OK, so I've enjoyed the earlier films in the Marine series somewhat and thought this one would be like them as well. But after having watched it, I'm so disturbed by the stupidity of the protagonist. I mean, he's this marine-turned-medic who you expect of course to go out of his way to save lives. So even though I would personally disagree with attempting to save the life of a gangbanger who's killed another man just before he needed assistance (after members of the other gang went after him), you would understand if he did it when doing so didn't risk anyone else's life. But he and his female colleague walk into this dark theme park without notifying anyone first that they're heading out on foot - and when he's located the gangbanger and the guy has even fired his gun at him, he makes it his personal mission to get the guy out of there, even though the other gang shows up. And in the process, several other people end up dead, including his female colleague - in spite of his job only being to save lives. The other gang attempts to negotiate with him and have him turn over the gangbanger, which would have been the proper thing to do - but this crazy guy doesn't budge.
After his colleague has died, he doesn't appear to question whether what he's doing is right - instead he in practice joins the other gang, since he decides to kill as many members of the Lost Legion as possible. The guy wants to save the gangbanger at first, but then decides to kill potentially innocent people? Why is he this homicidal maniac? The action is a bit peculiar too - it struck me as funny how many of the fighting scenes appeared to mimic pro-wrestling moves, like clotheslines, sending people into the ropes (or car doors) and such. They're using attacks that don't make much sense in the real world, like F5s for example.
They messed up the medical knowledge, too. At one point, the marine gets the crazy idea that he's going to transfuse blood to the gangbanger since he's about to pass out. At that point I'm thinking that that would be quite hazardous, since he doesn't know the guy's blood type. But then he clears up the confusion - sort of - by saying: "It's combat transfusion. I'm O positive. It's safe." Only thing is - the only time it's 100% safe to give blood is when you're O negative. Any negative blood type (AB-, A-, B- or O-) would suffer serious complications if given O+ blood.
Can't believe they refer to a gangbanger well into adulthood as "the kid" too. Not to mention the part where he explains to - and convinces - the medic that he was "forced" to do what he did.
Overall, the acting and action is OK and doesn't merit a 1-star - except for maybe "Alonzo" not really striking you as the "bad ass" the film intends him to be - but I felt the lead character's personality make-up and the story apparently depending on sympathizing with him and the gangbanger means it's a revolting experience watching it. Throughout it all, I was hoping that the guy ("the kid") would get killed, so no more lives would be endangered - but sadly no.
Final note: In the end, it is revealed that the gangbanger isn't a gangbanger at all, but this doesn't change the fact that the medic caused so many unnecessary deaths through siding with a convict that had done serious time and killed another man to get out of his own mess. A really stupid move. 10-20 people dead as a result, when it could have been only one. I think the law books should have been searched for things to charge the medic with. Involuntary manslaughter, perhaps.
