A-Team, The (movie)
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Overview
Kicks off with a contemporary Mexican drug lord op, then rolls into a Iraq-based thing,[notes 1] which sets up the main story that's all about how "Black Forest", which is a very thinly disguised Blackwater/Haliburton stand in is the real enemy... the movie simultaneously appeals to the testosterone fueled Nugent fan and the angst-driven Liberal. Brilliant.
Don't get me wrong... there's nothing deep about this movie. It's pure superficial action movie and that's why it's good. Great action is hard to do. We have so many tools, so much experience, so much exposure that to do pure action scene after scene is tough, and the A-Team really delivers.
Notes and Details
The films use of humor to lubricate scenes and keeps things moving smoothly is really top notch. Most action movies dive into being "earnest" with a lot of gritty stare downs and long periods of reflection on the horrors of the situation. The A-Team goes in the entirely opposite direction. Rather than digging in, the action skims across the surface. This approach is challenging for two reasons: pacing and control.
Pacing is difficult because it's hard to keep up the kind of pace that the A-Team does. It's hard on the story, and it's hard on the budget. The films structure, which is essentially 3 missions with a brief narratively interlocked missions with an intermission, is really smart. It'd be really hard to go two hours with non-stop without turning the audience numb. With three sub-climaxes, mini-denouements, the story moves like a stone skipping over water.
The other challenge is control. Without something to bite into, the movie can spin out of control. This usually manifests in an attack on suspension of disbelief... at some things become too ludicrous to swallow. There was one place where the A-Team came pretty close (the tank sequence) but there was just enough there to let the audience swallow the premise.[notes 2]
Favorite quote: "This is Zulu-One, Zulu-One, this is Broadsword do you copy?" "Broadsword? Did you come up with that? That's awesome."
Very mild spoiler.
My only beef with the movie was the Baracus conversion sub-plot. It was just out of character for the rest of the movie. I'm watching A-Team for action... I don't want to stop and consider the moral implications of what's going on. What's worse, they treated the philosophy of non-violence poorly. I don't feel this was intentional... the characters are all surprisingly respectful of BA's conversion. My issue is more with the idea that if you're going to throw something like that in there, you should give it space to get fully fleshed out. Instead it basically boils down to, "I don't want to kill anymore... wait, I changed my mind." It's an unnecessary afterthought that distracts for no purpose.
Indeed, as one review points out, BA's first quote "Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary," ends up being prophetic as in the end no one's name is cleared and they all end up as fugitives on the run, wrongly convicted and hounded by the country they love.
