by leokef on Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:16 am
Got the A-Team in the mail, care of Netflix. I'm having a hard time deciding whether I like it or not. This much I'll say: it is a well crafted piece of work. The actors worked well together, save maybe for Quinton Jackson whose inexperience marred a few scenes here and there. One feels inclined to forgive the cartoonish reality of the film, given how many tons of action the filmmakers packed into it. The story took a few appreciable twists and turns. The villains were not quite the simple klutzes they usually are in PG-13 films, instead being rather skilled and motivated individuals. Overall, a feeling of enthusiasm permeated the movie, and the emphasis seemed to be on having fun.
Yet despite all this, I felt strangely dissatisfied by the movie. In fact, I don't even quite think of it as a movie. I think of it as an expensive fireworks display: pretty but pointless. Consider, the characters spend the entire film trying to clear their names. Ask yourself, why? What do these characters have going for themselves? What is the value of a name. Maybe a military record with it, however long and colorful. These four men--none of them seemed to have family, goals, interests, even values beyond martial ones. B. A. Baracus develops the beginning of a moral code midway through the film and what happens to it? The other characters knock it down. What's the point of these people being free men anyway. Face, for instance, seems as comfortable in prison as out. Murdock fit into the loony ward just fine.
There comes a point where you cannot even pretend you are watching human beings. You're not even watching cartoons, but rather lifeless, purposeless shells moving about in a narrative that has no purpose. The faster they run and the happier they act, in such a context, only make their motions even more depressing. What is at stake anyway? Some money plates. That's it. Not even money, just the plates that they use to print money without a press to use them. They're a MacGuffin, about as meaningless as the rest of the film. By the end, the A-Team seemingly clears their name before some feds show up and arrest them. According to the epilogue, they're on the run yet again. So, all in all, nothing really happened. The world's just a bit messier and a few humans lighter.
Certain creative decisions helped rid the film of significance: The inclusion of long planning scenes, for instance, and the editing that spliced the plans and the execution together. Watching the characters plan what they'll do eliminates any sense of spontaneity. Show, don't tell and all that. The constant interruptions also ruin the flow of the action scenes. Eventually, I got the feeling that I might have been watching the minutes of whatever writing sessions took place. No doubt sensing this, the filmmakers toss a monkey wrench into the climactic plan. But given how cartoonish the film has been up to that point, one cannot possibly feel any tension. Is it any surprise that Baracus somehow survives a flood of shipping containers falling from an exploding ship on top of him. With nary a scratch on him. The characters will make it. You know that. There will be room for a sequel. It all seems predictable. It all seems like one big setup for a franchise. And it just feels terribly forced.
Maybe my problem with the film, summed up succinctly, is this: it does not evoke an emotional reaction. There's no reason to care about the so-called characters, what happens to them or their world. Even if the CIA got its hands on the MacGuffin--what would happen? Some people would get rich and the dollar would lose value by a possibly imperceptible amount. It all just seemed rather unimportant, sound and fury signifying nothing.
Last edited by
leokef on Wed Jan 19, 2011 1:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.