Being a film buff isn’t easy, so we people that watch many movies tend to be more or less organized about our watching habits – or at least act like it. We create list after list of movies we ‘have to watch’ and at the same time know that we will never truly reach the bottom. Which isn’t a bad thing. But sometimes, it’s nice to just watch something completely by chance – just let an algorithm of some sort decide your movie of the day. For example, do a random search at Netflix and watch the movie that pops up. Since I have to be organized about it at least a little, I will do a search for each color of the rainbow at Netflix every month. And in the end, maybe Kermit will write a song about it.
According to a certain pop singer of our generation, red is a color usually associated with love. However, it simultaneously stands for passion and lust, as well as anger, hatred or violence. The 2012 action-sci-fi-thriller Red Dawn is named after yet another thing associated with the color red: communism. The remake of a fairly successful 1980s Patrick Swayze vehicle seems to be more popular than its predecessor, or at least shows up before the latter on Netflix. I haven’t seen the original yet, nor had I heard of any of these two movies prior to watching the 2012 version. That should add to the spontaneousness of my watching experience, and yes, Red Dawn certainly had my attention for a decent amount of its running time. However, it is a deeply flawed film.
The Western world has been weakened by the economical crisis and military conflict, while North Korea and Russia are spending some bonding time with each other (because what would a war flick be without bad Russians). Suddenly, North Korean troops start invading North America and a group of teens (Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas and others) find themselves alone to defend their home town. Led by U. S. Marine Jed (Chris Hemsworth), the kids form a Guerilla warfare against the Koreans. Named after their high school mascot, they become known as The Wolverines.
Dan Bradley doesn’t usually direct movies, in fact this is the stunt director’s only feature film to this date. Knowing this makes the movie make so much more sense. The whole concept of an actual communist invasion of the US is actually pretty interesting and so is the way the story evolves. If we forget about the predictability of it all, that is. Still, that story was most probably borrowed from the 1984 script, so Bradley really doesn’t bring much to the film. His characters are unbelievably dull and flat, where the only thing that defines them is their high school or adult stereotype. This is a shame, since the film brings together a cast of decent to good actors that have shown their emotional range in other films. You never find yourself caring for any of these people and the conflicts within the group seem forced and unbelievable.
Even the action is not great enough to lead the attention away from the films flaws at any point. We’ve all seen white Guerilla troops before and training sessions offer much more potential than what Red Dawn is exploring. The only action scene that truly holds the attention of the audience is the ending – and that’s not worth waiting 1.5 hours for. That being said, the cast makes for an interesting watch and the film’s gritty, independent look set it apart from other mediocre to weak action films. So even though it certainly wasn’t one of Hollywood’s better idea to try and make that red sun come up one more time, it also wasn’t one of its worst.
