EMNofSeattle
Regular Member
So after reading the thread earlier today, I went and saw the remake of Red Dawn, now I entered the movie with an open mind, but nevertheless the original was much better then this remake. Despite its setting in Spokane (and yet not a single Ponderosa Pine in sight) It's a Spokane that I don't recognize (yes I've been there many times) and frankly you get the feeling they just chose some town by tossing a dart at a map of CONUS and made it up to their specifications, because they get next to nothing right except WA license plates and using authentic Spokane Police Patches for one of the scenes.
Some things below may be considered spoilers, you've been warned.
The thing that I disliked the most was the removal of the right wing political slant from the movie, in the first movie the main characters are these high school students, who of course are native to Colorado and seem pretty immersed in the outdoors culture and hunting and stuff like that... that is to some degree removed. Jed Eckert is no longer a Colorado country boy on his senior year of high school, he's now a seasoned US Marine Combat veteran who's caring widower father is an honest working Spokane Police Sgt. While these character changes do not take away from the movie, they eliminate the message of the original Red Dawn which was a glorification of civilian gun ownership, with the characters now LE and active duty Military it kind plays in to the Anti-message that it's ok for cops and soldiers to own guns. The (in)famous scene in the first Red Dawn where the invader's CO orders his men to seize the bound books from the local gun stores is also missing. while gun ownership still plays into the plot, it's not in the same glorified manner as the first movie.
The biggest problem is the lack of geographical context of the area portrayed. The dry forests of the Spokane area with pines and mountain hemlocks now look like the somewhat temperate forests of the east coast, While a handful of screen shots are of the authentic spokane skyline, and one accurate image of the freeway interchange where I-90 meets US-195, most of the town is made up, prominent spokane landmarks such as Riverside Park or Fairchild Air Force Base are never mentioned. This kind of frustrated me near the end where a group of U.S. Marines link up with the "wolverines" Why not a group of AF Security Policemen or SERE operators (the main SERE school is at Fairchild)? from where did the marines come? are there even any marines stationed in the Northwest area?
It really made me madder then that movie starring The Rock that featured Kitsap County a few years ago, "walking tall" I think they called it?
Another change is the lack of humanity in the opposing forces. Everyone can remember Col Bella, the cuban officer from the first Red Dawn who seemed sympathetic to the guerilla fighters, but there exists no emotion in the DPRK forces, in fact they may as well be robots.
While the movie was entertaining and had a great cast with first class acting, the delivery sucked and the plot was extremely weak. if you spend the 9 bucks to see it, watch it for the gunfire, because everything that made the first red dawn so great has been PC'd or removed out of this movie..
and just to sound more like a critic
2/5 stars
Some things below may be considered spoilers, you've been warned.
The thing that I disliked the most was the removal of the right wing political slant from the movie, in the first movie the main characters are these high school students, who of course are native to Colorado and seem pretty immersed in the outdoors culture and hunting and stuff like that... that is to some degree removed. Jed Eckert is no longer a Colorado country boy on his senior year of high school, he's now a seasoned US Marine Combat veteran who's caring widower father is an honest working Spokane Police Sgt. While these character changes do not take away from the movie, they eliminate the message of the original Red Dawn which was a glorification of civilian gun ownership, with the characters now LE and active duty Military it kind plays in to the Anti-message that it's ok for cops and soldiers to own guns. The (in)famous scene in the first Red Dawn where the invader's CO orders his men to seize the bound books from the local gun stores is also missing. while gun ownership still plays into the plot, it's not in the same glorified manner as the first movie.
The biggest problem is the lack of geographical context of the area portrayed. The dry forests of the Spokane area with pines and mountain hemlocks now look like the somewhat temperate forests of the east coast, While a handful of screen shots are of the authentic spokane skyline, and one accurate image of the freeway interchange where I-90 meets US-195, most of the town is made up, prominent spokane landmarks such as Riverside Park or Fairchild Air Force Base are never mentioned. This kind of frustrated me near the end where a group of U.S. Marines link up with the "wolverines" Why not a group of AF Security Policemen or SERE operators (the main SERE school is at Fairchild)? from where did the marines come? are there even any marines stationed in the Northwest area?
It really made me madder then that movie starring The Rock that featured Kitsap County a few years ago, "walking tall" I think they called it?
Another change is the lack of humanity in the opposing forces. Everyone can remember Col Bella, the cuban officer from the first Red Dawn who seemed sympathetic to the guerilla fighters, but there exists no emotion in the DPRK forces, in fact they may as well be robots.
While the movie was entertaining and had a great cast with first class acting, the delivery sucked and the plot was extremely weak. if you spend the 9 bucks to see it, watch it for the gunfire, because everything that made the first red dawn so great has been PC'd or removed out of this movie..
and just to sound more like a critic
2/5 stars
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