And here we are. I have now reached the end of my 3-week observation of Dean Ambrose's first movie, "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown." The first part covered the hype and promotion that WWE was suppose to do for the movie a week before its debut, which was only done in the form of showing the movie trailer during commercial breaks and letting social media handle the rest. The second part covered the continued promotion (with a cute shout out from Renee Young), Ambrose's Q&A from the Wizard World Comic Con at Pittsburgh, and critic consensus about the movie from IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. This final part will cover my opinion about the movie, which I rented and watched on Sunday (9/13), see how the movie is doing in theaters (which is literally not worth tracking according to Box Office Mojo standards), and see how WWE is going to forget this movie ever happened since they're too busy focusing on working on the Night of Champion PPV next Sunday.
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As I mentioned in my second part, I gave in and decided to rent the movie for $7.99 through Google Play. I watched it (secretly) in the bedroom while Vince was busy editing photos. At first, I thought it was too pricey for a rental. Seeing how this was VOD, on the movie's opening day for some dumb reason, it was no different than buying a matinee ticket on a weekend. And man, was I glad to watch this movie at home. I shudder to think what kind of an audience who was in attendance in theaters, which consists of the same demographic I saw who went to Ambrose's Q&A panel at Wizard World. I'll be kind here and leave out describing the aforementioned group **coughs** Tumblr fangirls **coughs**
(Note: Before I get to my review, I should mention that Vince and I watched last year's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" for the first time on Netflix recently, and I was beyond frustrated with the whole movie. I went from rolling my eyes to covering my face and groaning loudly. Seeing how salty and bitter I was with the movie afterwards, I tried my best to watch this movie with an open mind and not to be a giddy fangirl.)
The movie was... all right. It wasn't good but it wasn't bad either. I think Ambrose did a fine job for his first ever movie role, let alone in a leading role. If I had to nitpick on what I didn't like about the movie, it would be for the following things:
- As Detective Shaw, Ambrose was noticeably restrained with his dialogue and mannerisms. There are so many instances where he should've been more expressive, or that he missed a good opportunity to make a witty or cynical remark. Ambrose is a great talker when he goes off script, so it was slightly disappointing to see he didn't have much freedom or direction in improvising with his character. Dare I say it, I wish his character was slightly "unhinged" or a little more badass that the villains give him credit for.
- It is damn hard to suspend my disbelief that Shaw stubbornly refuses to 1) get more guns and ammo 2) grab more guns and ammo from the bad guys he took down 3) actually go into the armory (which he did!) and stock up on more guns, ammo, or grab a bulletproof vest (which he didn't!). Still, he found ways to be creative with his limited ammo use.
- There was an unnecessary sex scene with some topless blonde chick and Burke in bed. I think if this was removed, it would've made the movie PG-13, and probably would've made it easier to market. I'm not sure why they were going for an R rating.
- I lost track of the number of times I heard the word "lockdown" and how many times Shaw had to say aloud how many bullets he had left. Again, if this movie wasn't bogged down by the god damn literal title, it would've been way more believable in seeing Shaw was really outnumbered and desperate.
- There was exposition dialogue that explains Shaw's background that somehow didn't convey his character. Shaw had to undergo psychiatric treatment and take time off for seven months after his rookie partner was killed. He is perceived as a bad guy from his peers, but he doesn't get defensive about it when he's accused of being a cop killer. We don't get a sense who his partner was, he's only mentioned in name, and how important he was to Shaw. It's like he just came back from vacation and the biggest problem he had to face was paperwork.
- This is more of a humorous observation than nitpicking; I laughed when Shaw had to deal with any form of technology on screen. This includes him identifying a flash drive, typing on a keyboard, using his smart phone, angrily pulling out several cables to take out the CCTV, somehow manually overriding some type of firewall in the server room to email evidence to internal affairs, and using his phone to present shocking evidence to claim his innocence. Ambrose is known to be very VERY behind on technology - his trainer Cody Hawk said that Ambrose's phone is voice activated and he only uses it to find a gym, hotel, or places to eat via Yelp - so these scenes were unintentionally hilarious.
