First 7 minutes before the title sequence was pretty good. No BS. Just soldiers dealing with an explosive situation. The next 7-8 minutes wasn't bad either. It showed us a main character (Cruz) struggling. She is in a deadend job and an abusive relationship. But she has enough of it one day and decides to make a stand. Long story short, she ends up joining the marines. And frankly, her backstory made me empathize with her and root for her, invested in what is happening....until they decided to make her into a girlboss.
With no training except domestic violence and flipping burgers, she could do 22 pull-ups. Yeah, that's believable. The acting isn't great for that scene either. She groaned like noone would when doing pull-ups. When she got down from the bar, she was panting like mad as if she just sprinted a quarter mile. It's like the actress and the director don't even understand the difference between running and calisthensics. You don't pant like that from doing even your max number of pull-ups. Nobody does. That's just bad acting. And after she did 22 pull-ups, the sergeant had to deliver some hallmark inspirational quote: "Attack everything they throw at you just like this, and there's no stopping you." Yeah right. It just goes to show that the writer lacks understanding of military culture and didn't do enough research beforehand.
On top of that, the show opted to TELL instead of SHOW us how amazing Cruz is. Oh, she can do 22 pull-ups and 114 push-ups in 3 minutes. Wow! She can run 1.5 miles in 8 minutes. Did the writers even bother to find out how hard that is? She would have to be ripped like Linda Hamilton in T2 or be an elite athlete choked full of PEDs to do that. And she looks like neither. I'm not buying it in the least bit.
And the way Cruz talks is like an emotionally-stunned 15-year-old instead of an adult with a history of domestic abuse. She says exactly what she is thinking...like a kid would. It's like the writer forgot how to write subtext or remember to give her anger any nuance. When asked by an army recruitment evaluation officer if she was willing to walk away from the life she lived up to this point and never look back, she said, "I have no life, sir." The writer thinks it's supposed to be badass or remind us of her past and make us empathize with her. But it just sounds so goddamn cringey.
And then the sparring match that followed just made her seem so obnoxious and unlikeable. She tackled the smirk idiot who didn't have protective gear on while he is STILL strapping on his gloves. It's supposed to reflect her character, that she is a survival. And also because, oh, she was told by the army recruitment officer that saved her from her abusive boyfriend that, "In war, if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying." She even appropriated that phrase and repeated that later when evaluated by Zoe Saldana's character Joe to TELL the audience she is willing to do anything to survival. But you know what? She cheated in a SPARRING MATCH, NOT A WAR. She even kicked the guy in the nuts when he is already down! The writer seriously thinks that is badass and cool? Is the writer a man child who thinks violence is cool when women pretend to be tough and guys a beat down?!?!
Futhermore, Cruz is rude, easily triggered, arrogant and boastful of her pain tolerance when she is asked to strip naked in order to be checked for tattoos that might compromise the mission and her safety. She said, "That's from an extension cord. Should answer your question about how much pain I can take," without even being asked about the markings on her back. You know who brags about pain tolerance? Immature people and kids. Nobody gives a crap how tough you are in real life. Especially someone who is evaluating you for a covet op. And who talks like that to a person who outranks you and is evaluating you for a covet operation? Why does modern Hollywood keep writing obnoxious girlbosses who act like they are in charge all the time when they have no clue whatsoever? Do they think their audience is stupid? Who buys into this sort of crappy shoddy writing, I wonder.
Then, when Cruz meets the team, there has to be a token female sniper on the team who looks tough and has a male-sounding name like Bobby. It's like the cliches just keep on coming. And guess what? They stupidly get drunk before their operation because that's what the writer thinks ALL soldiers in the military do. They act tough and get drunk before ops. Because who needs to be responsible when your fellow soldier's life is at stake right? So Cruz ends up dealing with a hangover the next day during her op. The level of stupidity and lack of professionalism is unbelievable. And they don't brief her about what she needs to do until she is already in the car driving over to meet her mark. Seriously? Is this a CIA op or a bunch of kindergarteners playing pretend? But when she gets into the store, suddenly her hangover disappears. Wow. Amazing top-tier writing.
And then, when she meets her mark in the jewelry store, she does not know or even need to put in effort to try to get close and befriend her mark. Her mark is just conveniently friendly to strangers for no particular reason and even wants to hang out with her. Are you seriously kidding me with this kind of writing?
25 out of 38 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
