About 2 decades ago, people witnessed the age of when the action genre in films was at its finest. The world was given some of the greatest action entertainments ever (Terminator's 1 and 2, Die Hard, Predator, Robocop etc). And all of that was shamefully thrown away for the cheap rip-off's just so Hollywood can make a profit. And here we get WWE starting to finance and distribute films in hopes of expanding their fanbase and their publicity. And they start by throwing their superstar John Cena in his horrendous, over-the-top debut.
"The Marine" follows John Triton (Cena) who has been recently discharged for disobeying direct orders and he now has a lousy security job (but at the end, the problem of having a job he hates isn't even resolved, but what do we care?). Later on, a group of diamond thieves who are trying to evade the authorities after their latest heist kidnap Triton's wife. Triton decides to do the usual in a dumb action flick; he decides to go after them and take the law into his own hands. But the plot itself is too weak for us to care about what's going on. I mean the problem basically occurred by chance and coincidence when Triton and his wife just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time at the gas station. And all the plot elements don't mesh together very well.
And of course its action because the WWE wrestlers just want to prove their masculinity. And overall, the action sucks. There's explosions and gunfire, lots and lots of explosions and gunfire. But the special effects team must've been on crack because the blasts look like splashes of Sunny Delight, and the gunfire looks like it was made from a home computer with just that stupid orange X and the annoying sparkles that we see.
And the acting performance by Cena is atrocious and more wooden than a redwood forest. Robert Patrick as Rome is sub-par since he wasn't as threatening as he used to be in Terminator 2 and even in Die Hard 2 which he appeared in only 2 scenes. He's pretty much just spewing out dumb one-liners and acting goofy. All that, rather than the intimidating silence he's known for.
And the rest is just a bunch of badly timed jokes, dialogue and scenarios. Especially the part when Morgan is telling about his experiences with his camp counselor and Rome ordering him to find the generator. That part was WAY outta place, badly acted and awkward and it felt like it was never gonna end. And towards the end when Triton surely kills Rome in the blast, then after reviving his wife, Rome suddenly rises again with severe burns and then Triton kills him for good, VERY VERY B movie, if you ask me. And the "The Marine" is chock full of moments like those.
I didn't give this the lowest score because some of the fist fights here were alright and I liked some of the pop-culture references such as the ones to Terminator and Scarface here.
But don't waste your time, this is for John Cena die-hards only......