Vietnam War veteran John Rambo tries to find some semblance of peace by raising horses on a ranch in Arizona. He's also developed a special familial bond with a woman named Maria and her teenage granddaughter Gabriela. But when a vicious Mexican cartel kidnaps Gabriela, Rambo crosses the border on a bloody and personal quest to rescue her and punish those responsible.
At the ripe old age of 73, Sylvester Stallone is still going at it in the movie business - I was especially surprised to hear of his age after watching his latest action film, Rambo Last Blood because of the non-stop action and intensity that the film produces. Of course Rambo is a very well known franchise that has been running for ages, but the latest instalment introduces a new modern twist into the franchise whilst still retaining the good old fashioned Rambo character - the main question though. Is this too much to push the franchise over the edge, or is Rambo back with a bang? Here are my thoughts.
I really thought that the way in which the film began was strong and helped to establish the emotional connection between the characters, seeing Rambo and Gabrielle interacting and riding around on horses not only gives a good idea of the location but also the relationship that the characters have with each other. A key element that makes this film unique and helps it to stand out from the other films in the franchise is its characters, Rambo isn’t the typical angry character who seems to be hell-bent on killing as many people as possible. It's a different Rambo film... no police pushing Rambo out of town. No Russians or Vietnamese to tangle with. This Rambo really, really just wants to live a clam life that perhaps he always wanted. The guy is even on medication to help him stay cool, but, there is the evil in the darkness that wishes to torment an already tormented soul, and that soul is John Rambo. He seems really content with his new life with his adopted family. He has a beautiful young girl in his life, who calls him Uncle John lovingly. I really like how genuine and realistic the characters in this film feel too, the relationship between Rambo and Gabrielle feels really genuine and loving, seeing how Rambo lets her have her friends round for a party and how they ride together on horses before she goes to College really helps to establish and set the bond that they share – which allows us to get much more emotionally attached when she decides to go to Mexico to find her real father. This also helps to make the film much more exciting and enjoyable too, because scenes such as the confrontation between Gabrielle and her father where initially he seems kind, until he steps forward, his face turns shadowy and then he says about how she means nothing to him – characters relationships are simple to get invested in and scenes like this help to raise our rage and protection over Gabrielle as a character, which allows us to share Rambo’s rage. Without giving too much away, when Rambo finally sees her again to save her, it is bittersweet. He has invested his last ten years into this young girl and to see what happens to her. When you strip back the emotion, you find a completely unhinged Rambo that takes out the bad guys with a rage like no other. This then gives the film a lot of excitement and allows us to essentially take out our rage on the enemies through typical Rambo scenes filled with brutality and plenty of bodies. Barehand bashing, hammers used to break skulls, shotgun blasts, decapitations, knives to just about every part of the human body you can imagine. How the hell Stallone keeps the action sequences so fresh after nearly 40 years is beyond me, but most importantly he does and this makes for a lot of breathtaking and really exciting scenes where he picks off the cartel one by one at the end.
What’s more though, is that the film cleverly bigs up and makes the cartel members and the brothers seem scary and a genuine threat to Rambo and Gabrielle, seeing them beating up Rambo early on helps to keep the film fresh, like I’ve said it isn’t just a film full of Rambo killing people but the brutality of how he is beaten up and left for dead really helps to establish them as a threat to Rambo and this makes his pursuit of Gabrielle especially exciting. Scenes have meaning - we really have rage and understand Rambo's emotions - seeing how he was beaten up and then his daughter dying helps to put us in his shoes, and this helps to add a sense of empathy to characters, we can really put ourselves in their shoes to feel how they feel which feels immersive
Like I’ve said, this film doesn’t focus on introducing the characters to us and informing us of who they are, their backgrounds and their favourite foods, instead it takes a minimal approach and focuses on creating a set of characters which feel both exciting and enjoyable too, whilst adding something new to the series.
