Red Dawn

Red Dawn

RED DAWN made a very limited impact on the critics when the film was released in 1984. However, it was fittingly awful in a pleasing way owing to its cast comprising of practically unknown actors at that time. Young talent such as Patrick Swayze (GHOST), Charlie Sheen (WALL STREET), and C. Thomas Howell (THE OUTSIDERS) helped elevate the film which focused on Cold War themes prominent in the 1980s.

It was also quite a combat narrative able to accurately depict the times as regarding war and continued friction with the now nonexistent Soviet Union and its allies. A remake would have to achieve these aspects in an effective manner while not coming across as patronizing to the fanbase or as an act of mediocrity.

Sadly, regarding the 2012.RED DAWN, the film was able to get the least which was casting as one of its strengths. This film had polarizing reviews, especially towards the original film, it is mostly due to the impressive actor cast, but as for the characters, they are mostly repetitive and poorly written with even dumber plot choices.

But in a way, that assisted to help kickstart the action and sell the notion of teenagers being in over their heads and challenging a military superpower. Thus, I believe the cast from 2012 are for that reason, deserving of their roles. We know practically nothing of their background and descartesian motivations, but they are fun to watch.

At the forefront of the project is Chris Hemsworth (THOR, THE CABIN IN THE WOODS) who now assumes the role of the eldest Eckert brother Jed that was played by Swayze. I have no reservations about Hemsworth, and even if his backstory is practically nonexistent, I do however enjoy watching him lead the Wolverines in this movie. He is tough, military-like and straight to the point, but he can show tenderness and a relaxed attitude when the situation requires it towards the younger members of the team.

He is a younger brother named Matt whom Josh Peck (DRILLBIT TAYLOR) plays, and who is a bit more erratic, since he commits the most insane acts throughout the plot. Still, he is charming enough and has great chemistry with Hemsworth to let the audience buy the brothers’ damaged relationship. Hemsworth’s love interests and fellow Wolverine Toni, is played by Adrianne Palicki (FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS) who does a decent enough job, but when did two people first become close? development or biology are so scarce, it would be better if the relationship subplot was not part of the film at all.

The allegedly weakest character would be the girlfriend of Matt, named Erica and played by Isabel Lucas (TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN) in the online movie. Yet, of course, the fault does not totally lie with the actress. It is a role, after all, that does next to nothing outside of waiting for Matt to abandon his mission to go save her with a complete disregard for the above grossly ‘dumb’ actions.

But there are not only the failures. Josh Hutcherson (THE HUNGER GAMES) ‘s meek Robert who grows up to be bad killer and yells ‘Wolverines!’ when the time comes and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (WATCHMEN) only steals the show in the smaller supporting role that of a wet Marine Sergeant Tanner, who is however one of the funnier blokes to watch.

Excessive praise for the acting seems redundant considering the shambles of the film as a whole. The high level of brute force and destruction that characterized the original feature has been brought to a PG-13 level in this version presumably to avoid scaring away younger fans of the teen actors featured.

In fact, a bunch of teenage girls who were seated next to me at the theatre were quite obnoxious about their infatuation with Hutcherson or Peck’s presence on the screen. A reasonable number of the combat sequences are made in the “handheld camera” method because of which it becomes disjointing and funnily impossible to ascertain who is firing at whom and from whence. People on the other hand can be disappointed for many reasons: the tendency to rely on nostalgia and the actual portrayal of the Wolverines as fighters.

In the first film, the narrative was that the boys were sorely inexperienced in the world of guerrilla warfare and were still struggling to learn the ropes of the trade. Here, within the duration of a training montage, the young rebels are turned into cold and well programmed killers who only become immature when the story calls for it.

Also, there is no inherent tension or subtlety in the film. The North Korean invasion force (originally intended to be Chinese, only altered in the editing phase so as not to offend most overseas viewers) doesn’t infiltrate the town as a covert, albeit lethal, menace. Instead, they descends like a horde of Computer Generated Imagery paratroopers and bombers aiming at sowing as much chaos and destruction as possible.

The Wolverines’ saga has its fair share of heart-wrenching drama but never bogs down on the pacing such that the characters get to rest before the next round of action sets in. It’s never made clear, for one reason or another, why this group of people is moving a truck that is caught in the mud, and the children’s father (Brett Cullen) gets executed only for the kids to instantly lose focus and grief concerning their father is not felt until the very end of the film on a weak payout that literally has me stating, “Oh, yeah. Their oldest son is dead. I forget it. Don’t worry it never mattered.”

The new RED DAWN is not a bad movie, but it’s not one that can be described as decent either.

It becomes clear that this installment has tried to tone the things down, and it is only interested in selling the name of the film. Other than the lead actors infusing their characterizations with far too much effort and realism than ever required from anybody in this movie, there was simply just not enough in the mannerisms and plot or even action for me to hold on to and care. The original RED DAWN was not good not in any sense at all. But then again, it was something.

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