I give it a C+.
I'm a die-hard A-Team fan, and I was expecting to either love or hate this movie. Well, I had neither reaction. It was just incredibly....average.
What I liked: the sense of bravado of Hannibal, the glamor of Face (and Bradley Cooper's abs are breath-taking) and the wildly joyful Murdock--who does a fantastic job switching accents at breakneck speed. BA's love for his van is briefly played upon, but the character does not have, or is not given, the presence that perhaps he should have. I think they did a fairly decent job in preserving the characters "core." Granted, I probably feel a bit "precious" about the characters, but with Face and Murdock, I think they did well. BA and Hannibal are a bit watered down, but they had only two hours, not a whole series.
What I didn't like: the brutal, jarring cuts, the scenes all being shot so ridiculously close up that fight scenes are incomprehensible, and the film itself just looks cheap. Now, there are some clever lines, and a few good giggles, but they are often lost amidst the hurried, noisy and clumsy editing, which is a shame. The actual plot of this film, if you take more than a millisecond to think about it, makes no sense at all. There is no logic to why ANY of the bad guys do anything at all, and the final scene is fairly ludicrous. I suppose one could forgive that, as The A-Team itself, in concept and execution, is fairly ludicrous; that was, after all, the M.O. of the series. But here, mixed with frantic editing, poorly framed shots, and a plot that I'm still puzzling over (why the HELL didn't the baddies just take the MacGuffin and run away quietly?!?!), I'm left with the overwhelming "so what?" reaction.
And then there's Jessica Biel. While I was absolutely THRILLED that an attractive young actress had a lead role in an action flick and never ONCE took off a single item of clothing (Thank F***ing God), she does an absolutely DREADFUL job with what little she gets to do. Her role is pretty limited, but frankly, her performance had all the emotional presence of a paper cup. I'd seen her in The Illusionist, and had no problem with her then, but here, her delivery is so stiff that it makes me wonder how she ever got cast in ANYTHING.
There was one thing about this that did rub me the wrong the way and that was the way BA converted to pacifism while in prison. At first, my reaction was "Great! A bold choice---have BA refuse to kill, and return to the cartoonish non-lethal violence of the show. But did they go that route? NO. Instead, they show Hannibal convincing BA that violence is in his nature; he is a soldier and should not deny who he really is. BA immediately returns to his neck-snapping ways and saves a Team mate from the baddie. That seemed like a (if you'll pardon the expression) real pussy move on the filmmakers' part. Wouldn't it be more brave, or more noble, NOT to sink to the bad guys' level? So, it's perfectly OK to kill to get the job done, and make sure you don't feel bad about it later or else you're a wuss. Nice message there, Mr. Carnahan.
And, of course, there's the blink-and-you-miss-it cameos from Dirk and Dwight (which are nice; I liked them), but these come only at the very end, after the credits, so remember to stay if you want to see them.
The A-Team was either a bundle of mindless, stupid fun or absolute drek. One thing that it never was, was mediocre. That's what this film was. It's just "Meh."
