Geekscape Reviews ‘Rambo: Last Blood’ In 4DX
The first Rambo film was kind of a revelation for me. I didn’t jump on that bandwagon until late, so the only thing I knew about it was that it starred Sylvester Stallone mowing down bad guys with giant machine guns. When I finally got around to watching First Blood for myself, I was shocked to find how the franchise would eventually abandon the heart of the first movie and lean into the ultra violent stereotypes of war veterans that the original was trying to warn against. Nevertheless, the sequels were mindless fun if nothing else, and I expected no more from Last Blood, the latest in Stallone’s greatest hits tour after building up good will with audiences through the Creed films and to a lesser extent, 2008’s Rambo. But even with these lenient expectations, Last Blood ended up being pointless at best and disheartening at worst, with a bloody finale that fails to make up for the dreary bulk of the film.
Some time between the fourth film and now, John Rambo seems to finally have found peace. Now living on his father’s ranch with its caretaker and her granddaughter, Gabriela, he’s spent the last 10 years as a surrogate father to the girl while handling the typical ranch chores. You know, training horses, tending to the land, building underground death tunnels… It seems like after so long, the combat veteran finally has his chance to live a simple life. That is until Gabriela tracks down her absentee father and decides to sneak away to Mexico for answers as to why he left, which goes about as well as one would think. When she ends up kidnapped by a cartel, it’s up to Rambo to use his expert tracking and combat skills to rescue the only family he has.
Don’t get me wrong. At no point would I consider Last Blood a good movie per se, but the first half definitely landed in the “so bad it’s good” category. The overly telegraphed foreshadowing held up by an incredibly campy script was only made better, (by which I mean worse), by the often dry performances by the actors. This was amplified by some hysterically strange cinematography that felt straight out of the made-for-Redbox bin, (just try not to laugh when Gabriela confronts her father). But again, Rambo hasn’t been a serious movie since its early 80’s debut, and the camp just made the wait for the eventual violence spree even more sweet. Aside from some gruesome stealth scenes leading up to the big rescue, the movie strays away from the action the series has become known for for most of its run time. But that’s okay, because the bag guys are established early as terrible people that you want to see punished, so when Rambo finally comes face to face with the gang, you know it’s about to go down.
Except… It doesn’t. It’s impossible to illustrate how much of a downturn this movie takes without spoiling its biggest twists, so if you want to completely avoid spoilers, just know that you can shut off the movie half way through, fast forward to the last 20 minutes and know that it’s peaked. Being as vague as possible, Rambo, a character who’s known for his meticulous planning, puts himself in a position to completely fail. And fail he does, completely sucking the air out of an already thin film. Going from bad in a campy way to just bad, the joyless twist renders the rest of the movie pointless. We see Rambo films to see him mow through armies of bad guys, not go completely brain dead for the sake of the plot. When he finally gets his hands on the bad guys, there’s no reason to care. And the fact that it ultimately ends with the implication that there might be another film renders the “Last Blood” portion of the title as meaningless as the second half of Stallone’s latest.
Admittedly, the climactic action scene is fantastic, even if it’s too little too late. Viewing the film in 4DX made the scene come alive even more, feeling every explosion, gun shot and trap as it happened on screen. Serving as a mix of classic Rambo, Saw and Home Alone, watching the cartel mindlessly run to their deaths in so many creative ways helped the film deliver on its reputation of over-the-top action. At times, it was hard to tell how they were even killed, but it was so wild that I can’t knock it for that. Figuring out how it was playing out was part of the fun! Prior to the climax, there was some creative uses of the 4DX medium, such as scents curing breakfast or ranch scenes alongside the typical bumps while characters drove, but the effect didn’t stand out until the end where it made sure you felt everything the characters did in powerful ways.
It’s hard to recommend Rambo: Last Blood considering how much of a drag it is. By taking a hard turn from campy fun to a cynical, over-dramatic narrative, it makes it nearly impossible to find enjoyment from a film that was not that good to begin with. Even those who are just in it for the action are going to have to wait until the last 20 minutes to see that promised delivered, which doesn’t make up for the hour-plus before that. If you’re going to see it just for that, you might as well go all out with 4DX to distract yourself from the plot, but for those who wanted a proper sendoff for the character, what you’ll end up with is a pointless entry that fails at following up on the story focused original AND the action heavy sequels. If nothing else, it serves as an exercise showing how to use 80 minutes to advance absolutely nothing about this character. Rambo deserves better, but like Last Blood‘s finale, it might be too little too late.
Final Score: 2/5
