Video Games Stuck in First Gear

Well, superhero films have gotten better. Why not video game movies? Wait, wait, I'm serious! I mean, many game franchises are almost interactive movies as it is, from Mass Effect, to the latest Tomb Raider, to Bioshock, to Halo, to Uncharted. With these games, playing is like penning your own screenplay AND performing the lead role at the same time. So with all these storytelling advancements in the genre, why does Hollywood continue to treat the video game adaptations like the lazy child that hasn't earned its place at the table? Aren't we far enough by now from the early days of Super Mario Bros and Double Dragon? It's tough to get excited about these movies when it's plainly obvious that the biggest studios, actors and directors don't really want anything to do with them. Instead, entire legions of fans are insulted by low budgets, casting of whomever was desperate enough to appear at the time, and even - if they're REALLY special - the execrable presence of Uwe Boll.

SOMEbody needs a booster seat!

And that casual dismissal of the genre is what doomed Need For Speed, the adaptation of the franchise street racing game of the same name, before it could pop the clutch: nobody cares about who made or is in this film, or why. The only reason anybody was interested in the project was because of the racing aspect, a genre already monopolized by the popular, peaking, and far more insane Fast & Furious series. It doesn't help that there's not much story to begin with. After spending the first act on pointless setup, Tobey Marshall (Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul) is released from two years in prison, immediately hatching a plan to get revenge on entrepreneur/racer Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper), who framed Tobey for another man's accidental death. Naturally, revenge involves illegal street racing. Because this is a video game adaptation.

The closest you'll ever get to a "Bro" moment, thank God.

If you can't tell by now, I was thoroughly unimpressed by the hacktastic effort that was Need For Speed's story. Getting beyond the fact that it's an adaptation of a game series that hasn't been particularly popular or memorable in years, the tale is lazily scripted (by first-time writer George Gatins; what a SHOCK they didn't get a good screenwriter on board) and doesn't have nearly the plot to hold together the disconnected racing and chase sequences. The story is a dismal blend of tropes, from Getting the Band Back Together (despite the crew in question being largely inconsequential) to the required Will-They-Won't-They romance between Tobey and Julia - an exotic car dealer who would be completely forgettable were she not played by Imogen Poots - to Poetic Justice in the revenge storyline. There's even the idea of doing all this in the name of the film's most head-shakingly annoying character (why can't anyone genuinely interesting die in these movies?) to get it all started. The story has no flow, the characters have little motivation for their actions (at least, not beyond the usual stereotypical behavior), and there doesn't even appear to be anything akin to logic in the way the plot progresses. It's by-the-numbers blandness, from the pointless opening scene to the ultimately predictable conclusion.

Oh, hey! I was just thinking "Crash & Burn!"

But even Nicolas Cage movies have some redeeming value (Drive Angry was on TV, and now I've got Cage on the brain), and the same is true here. Most notably, it's the direction of stuntman-turned-filmmaker Scott Waugh that keeps things exciting on the screen. The focus on practical effects in the action sequences allows the film to stand apart from the Fast & Furious franchise, which had been defined more by their CGI effects in the more recent entries. And Waugh shows a great improvement in his style, judging from the differences between this and Act of Valor, the military flick he co-directed with Mike McCoy. The visuals are rarely too close to the action (except where understandable), and there really is a feel of excitement seeing these vehicles race, crash and - on occasion - soar like birds. My only complaint comes from the opening race, when we literally have no clue who is driving which car. Still, I can only imagine what Waugh could accomplish were he to have a serious budget on his hands, but he definitely shows a solid aptitude for this kind of noir action thriller.

He wears his sunglasses at night, too.

