The Marine comes exactly as advertised. It's an explosion-driven, high-octane, unrelentingly thoughtless action B-movie starring current WWE champ John Cena. That's it. If this sounds appealing to you by all means turn your brain off and go see it. If for some reason you thought a movie called The Marine was going to be the artful story of an ex-soldier coping with life after a stint in the Iraq war, well, you either don't know what the WWE is, haven't seen the preview or there's something seriously wrong with you.
The most surprising thing about The Marine is that it's not a straight-to-DVD title as a film of its quality usually would be. Movies like The Marine are all over your average video store -- films like the American Ninja series or anything staring Dolph Lundgren (the Russian boxer from Rocky IV).
The Marine, however, is the latest in a slew of productions from WWE Films, a brainchild of WWE owner Vince McMahon. McMahon knows that the WWE has a large and loyal following. While John Cena isn't exactly a big-name star to most people, in the world of the WWE he's one of the biggest. So, why is The Marine a national release? Because McMahon knows if he cranks out a simple low-budget, PG-13 action movie starring one of his shows biggest stars, it'll most likely turn a reasonable profit off of middle school-aged WWE fans alone.
All this aside, how does The Marine stack up as a B-movie? Is it a good B-movie? Is that even a reasonable question? Does anyone actually care? The answer to these questions is ... probably not.
The Marine is in a sub-genre of the B-movie action world I like to call "super cop/army guy saves his girlfriend or daughter." It's a tried-and-true storyline exploited by such classics as Commando and pretty much every Chuck Norris movie. The biggest problem with The Marine is that, as mentioned before, it's rated PG-13. This prevents The Marine from giving you the over-the-top violence and boob shots that are the pay-off in movies of its kind.
The film's star John Cena also leaves something to be desired. He's a highly capable physical actor and built like a ripped gorilla, but his one-liner delivery is wooden even by B-movie standards. If Cena's looking to be the next Schwarzenegger, or even the next Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, he's going to have to be better than he is here.
Leading man and watered-down rating aside, The Marine does have a few nice B-movie action moments. Of particular note is the film's villain "Rome" played by Robert Patrick (T-1000 from Terminator 2). His character is surprisingly funny and breathes a lot of life into the film. There are also a few nice action sequences with enough oversized CG explosions to lull the average viewer into a state of amusement. The film's hand-to-hand fight scenes, however, suffer from stupidly rapid editing and a camera style that's too close up on the action. Cena is clearly capable of pulling off all the stunts in his fight sequences, but for some reason the movie refuses to offer clear shots of what he's doing.
I didn't love The Marine, but I didn't hate it, either. I got exactly what I expected and I got to eat some popcorn. I wouldn't advise seeing The Marine in theaters, but you might consider renting it some day if you want to kill a few brain cells and are sick of Schwarzenegger movies.
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