Similarly to the characters in the film, I thought that the plot felt really well put together too. In essence it feels really simple but this helps to make it easy to understand what is going on and the purpose of various events and actions in the film, but it definitely isn’t boring. The variety of action scenes and the exciting plot help to really keep the film entertaining and enjoyable throughout. But as well as this, the plot retains some of what makes Rambo himself which is good to see, Much like the Creed films, Rambo: Last Blood successfully replicates the heart and spirit of how its franchise operates at the best level. The film also feels really exciting in the way that we finally see Rambo changing during the film, at first we see him as a calm character but then he throws away his pills and begins to get violent, some of the scenes were really gruesome but that’s what makes him such an iconic character I guess – because of his willingness to get things done without a regard for who is in his way. The actual events of the film feel really well put together though, I like how the simplicity of the film ensures that it transitions together and feels like it flows well, seeing how events play out we are always kept involved with what is going on and this leaves nothing to the imagination, such as Gabrielle leaving to go to Mexico, then Rambo finding out and going after her – it is generally quite a complicated series of scenes but this film relays that to us in a straightforward and simplistic way to help ensure that we can follow exactly what is going on and the purposes behind what is going on. At the end though, it feels fast-paced and really keeps us on the edge of our seats, especially when we see John Rambo preparing the traps and then fighting the cartel, these traps, explosions and shooting scenes really help to take the film up a notch towards the end and help keep it really exciting and fun – I also like how the film ends with a narrative from John Rambo about how now is his time to rest from war now that it has taken everything from him. It feels like the film is really well rounded, from the relaxed horse ride at the beginning, to him sitting in the chair at the end, the film begins and ends with relaxing scenes but is absolutely full of action, excitement and fast-paced scenes throughout. It was an awesome plot idea too, it didn’t go down the wrong path through by focussing on Rambo getting Gabrielle back, but instead the underlying meaning behind his emotions and the simple plot is combined well with this because it means that we can really get engrossed in the film and this makes it really really good, one of the best films I’ve seen this year easily.
Unfortunately, though, the film wasn’t perfect, even though it was very good it still had a few issues with it. I don’t really have a big issue with the film, but instead I had some small things I would have like to have seen tweaked with the film, the first of which is that it maybe would’ve benefited from a longer running time to really get emotionally attached to the characters. I know I said that I liked the simplicity and how we don’t get to know the characters well because we don’t really need to, but I think that this combined with a little bit of a longer run time would have been good to get invested into Gabrielle’s relationship with her father, that element of the film felt very short and this could’ve been delved into a little bit more. It also felt like there could’ve been a little bit more to the scene at the end, maybe if both brothers would have been there for Rambo to kill? It just felt like he didn’t fully eradicate the threat which felt a little bit like the film wasn’t actually brought to a full circle.
Overall, I would give this film a 9. I thought that the way in which the film entertained us through consistent scenes of action and excitement was really impressive, the film also added a real sense of meaning to the characters, their motives and the relationships that they shared. This feels really good and helps to really ensure that the film is exciting whilst remaining simple to follow and enjoyable too. I was also especially impressed with Stallone’s performance here, everyone knows how much of a great actor he is but to be putting out performances and creating intense scenes like the ones here at his age is just amazing, he has definitely made the series so great and enjoyable and exciting. The film has a few issues but these mainly relate to personal preference and upon reading some other reviews after writing mine, a lot of people have given this film poor reviews due to the gore and Stallone/Trump affiliations, don’t listen to these, not only does the gore help to really make Rambo iconic but if these people had actually seen the film then they would know how great and enjoyable it is. Would I recommend it? 100% if you don’t mind a bit of gore and violence, the film has a great and straightforward story with some great acting in it – you won’t be disappointed!
Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did watching the film and writing this review, I hope you have a lovely day! J If you would like to check out my Official Facebook page where you can see sneak previous and more film insights then please consider checking out the link below!
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