The Marine 2 Blu-ray Review


The Marine 2

The setting for Marine 2 takes place on one of many beautiful islands located in Southeast Asia. Joe Linwood (a US Marine on military leave) and Robin Linwood (Joe’s wife) travel to this tropical paradise to take part in the grand opening of a brand new exotic luxury resort. By nightfall, just as the official celebration gets underway, a local militia (terrorists) in direct opposition to the spread of westerners in their land, begin a savage assault on the resort in an effort to capture hostages, holding them for ransom in which they referred to as “the tribute” claiming that the west was trying to save them from their “perfectly happy lives”. After a somewhat slow start, the action quickly heats up once the initial assault takes place.

While Robin, who is intimately involved in the successful creation of the resort, hosts the grand opening event, her husband (Joe) decides to take a stroll around grounds of the resort. When the attack takes place, Joe is able to escape enemy capture. Aided by corruption, local authorities are unsuccessful in combating militia. Joe, who is highly skilled in combat situations and eager to get involved, defies direct orders from the local government to stay out of the matter and single handedly takes on the militia in an effort to save his wife from certain death.

For a WWE feature film, in association with 20th Century Fox, I give it a solid B+. Other than WWE Superstar Ted Dibiase and Hollywood actor Michael Rooker, I have not heard of nor personally seen any of the other actors before. Despite a mostly “amateur cast” the movie has a solid plot and keeps your attention as the story continues to unfold.



The Marine 2

The Marine 2 is brought to you with a 1080p Video MPEG-4 codec transfer at 1.78:1. In bright colorful scenes The Marine 2 is stunning. For instance, all the tropic scenes are absolutely radiant. The water looks so real it’s as if you could just jump right in. The movie definitely shines in those situations. However, those scenes are slim as a lot of the movie has a dark tone. There are a lot of night time scenes that sprinkle across this script and thus tons of film grain is evident. I understand that showcases the realism of the hi-def transfer but when you see this grain you can definitely tell that this grain is not director intentional. I don’t usually doc a film for having grain in night time scenes as its seen quite too often but there is still plenty to dispute on whether or not it could have been improved a bit more. There is evidence of smudging as well, and the blacks could have definitely been blacker. Overall, not as bad as it may seem and way better transfer than the first “The Marine” movie by WWE which starred John Cena.



The Marine 2

The Marine 2 excels with its English DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track. This is by far the best part of this movie and blu-ray presentation. The audio quality is crisp and clear and the clarity is heard exceptionally well. Now onto the bread and butter, the explosions! The explosions not only look cool but are reproduced awesomely. Your bass is going to shake the room and your front speakers are going to rock your house. The center channel is put to work and even your rears will engulf you as they get a lot of action as well. The silencers on guns are reproduced greatly and the special effects on stab wounds and death kills is incredible. This one definitely isn’t for the faint of heart as you’ll hear the gushing and oozing of each slice from the combat knife. I guess if you’re going to show off your sound system to some friends or fam this would be a good one for that as it is impressively loud. Just the opposite as this film’s grade for the video quality suffered a bit from so much grainy night scenes, the audio quality rocks because of the plethora of gun shots and explosions.



The Marine 2

The Marine 2 comes with a bare package of supplements. I guess it’s better than nothing but most are very lackluster and even the deleted and extended scenes aren’t even in dolby digital. It’s a pain just trying to hear the dialogue. I was hoping for at least a digital copy.

Extended Scenes – 2 scenes, self explanatory.
Deleted Scenes – A few more scenes, again self explanatory.
Making the Cut: This one was pretty interesting but pretty bleak.
Behind the Scenes Featurettes
Muy Thai Fight Outtakes – Pretty cool and funny.
Promotional Trailers



The Marine 2

Overall the supplement package is the least desirable and the video quality can use some improvement. However, the audio is very good which ultimately brings the movie to life. For a film with a mostly “amateur cast” it’s fairly good. It’s not exactly the kind of movie to watch over and over, but it’s worthy for a one time gig. I’d reserve recommendations for a movie like this more toward the serious action movie buffs or WWE wrestling fanatics. For anyone else, it’s a typical popcorn flick and I say give it a chance. You just might like it.