Saw 'Marauders' because Bruce Willis has done good films and given good performances in the past, 'Die Hard' is a genre landmark and his performance is iconic in that. The title, cast and poster also intrigued and similarly the idea for the story sounded sort of interesting, despite a lack of originality. Expectations were not high though, because Willis has been past prime for a while (several bad films and has looked tired and disengaged a lot) and has been in a lot of stinkers lately.
Despite my interest into seeing it, hopes for 'Marauders' weren't too high, with a good deal of bad things heard about it and that Willis has done similar films before, during and since this film and none of them were good and used him poorly. 'Marauders' did turn out to be a marginally better film than expected but it is still not very good despite a few decent things. Do have to agree with the flaws that have been pointed out.
'Marauders' did start off very intriguingly. It is shot with slickness and style.
The cast mostly didn't do too badly at all, better than average. Christopher Meloni and Dave Bautista give the right amount of grit and fun and Jonathan Schaech doesn't over-compensate or look bored.
Willis however phones in and looks tired in a role that is nowhere near as prominent as the advertising misleadingly indicated, something of a glorified cameo. Adrian Grenier is also quite characterless. The direction shows little engagement or finesse. The sound and music are intrusive and the characters generally aren't interesting, due to very sketchy development, with not many endearing traits.
Furthermore, the action is never exciting or tense, very routine often with silly parts and over-serious ones. The script is constantly awkward and lacks tautness, but it is the far too convoluted, as well as pedestrian and far-fetched story that suffers from trying to include too many things and underdeveloping all of them that the film suffers most from. Any twists are easily foreseeable long before they appear and there is very little tension or suspense.
Overall, tangled web sums 'Marauders' up very well. 4/10 Bethany Cox
Despite my interest into seeing it, hopes for 'Marauders' weren't too high, with a good deal of bad things heard about it and that Willis has done similar films before, during and since this film and none of them were good and used him poorly. 'Marauders' did turn out to be a marginally better film than expected but it is still not very good despite a few decent things. Do have to agree with the flaws that have been pointed out.
'Marauders' did start off very intriguingly. It is shot with slickness and style.
The cast mostly didn't do too badly at all, better than average. Christopher Meloni and Dave Bautista give the right amount of grit and fun and Jonathan Schaech doesn't over-compensate or look bored.
Willis however phones in and looks tired in a role that is nowhere near as prominent as the advertising misleadingly indicated, something of a glorified cameo. Adrian Grenier is also quite characterless. The direction shows little engagement or finesse. The sound and music are intrusive and the characters generally aren't interesting, due to very sketchy development, with not many endearing traits.
Furthermore, the action is never exciting or tense, very routine often with silly parts and over-serious ones. The script is constantly awkward and lacks tautness, but it is the far too convoluted, as well as pedestrian and far-fetched story that suffers from trying to include too many things and underdeveloping all of them that the film suffers most from. Any twists are easily foreseeable long before they appear and there is very little tension or suspense.
Overall, tangled web sums 'Marauders' up very well. 4/10 Bethany Cox