Review: Red Dawn (2012)

   
    This is a remake of the Red Dawn movie of 1984, the first PG-13 movie, and what we have here is an attempt to make it much better in terms of emotions and action, which is done well at times. The story is updated from Russians to North Koreans who invade America. The movie focuses on one town and a group of teenagers who call themselves the "Wolverines," after their high school mascot, who try to fight back.
    The movie was filmed back in 2009, but wasn't released until November of 2012 because of distribution issues. But because of that all the actors look much younger than their recent movies and it was filmed before they were well known. First, we have Chris Hemsworth and Josh Peck who play brothers Jed and Matt Eckert respectively. Next, we have Josh Hutcherson as Robert Kitner and Jeffery Dean Morgan as Tanner, a Marine along with two others, who shows up out of nowhere, in order to receive help from the "Wolverines."
    Overall the acting was not very bad, for most of these kids this was their first big role and they did a good job considering what they had to work with. Chris Hemsworth was probably the best out of all of them, although you can hear his accent from time to time, which is hard because he is playing an American. Josh Peck also did a good job, although he struggles through some of the emotional scenes because he is use to more comedy roles. Josh Hutcherson and Jeffery Dean Morgan do a very good though, especially Hutcherson whose character develops nicely.
    If you've seen the original you know how it opens, but this one opens differently and much more faster. That is where we have the problem with this movie. Before the attack scene we barely have any time to get to know the characters, there is a football scene, a bar scene, and then the attack occurs. Within that time period we are introduced to the characters, but that is about it, we get their backgrounds slowly throughout the first half of the movie through short little stories. That is a problem because the movie is only 93 minutes.
   The length of this movie is also a problem, we know who the leader of the group is, Chris Hemsworth, because he is a marine on leave. So, naturally he is the leader and trains the other kids who have no experience with guns or fighting and we get this in a short three or four minute edit of the teenagers being trained. Right after that they are ready to fight and begin their missions of attacking the North Korean soldiers. So, the word to describe this film is 'choppy.'
    The attack scene itself is only six minutes long and happens fast, although with good special effects, which is a high point in the movie. Then the rest of the movie is just fight scene, ambush, plan attack, fight scene, and climax. They failed to include very much dialog and what happens in between those scenes. The movie was rushed too much and I felt like, at times, I was being let down on the drama that it lacked. However, this is not a terrible movie, it is a fun and fast paced action thriller but it leads to almost an anti-climactic scene that will take you by surprise if you haven't seen the original. It will make the average action fan happy though. 2/4 Stars.