As a reviewer, I am man enough to admit that I occasionally prejudge a movie based on its box.  And when I see that “WWE  Studios Presents” a Blu-ray starring Ted DiBiase (Jr. the wrestler) in The Marine 2, I could already feel the bad review writing itself.  Not only does this movie suffer from a weak pedigree (like “The Marine” really needed a sequel), and star a previously untested wrestler as the lead, but it also suffers from the stigma of “direct to video” from a barely credible production house.

Well, well, well, I have certainly learned my lesson.  Like we’re taught as children, we should never judge a book by its cover.  And for those who pass on this movie for the aforementioned reasons, they will also be guilty of the same.  By doing so, they will have missed an entertaining and credibly presented action movie.

Film  

Joe is a Marine.  Joe is actually a very talented Marine who does special ops.  Joe also loves his wife.  A lot.  And after a stressful yet important mission, Joe is ready to return to Michigan to spend a three-week vacation to be with her.  However, the lovely Mrs. Robin Linwood (played ably played by Lara Cox) has other plans.

As the publicist for a rich resort owner, Robin instead takes her and Joe to the grand opening of a deluxe resort in an unspecified Polynesian/East Asian country.  Unfortunately, the opening of this resort has angered a sector of the local population that is unhappy with the imposition of Western society on its unspoiled paradise.

So, a terrorist group attacks during the grand opening, and holds the resorts guests hostage, including Joe’s wife.  Unfortunately for them, Joe manages to escape and plots her rescue, even when faced with staggering odds.

Although the movie does follow a fairly typical action movie arc, The Marine 2 does have some nice touches, more impressive considering the budget limitations it would have likely had as a “direct-to-video” movie.  The hostage scenes are very well done, with people acting like real hostages, and the terrorists acting like people with nothing to lose.  There are a number of well-choreographed fight scenes.  Most impressively, Ted DiBiase’s limitations as an actor are kept well under control by limiting his dialog, and maximizing his action.

All in all, this was a typical action movie, yet somehow made better by having such low expectations before popping the Blu-ray in.

Video 

Moreso than anywhere else, the quality of the transfer is where the budgetary limitations showed up.  Much of the film appears to have been shot on video, providing great hyper-real hi-def shots in daylight, and poorly resolved, excessively noisy shots in lower light conditions.  Sparkles show up in black areas, and character features are softened to the point of being out of focus.

The cinematography is also reasonably well done.  Unfortunately, the director is limited to a restricted number of shoot locations, something that does not allow for a nice palette of light or color.  Light scenes outside are bright and colorful.  Dimmer scenes inside are a bit grittier.  Dark scenes are virtually unwatchable.

Plus, Blu-ray is a format that exposes poor CGI.  As WWE was not allowed to blow up the resort where the movie was filmed, CGI explosions were added in.  And frankly, these are some of the worst CGI explosions I’ve seen.

Audio  

Whatever the video shortcomings were, the audio in this movie was in no way substandard.  Not only did the 5.1 channels have excellent separation, explosions had rumble without boom, and dynamic levels for speech were set very well.

Overall, this Blu-ray had very good sound presentation.  Not as dynamic as some of my reference Blu-rays, but of a very good quality nonetheless.

Special Features  

As a modern version of a “B” movie, I did not have a high level of expectation for the special features.  However, the quantity and quality of what was included was not bad, including a large selection of featurettes, some extended scenes, deleted scenes, a deleted scene montage, and some fight scene outtakes.  All of this was in HD.

In this case, I think the director got the cut 100% correct.  Although some of the deleted scenes weren’t bad, the overall pacing of the movie was very smooth, and I never paused to wonder “Why’d he do that?”  In a perverse way, I almost wouldn’t have minded a commentary for this movie, just to hear what Mr. DiBiase would have had to say (“Uhhhh, here’s the part where I knife the guy.  It was cool.”).

Final Thoughts 

As action movies go, The Marine 2 will never achieve legendary status.  It’s a good enough movie to not be legendarily bad, but not good enough to be really good.  However, if you are an action movie aficionado, this is perfectly satisfying fare, and is worth at least a rent.