It’s Memorial Day, and what better way to celebrate the armed forces and people who serve our country, than with an action movie named after a branch of the armed forces direct from WWE Films. Not a lot, and you’re a liar if you think otherwise. It’s time for some whiz bang shooty fun with The Miz, Summer Rae, and a truckful of very stupid people.
The Story
Now working in the private sector, Jake Carter is assigned to protect a high-value package – a beautiful whistleblower trying to expose a corrupt military defense contractor. But a heavily armed team of mercenaries has been hired to kill her, along with anyone who gets in their way.
The Cast
Mike Mizanin as Jake Carter. The Miz, originally from THE REAL WORLD reality series, lived his dream to be a pro wrestler by debuting in the WWE in 2006, being a multiple champion in the tag and heavyweight divisions.
Summer Rae as Rachel Dawes. Summer Rae has a WWE Diva, debuting as a ring announcer in NXT before making her professional debut in WWE in 2013. She’s also got a two season appearance in TOTAL DIVAS.
Melissa Roxburgh as Olivia Tanis. She’s appeared in films like the DIARY OF A WIMPY KID sequels,as well as another WWE Films production, LEPRUCHAN ORIGINS.
Josh Blacker as Andrew Vogel. Has made appearances in ELYSIUM, FOCUS, and
The Dissection
THE MARINE, as a franchise, has worked as a simple formula of showing Marine A getting into Situation B, with Skills C, and applying Fist D to Bad Guy face E. While not entirely the same, the plot of the last three films had our titular Marine coming back from the war and having this new challenge thrust onto them, THE SUBSTITUTE style. And it works, for the most part. The first made a bigger splash in DVD stores rather than theaters, while the second was a bit of a downgrade. It may or may not have picked up on the third, but this new edition of the franchise is without a doubt a massive disappointment.
The main issue of the film is that the suspension of disbelief and the idea of turning your brain off can only go so far. You know that Miz’s Carter on his first day of a new job is not going to go smoothly, and you can kind of tell the beats of the movie. The first part of the movie has some good set up, albeit a bit of repeated set up if you have any familiarity with other movies in the WWE library. However, it just take nosedive after that, as the main people in the film develop more and more. The fact is that everyone in the movie, from the main cast down to the extras and minor characters, react very stupidly. Olivia, the one Carter is protecting, spends the first half of the movie making sure she can make the stupidest decision imaginable. Whether it’s crapping on the people hired to protect her, and being unappreciative at the start, it gets worse when she actively puts Carter’s life in danger multiple times, and the only reason she is not actually killed is due to Carter.
However, not to give too much credit to Carter, first for how his own stupid mistakes end up doing a lot of damage a few moments after. Also, he’s really boring. The Miz, as most wrestling fans will admit, does exude a good chunk of charisma in his performance in the ring, and in other features, he is a good highlight. Here, he’s almost lifeless, as he’s playing this character with less emotion to him than the Doom Guy. And it’s more obvious when the main bad guy in the movie is going bombastic in the role, as well as making his own dumb mistakes, along with his huge army of red shirts.
Alright, that’s enough about stupid story points, let’s move onto the other bad things here. The editing, for one, is noticeably bad, with quick jump cuts and a lot of strange edits from scene to scene. Also, a lot of the effects, from the CGI that looks a bit above the caliber of The Asylum, to the practical effects where the purpose makes no sense. To go into details, a big part of the third act has Carter with his Marine training setting up traps for the bad guys. The issue here is that the traps make no sense, both in practicality, and in figuring out what exactly happened to the victims. And the final climax of the film, overall, leaves a lot to be desired.
Jake Carter, no relation to Sherriff Jack, dreading joining the one security force who don’t use body armor.
And for those who are wondering, “Hey, isn’t Summer Rae in the film, too?”, yeah, and this sentence in this article has the same impact as her character did in the film. She does one cool thing at the start, alternates being down f all or looking goofy throughout 95 percent of the scenes she is in, and then one last moment before the end where she, as the kids say, gets rekt.
Okay, this is the point of the Dissection where you have a few sentences about the extras included. While this film does have extras in the form of featurettes, what is featured is enough to just go into depth with. The first is about the effects in the film, with some details on the action. A bit of hyperbole in this film, but it’s barely anything when you look ath the next two. The second is a look at the franchise of the Marine, starting off as this franchise being considered by WWE Films as a tribute to the armed forces. A bit undercut when the interviews done by the main characters through the 4 films treat it as a cool action flick. Plus, the fact that Carter’s Marine is only brought up in a few moments that are shoved in the film to not make this 12 ROUNDS 3. Bonus for calling this a big screen franchise, as it’s found more success on DVD if anything. The last is on the female characters, hyping them as badass women who don’t need saving, even through one is pretty much incapable of doing anything badass without whining or looking depressed and constantly being saved, and the other can be described as “Oh, that was Summer Rae?”. It’s either sever denial or no one actually watches these films before they get shipped to stores, one or the other.
The Verdict
Overall, THE MARINE 4 is at it’s best too dumb an action film for it’s own good, with nothing to really grab onto. At worst, it’s dull and prodding, overall a poor attempt at continuing the franchise.