The A-Team (2010): Age of Extinction done well?

The modern reboots, a cinema trend that doesn't seem to be going away. I'm honestly not sure which has been getting it worse, super hero movies or reboots. Some have been regarded as greats in their own way, others will go down in history for all the wrong reasons, and others still... most people tend to forget. This one from what I can tell is in that third category, but to me that is debatable. The A Team itself was a show that ran in the 80's about a team of basically mercenaries who were members of the army, but were committed of a crime they didn't commit, with the episodes being about them helping people on their travels. A movie came out in 2010, and that's what we're reviewing today, and "I swear I'm totally not reviewing this because LEGO Dimensions peaked my curiosity in it again and this is totally not going to become a reoccurring thing at the moment with some things like LEGO Chima on Wednesday".

Starting with the plot and.... uhhhhhhhhhhh. I'm not kidding here, as someone who can make sense of the Bayformers movies, I struggle to actually understand what's going on thanks to all the plotholes and what feels like important scenes deleted. The plot if it is that its an origin story to the show, similar to what the Abrams Star Trek movies. The story of the crime they were convicted of, but never actually did. The crime? Going against an order to do an off the books mission, which they did, retrieve money printing plates from Baghdad, which they did, and loose them to a mercenary group called Black Forest and being convicted or killing a superior officer which, yeah they didn't do those. The rest of the movie is about them trying to clear their names by breaking out of jail, which is another crime, and stopping the people who framed them. How they do it include breaking out of jail by playing dead and surviving being burnt alive, being trapped in a tanning station and carried away, riding on the back of a prison bus emergency exit door and the most realistic 3D you'll ever see, complete with real jeep and bullets. Others include trying to fly a tank and somehow survive, playing that cup game where you have to keep your eye on the cup with the ball with freight containers, and coming up with plans that have so many variables in them that you question how the hell that's supposed to work. That is when the movie starts to loose me because on top of that there are things like how much characters actually know, when they know them and when they don't, the amount of predictable variables. I swear there was a moment where they knew one of the characters was the real enemy, and then were surprised when he revealed himself to be the real enemy.

Visually, its the same thing for the action scenes, where its so overblown that you question how this is supposed to work. Put it this way, I wasn't kidding about that "trying to fly a tank" part. Its Michael Bay like in shear overkill, one of the lines is "Overkill is underrated". But at the same time, and this goes with the writing, it does something that other movies I've covered don't do. It doesn't take itself seriously. It's a comedy where the joke is "You and I both know this is ridiculous, let's just revel in it". Again, and I cannot stress this enough, they tried to fly a tank, and lived to tell the tale. Another being turning off the engines in a medical helicopter mid flight to avoid heat seeking missiles and then starting the engines again mid fall to keep the aerial fight going. This is the difference between this and something like Age of Extinction which has weapons that basically stick the middle finger up at physics and are completely useless all for the sake of trailer shots. This is a movie where I'm ok with shutting my brain off and enjoying it for what it is, because its not trying to be something more, embracing the insanity just for the sake of it, which is fine.

Encase its not obvious, yes I do like this movie, as there's more of an sincerity to its insanity, rather then it being "No one's going to give a crap about this, make some s@(! and throw it out there" like say, Age of Extinction. Sadly though the end has a "Oh that's cute, you thought you were going to get a sequel" moment which would never come to be. Maybe in 5 years they'll try another reboot or TV show. Who knows? See you all for Chima on Wednesday.