And despite the characters being written as though they were designed by a third grader on acid, the acting is actually pretty solid. Yes, there are the useless filler roles and Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi plays as token a black, flamboyant sidekick as he can possibly be (which is to say not all that well), the quartet of lead actors really do possess talent and take as much advantage of their screentime as they can. Dominic Cooper might be a six-dimensional actor confined to a one-dimensional stereotype, but he still brings menace to a role that wasn't so threatening as written. Michael Keaton steals the intermissions between action sequences as a cool-as-ice radio DJ pulling strings behind the scenes (and for the record, it's great to see Michael Keaton doing regular work again. He's a fairly amazing performer). Poots is strong as always, and I really can't wait for the young lady to break out as a Hollywood star, even as she seems to be stuck in these sad, third-tier roles. But Aaron Paul might be the biggest surprise. I still haven't seen Breaking Bad, but already it's easy to see why the actor has accumulated so many fans with one role. Yes, his voice is distractingly deep for a man NOTICEABLY only 5'8", and his dialogue borrows directly from "Emo 101", and again, Tobey's motivations as a protagonist are vague at best. Yet Paul commands a presence those unfamiliar with his work would NEVER expect. Simply put, he proves that despite lacking a large frame, he BELONGS front and center. He might be a little too old to enjoy a Tom Cruise-like career at this point, but if he can pull off something of a "Cruise-Lite" path from now on, he'll absolutely deserve it.

When it came to hair gel, no expense was spared...

(Oh, and for the few people who might have noticed that Dakota Johnson, the star of the upcoming 50 Shades of Grey, was in this: she still doesn't impress me. I don't know whether casting directors see something the rest of us don't, or if Johnson is the person they go to when NOBODY ELSE is interested in a role, but I'm really starting to think the latter is the more likely scenario. So, yeah, I'm really convinced 50 Shades will be a dud upon its release in 2015.)

I've got the Need! The Need for Speed! Trademark! 

But great actors and great action does not a great movie make, especially when they are hampered by the kind of script that makes David Goyer look like a certified genius. I don't know if video game adaptations will EVER get the kind of dedication and effort that superhero flicks are getting right now, but Need For Speed is one of those titles that suffers mightily from the connection to its original medium. Could it have been better? Absolutely. Could it have been great? Maybe. But make no mistake, this is a bad movie made worse by the fact that talented people were brought in to try and hide its flaws. The producers behind this movie simply didn't care whether or not it was any good, and despite some excellent visuals and a few more strengths, the evidence is still plain for anyone to see.

A Valorous Attempt

At the beginning of Act of Valor, the military-based action film directed by Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh, there is a scene in which the main villain, played by Jason Cottle, uses an ice cream truck as a bomb to kill an ambassador tough on international terrorism. Of course, this also has the side effect of killing dozens of small children, and as the explosion settles down, the camera lingers just long enough for us to glimpse a small child emerging in terror from the site of the bombing just before the film cuts to the next scene. In that brief moment, we are made aware of how horrific these types events truly are, as opposed to the sterile information parsed to us when we read about them on page seven of our local newspapers. These events may occur in cities across the globe we weren't aware even existed, and yet so many of us are barely aware of them. It's an incredibly emotional moment, and one expertly shot to boot. It is also the very last time we feel anything close to that level of shock for the entire length of this mediocre film.

Yup, he's a bad dude.

Boasting a fictional story that casts active duty Navy SEALs, Act of Valor entices the audience with real military tactics, procedures and communication. It's designed to provide the most accurate portrayal of military servicemen in a major motion picture. So why does the whole thing feel like your most typical Hollywood retread, right down to a cliched script, hammy dialogue and obvious twists? That would be thanks to screenwriter Kurt Johnstad, whose only real experience in writing films came from working alongside the rapidly declining Zack Snyder on the script for 300. It seems odd that such a high-profile film was saddled with such an inexperienced screenwriter, but perhaps the filmmakers wanted to see if true SEALs could be victorious in what seasoned actors would have had no chance to overcome.

