After 11 long years, Rambo is back! Whether or not that is a good thing, is up to you. Personally, I enjoyed Last Blood I had my reservations going in. I worried that it could be too much like Taken and less like the Rambo we all know and love. In some ways, it was that. But at its core, it was a Rambo movie. Only this time instead of battling whole armies or a police squad, he goes head to head with human traffickers. The movie had moments I really liked, and some that I didn’t much care for.
I really liked the beginning. I liked seeing him interact with his niece and seeing the bond that they have. I just wish we saw more of that. It felt like it came and went so fast that I wasn't sure I cared as much for her as I maybe should have. And I feel like we didn’t get many answers in terms of how she came to be or what her true relation to Rambo is. I get that she’s supposed to be his niece, but how? We have never heard of him having a sister, or any other family besides a father. Did he have one and it was just never mentioned? Did he find out about her after he finally returned home? Or was she more of like an adopted niece where he and her mother just became close and he was like a brother to her? I need to know this sort of thing.
Most of the middle of the movie felt very bland and formulaic to me. It’s just one of those things I've seen before. Bad guys kidnap someone the main protagonist loves, he swoops in to save her, something goes wrong, and he wants blood. It feels like a story that could have been a Schwarzenegger movie. Kind of like Commando, now that I think of it. Only, Commando did it better. I think the biggest complaint that I have is that these villains just didn’t do anything for me. I didn’t much care for them one way or the other. Of course it was nice seeing them get their due. It just wasn’t quite like the other Rambo films. In the previous entries in the series, you really hated those characters. You are shown some of the most despicable of humans. The kind with ice in their veins and zero humanity left in them. Especially by the time Rambo came out. When those guys bit the dust, you couldn’t help but smile or cheer for sweet victory. In Rambo: Last Blood, I just felt like, “Okay, cool. He’s dead now. Next!”
I’m not saying this is a bad film. It was good. Most of it just didn’t give me Rambo vibes, though. That is, until you get to the end. The last 15 or 20 minutes of the movie were purely John Rambo being John Rambo. Once it cuts to him looking at the map of his tunnels, you know stuff was about to get real. He’d been tunneling under his property for years and was still in that war mentality. We got a sweet Home Alone like sequence where he’s setting up all of these elaborate traps. I loved that. As soon as the bad guys pulled up onto his property, things got interesting real quick. And quite brutal. Maybe not as brutal as the last film, but still gory and fantastic! Rambo might be old, but he still has it. He isn’t about to take nobody's shit.
All in all, the film was good. Not great, but still a fun watch. If you are looking for an all out action fest, you might be disappointed a bit. But if you don’t mind some build up, you should still find some enjoyment out of this film. You just have to know what you are going into, I guess. Was this a good way to potentially end this beloved franchise? I am unsure. But I don't think it's a horrible way to do so, either.
I give Rambo: Last Blood 5.5/10 Stars.