acting roles I believe. Other wrestlers have made decent actors in recent years, such as Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, who has appeared in both action and comedy films. I can't really say that Cena made a particularly big impact in this film - his acting seemed slightly blank if anything. His character is pretty basic and I didn't feel he brought a lot to the role, other than obviously seeming visually quite muscle-bound. Also present in the film is Robert Patrick, who plays a character called Rome, although I didn't remember a great deal about his performance. Anthony Ray Parker plays Morgan, an African American who takes offence to some of the dialogue in accusing others of being racist (not in those precise words but effectively meaning the same thing). Finally, Kelly Carlson plays the main female lead role, as Kate Triton. There is one other female character shown in various scenes, Angela (played by Abigail Bianca) and the two of them try to prove their the better one - fascinating stuff(!) (and of course what do (some, not all, I hasten to add) guys like more than watching women trying to out-do one another(?!)).

Content wise, the film features some mild nudity (nothing especially graphic is shown), some moderate violence, mostly in the form of gunfights and also fist fights. Fire is used as a weapon at one point and strong language is used at times but otherwise there's little likely to offend, that is on the basis that the majority of the film being rather weak doesn't offend you, of course!. The film carries a 15 rating to reflect said content.

It felt like it was a half hearted film, one that hadn't taken long to be thought of and rushed through the various stages (pre-production, production, post-production). I certainly wouldn't bother to go out of your way to watch it, unless there's literally nothing else on TV and your bored with nothing better to do.

The dialogue had me tittering away ocassionally but I fear that wasn't intentional. I'm honestly not sure what else I can add, other than perhaps teen boys may enjoy this a little more than I did, primarily if they haven't seen a raft of similar films and don't mind (or moreso don't recognise) a steady flow of cliches, mild sexism and the like.

One thing I should perhaps say in its favour, is that although I got rather bored and felt distracted from it after the first twenty minutes to half an hour or so, I did still keep watching and the ending was fairly ok. I felt that overall it was certainly an easy watch and there are scenes in it which are relatively entertaining, it just wasn't exactly a memorable film to me and it certainly isn't something I'd ever plan to bother watching again.