Pray you never see this mug in the heat of combat

The world is in trouble. When CIA operative Morales (Roselyn Sanchez) is kidnapped by a ruthless smuggler (Alex Veadov) for spying on him, the US Military's elite SEALs are called in to provide a rescue. Morales had been searching for a link between the smuggler Christo and Middle Eastern terrorist Abu Shabal (Cottle), and as the SEALs dig deep into the investigation, they find themselves fighting to prevent a potential attack on US soil. This takes them all over the world as they try to catch up with a terror plot so heinous it threatens to derail the US economy and kill hundreds of innocents in the process.

Just preventing World War III. No big deal.

Yup, that's the plot. It's really sad when you think about how much potential this film could have had, and THIS was the best story they could come up with. There is one ingredient in which the film hits perfectly, and that is execution of the numerous action scenes we're shown over the film's 101 minute run time. Whether it's deep in the jungle or on crowded urban terrain, the action is pulse-pounding and relentless when it is put up on the screen. The pacing is exciting, and while neither director has any real experience making action films, they show a natural proclivity towards the genre. Of course, their inexperience means that a lot of the camera shots are extremely close to what's happening, obscuring all but the most obvious details of the battle. The film also experiments with head-mounted cameras to provide a "first person" viewpoint in some scenes. While this was an interesting concept (if not really original), the few times it does this are rarely effective, and while the potential is there going forward, it's not a camera trick you'll be likely to see in any good movies in the near future.

They're all this full of personality, I swear.

Another major issue with the film is the quality of acting, which ranges from merely okay to "Oh, my God." Even seasoned actors have difficulty with the material, as Sanchez, Cottle and Gonzalo Menendez deliver their rote dialogue with all the enthusiasm of blue collar workers just trying to make it to their next paychecks. But even their lazy facades stand leaps and bounds above the best that the unnamed and uncredited Navy SEALs are able to muster, to the point where I think the reason the soldiers' names are omitted from the credits has less to do with national security and more with that they don't have to put this film on their career resumes. Delivering dialogue so dry it would be at home in the Sahara, this collection of bad-asses deliver when it comes to the action, but fall far short when anything approaching emotion or character building is called forth. Worse, there is little to differentiate these men from one another outside the heat of battle. One is an expectant father; another already has a large family. There's one black guy, ANOTHER black guy with a gold tooth, and a silent, grizzled sniper. Then, in the finest tradition of Gilligan's Island, there's "all the rest", who have nothing to offer whatsoever. This lack of individuality only obfuscates the confusing action sequences, which we already had enough trouble following. Whether it was hack screenwriting or the filmmakers simply feeling that their actors couldn't handle complicated characters doesn't matter, as we never feel anything for these men before, during, or after their contributions to this title are complete.

Not quite more explosions than a Michael Bay flick, but it's close!

And that's Act of Valor's greatest failing: it's a film glorifying elite soldiers while not allowing us to get anything close to an understanding of how or why they tick. The SEALs have made it clear that they see this film as an opportunity to recruit more young men into their honored ranks, and knowing that brings to my mind the video game America's Army. The free game was developed with US taxpayer money and was created to entice and recruit young teens into the US Army. It works, but as with video games, movies have a long history of glorifying life in the military, painting soldiers as larger-than-life heroes fighting for our freedoms. Just looking in recent history, take films like last year's Battle: Los Angeles and 2001's Black Hawk Down and you can see how pro-American these films already are. As nice an idea as Act of Valor is, the same thing could have been accomplished with a talented Hollywood cast, and maybe a retired SEAL or two to act as an advisor to the filmmakers. As it is, there's very little to distance this title from typical Hollywood fare anyway, so why bother? Don't take this as a sign that I didn't ENJOY Act of Valor at all, as the action was enough to give it a passing grade, if just barely. It's the #9 film of 2012, but if McCoy and Waugh had focused less on making this the most REALISTIC film they could and instead focused on making it GREAT, they might have actually created something of serious merit. As it is, 2013 will see this film all but forgotten.