Jarhead 2: Field of Fire

I enjoyed the first 'Jarhead' film and was curious as to what any 'sequel' would be like. However, at least I kept my expectations low as I knew this was not produced by the same cast or crew as the first, plus part II was released straight-to-DVD, so, how good could it be? The answer... quite good actually, but only as a generic war film, rather than a sequel.

Okay, so occasionally the film mimics the original in style (think captions, mainly near the beginning) and it uses the term 'jarhead' a couple of times, but that's about it. In fact... I'm running out of other things that link the two films.

So, the best thing to do is basically just ignore everything you know about the first movie and go with what's on offer. And, what's on offer is a war movie set in modern Afghanistan. A small team of marines (or 'jarheads' to be precise) are on a routine mission, only to find themselves forced to protect an important female local as she travels across arguably one of the most dangerous regions in the world.

Bottom line: if you like war films, you'll probably enjoy this. It's actually got a half reasonable budget and doesn't feel too much like a straight-to-DVD movie.

This film is kaka. The writing, directing, editing and acting? in it are terrible. It couldn't even make the cut for Mystery Science Theater 3000. It contains every hackneyed phrase and stereotype of the Afghan war. After 30 minutes I didnt know any more about the characters in the film than I did in the first minute. I didnt even know their names. The script and the director make these mindless, action hero figures instead of real people and the process fails miserably. What a complete waste of time and money. Just like the real war.

Marine Corporal Chris Merrimette reluctantly takes a promotion from Major James Gavins (Stephen Lang) as the new leader of his supply squad after his sergeant gets killed by the Taliban. He is eager to return to his wife. His unit consists of Corporal Danny Kettner (Bokeem Woodbine), Lance Corporal Dani Allen, Private Rafael Soto, and Private Justin Li. Afghan Army Private Khalid Hassan Abu Faisal joins them on a resupply mission to a dangerous outpost. They are retasked when they pick up a SEAL team trying to evacuate an anti-Taliban activist.

The interesting thing about the first Jarhead is that the guy struggled with a war which doesn't need him. This is almost an opposite premise. Chris can't wait to get out of the war that desperately needs him. I'm fine with a completely new premise for a completely new war. There is plenty of gunfire action which is more than what I expect from a TV movie. The realism is debatable and that's no small thing. I really question Kettner pulling Faisal off the garbage pile. It would be more real to run away and let the new Arab take the bomb blast if that's what he wants. That conflict between realistic and unrealistic never goes away. I'm sure others have different ideas. The kill ratio seems high. Several times, the guys wipe out the entire opposition. The final rescue mission seems unrealistic. I don't know why they didn't at least try the Taliban's trucks. The realism questioning goes on and on. It's not Rambo but it's not that far from it. Some of the masked Taliban fighters look white. At least, the setting looks good.

This has nothing to do with the first Jarhead, apart from the title. Well if you are stretching it, you could say that it is open minded when it comes to its characters. We also get the main military man from Avatar ... again being a military man. Less screen time though, still a tough one. The rest is a group of people who are doing a good job making you care for them.

The action is nicely done, though having just watched "Fury" not even close to anything in that movie. The whole setting of this movie does remind me of some 80s movies, which had a similar theme and had some of the same results. It works, but it's not something I can get too excited about.

When I first saw that there was going to be a sequel to Jarhead I already felt disappointed, I was a huge fan of the first movie and did not feel it ever needed a sequel. Hearing that it was action in this movie made me even worse as one of the main themes of the first Jarhead was the lack of action.

However I must say after watching this I would say I was pleasantly surprised and do not feel it soiled the Jarhead name like one of those sequels that makes fans pretend it never happened. It started off slow and uninteresting. I thought the main character himself was quite underdeveloped but once this movie gets going you do start to care for these characters. I think the main character could have been a lot more human than just being a marine as I couldn't relate to him. Warning lots of Hu-Rah's and Hell Yea's.

The script itself could have done with a little more polishing with some scenes feeling they could have had more of an impact but there is some intense scenes in this movie which is what I like in an action movie. There was one or two cliché moments but aside from that this was a pretty strong movie. It carried some important messages about how bad situations build great bonds. It also has the sort of Saving Private Ryan "How can one person be so important" cliché. It still pulls it off though.

So go into this with an open mind unlike me. Go in and just have a good time with this.

I personally don't mind if more Jarhead movies come out now as long as they all carry different messages and they are made to be stand alone movies.