- There were a few scenes (notably the fighting sequences) that were too shaky, kept zooming in and out, were clearly recycled, or focused a bit too long on B-shots. The biggest no-no in film editing is jumping the line or violating the 180 degree rule. The scene above where Shaw fights Gideon (Daniel Cudmore) immediately breaks the rule as the camera cuts to Shaw doing his drop kick to Gideon's chest. The editing made it look like Gideon did the drop kick to Shaw instead. I mentioned earlier how Ambrose was restrained as Shaw in his mannerisms. Thankfully, he was in full on WWE mode with his facial expressions in the fighting sequences.
Regardless of how predictable and cheesy it was, I still continued to watch it because I wanted to see what else Ambrose would do. Sadly, that's exactly what it feels being a typical fan of a WWE Superstar nowadays. Ambrose certainly has screen presence; even the way he carries himself as he simply walks around has so much swagger. At least I can take comfort in knowing that he gained experience on a movie set. Just look how comfortable he was in the W2K16 Terminator pre-order trailer back in July. Now that's the Dean FUCKING Ambrose everyone wants to see. I really hope this opens up more opportunities for him to do fun TV or movie cameos in the future.
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Hey! The "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" poster made its appearance again on Monday Night RAW (9/14)! I can't find a screenshot though. They didn't show the trailer during commercial break, which leads me to believe that they're already cooling off on promoting it any further.
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There is this blogger, Eire + Alba, that I accidentally stumbled upon a few months ago. He has the most passionate, intricate and detailed opinionated posts on wrestling. He did a series of blog posts that covered Sir William Regal's extensive career, which Regal himself has shared on his Twitter account. The author not only praised Regal, he identified the two wrestlers that should continue his legacy; Dean Ambrose and Cesaro. His posts are a great read because there is so much research poured into it and he is clearly passionate for his favorite wrestlers and their success. Sadly, he keeps taking breaks from watching WWE because of how creative is setting up their storylines and feuds and also with how they're mishandling Ambrose and Cesaro. Who can blame him?
Anyways, we had a lengthy discussion on his review on the movie, which he decided to do a review on it since one movie critic bashed the movie solely because John Cena was not in it. We both agreed that the movie felt like it was supposed to be a standalone movie, only to be rewritten to be a part of the "12 Rounds" franchise at the last minute. What was also unusual was WWE not going out of its way to actually promote the movie during RAW or Smack Down! Look at how Miz and Big Show promoted their movies and then compare to how Ambrose promoted his, which was only done extensively at the Wizard World Comic Con at Pittsburgh.
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I have a few hours left on the rental before it gets wiped from my phone, so I gave it another viewing while I was at work on Tuesday (9/15). I was in fangirl mode today instead of movie critic/watcher mode, and I found the movie more tolerable the second time around. It's a WWE movie, not a big budget Hollywood studio movie. Also, I can't not laugh at seeing Ambrose use computer or a smart phone again.
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Looks like Thursday (9/17) is the last day to watch the movie in the select 10 AMC theaters. I'm not sure if the same goes for VOD, though I wonder if they'll keep it up longer to see how it does. Here is the critic consensus for its 6-day limited release:
Movie Rating (via IMDB): 5.7/10
Critic Score vs Audience Score (via RottenTomatoes): *__% vs 70%
* - There are still not enough critic reviews to give it an average score.
Box Office (via The Numbers): *Not available
* - This website might be more helpful since Box Office Mojo is not tracking it at all.
Oh boy. Well, maybe it'll get updated when it comes out on DVD/Blu-Ray in a couple of months.
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Ambrose's short stint as a movie actor has ended for now but hopefully it's not the last. This Sunday is shaping up to be quite interesting for Ambrose and Reigns, who will reveal their third partner against the Wyatt Family on Night of Champions. There's so much speculation on who it could be, and that's the problem. It could either be awesome or a disappointment. Whatever the outcome, I hope the week long hype for the reveal will be worth it. And hopefully, Ambrose and Reigns can go back to their singles run and stop being Shield 2.0.
Dean and Renee quickly looked at each other. SO FREAKING CUTE.
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