It's always a tricky and somewhat dangerous process trying to make a film adapted from previously-existing sources, be they books, comic books, or even (God forbid) video games. While the filmmakers clearly need to create a feature original enough to remain fresh and distinctive enough on its own, there's always a need to nonetheless stay true to the source material lest they piss off adherents of the original works.
Even trickier to execute are films based on television series, be they old or recent, long-lived or cancelled too soon. After all, it's easier to develop your characters and make them endearing to viewers when you have many episodes and many seasons to give them all breathing room. But it's a hell of a lot more difficult when you decide to jam all of that (or at least the core elements) into a two hour feature film.
While a select few manage to work quite well (The Fugitive), most are either overstuffed and/or incoherent attempts to "modernize" old classics (S.W.A.T., Charlie's Angels), and some are so mind-bogglingly awful that one wonders why the shows' creators agreed to allow the adaptations to come about in the first place (The Honeymooners, Starsky & Hutch, and the recent cinematic abortion The Last Airbender). While it avoids falling into the third category, the big-screen reimagining of the 1980s action series The A-Team was a plan that ultimately couldn't come together.
For eight years, Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith (Liam Neeson) has been the de facto leader of a Special Forces black ops team known for taking on covert yet ultimately explosive missions. Along with tough guy enforcer Bosco "B.A" Baracus (Quinton Jackson), suave ladies' man and strategist Templeton "Faceman" Peck, and off-kilter ace pilot "Howling Mad" Murdock, this "A-Team" has had a reputation for getting the job done, no matter how messy.
Stationed in Iraq during the final days of the U.S.'s occupancy there, the team is informed by CIA agent Lynch (Patrick Wilson) that local insurgents have stolen printing plates from the U.S. Mint as well as a billion in cash. Despite the advice not to do so by both commanding officer General Morrison (Gerald McRaney) and Face's former flame Captain Charissa Sosa (Jessica Biel), Hannibal and his team set out to recover the plates in an unsanctioned mission. Despite their success, General Morrison is killed by a car bomb, eliminating the team's only way of clearing their names. Hannibal and his group are soon convicted under court-martial and placed in prison.
However, Lynch secretly arranges the team to escape jail, recruiting them to hunt down not only the stolen plates, but also private security contractor Brock Pike (Brian Bloom), the man responsible for both Morrison's death and getting the A-Team sent to jail.
Now, I've never seen an episode of the popular and campy '80s series on which the film is based, but from what I've heard and read, the show was episodic in the greatest sense possible: every episode had the same basic plot (usually the mercenary heroes helping a small town/beautiful lady in need of a defender) and a rotating villain-of-the-week, and despite the rampant gunfire and explosions, the show was infamous for never depicting any bloodshed or onscreen deaths. It was also notable for boosting the profile of one Mr. T, who was arguably the show's breakout star and main attraction.
Because of the repetitive nature of the show's episode and format, I suppose a feature film adaptation would be easier to handle. And while director Joe Carnahan (who helmed the great Narc, and the not-so-great Smokin' Aces) does an admirable job replicating the brainless, goofball nature of the TV series, that's all he really gets right.
Despite being updated to a 21st century setting (what with the titular team being Iraq War soldiers rather than Vietnam veterans), The A-Team was also updated to the current (sub)standard of action filmmaking: that being poor/shallow characterization, ADHD-grade editing, and so much rampant testosterone that you'd think the celluloid on display was literally injected with performance enhancers.
Sure, there are some fun bits to be had (the best being an inexplicable yet exhilarating sequence featuring the boys battling drone planes while plummeting through the sky in a parachuting military tank-- yes, it's exactly as it sounds), and there's knowing humor sprinkled throughout, but such instances are sadly diluted by a sometimes incomprehensible plot and so much action overkill that you wonder why Carnahan didn't just go the next step with a 3D conversion (though that very technology serves as a rather funny in-film sight gag during an action sequence).
The casting isn't really anything to rave about, either. Despite his venerable screen presence, Neeson doesn't bring much to the table as the cigar-chomping leader of the A-Team, and Cooper basically repeats the "snarky asshole" role he's perfected over the last few years. Mixed martial-artist Quinton "Rampage" Jackson does an okay job as legendary fool-pitier B.A. Baracus (but clearly lacking in The T's cheesy-yet-magnetic persona), and District 9's Sharlto Copley is criminally underused as the nutty Captain Murdock. Other than that, secondary characters such as Biel's requisite love interest/eye candy and Wilson's smarmy CIA spook are instantly forgettable.
All in all, The A-Team is yet another indicator of how summer action movies have been setting the bar lower and lower lately. I've always been a fan of shoot 'em up popcorn flicks, knowing full well that you don't have to be Oscar bait to be entertaining. After all, Die Hard was no award contender, and yet still managed to be a thoroughly exciting actioner, all while still having a brain in its head. Nowadays, most films are complacent with just throwing explosions at your face and insulting your intelligence at the same time (see: Transformers). Even though there were sparks of potential to make this a step above most of the dreck we see today, The A-Team ends up as yet another episode that, while moderately distracting, is forgettable by the credits.
Letter Grade: "C-"
No comments:
Post a Comment