May as well get it out of the way at the outset: I am so not on board with this idea. The "Rambo" series is about over-the-top action and outlandish military plots, but as silly as the happenings get they always stay at least SOMEWHAT grounded in reality. Putting in a "Predator"-esque sci-fi twist... I'm just not feeling it.
Perhaps I should explain. Over the weekend, Ain't It Cool News revealed new details about the next "Rambo" feature, which was confirmed in name only at the beginning of last week. AICN's Harry Knowles followed up on the news by speaking with series leading man Sylvester Stallone, who was only to happy to share the rough story arc for "Rambo V: The Savage Hunt." And that's where things get kinda funky.
The idea is to bring Sly's aging Vietnam vet back to United States -- specifically, the forests of the Pacific Northwest -- where he will lead a Black Ops squad into a military complex overrun by a failed experiment to create jacked up super-soldiers. The AICN Talkbackers (ie commenting readers) had an immediate negative reaction to the revelation, making comparisons to the "classic" Jean Claude Van Damme actioner "Universal Soldier."
This was apparently incorrect, as Sly called Harry and left a voicemail (which can be heard in full at AICN) with a more detailed explanation. Rambo will apparently be hunting what's described as "a feral beast... [an] amalgamation of fury and intelligence and pure, unadulterated rage."
Ladies and gentlemen... we have officially left reality behind. Failed government experiment? A thinking feral beast? It sounds like a super-villain origin story to me, and it has no place in the reasonably grounded fiction of "Rambo."
I can appreciate Knowles' point that it will be cool to see Sly's classic character as the hunter rather than the hunted for a change, but I am flat-out not a fan of the sci-fi course change. Wouldn't it be cooler if the "feral beast" story turned out to be a hoax, a trap, and the Black Ops squad accompanying Rambo were actually tasked with taking out the rogue soldier? I just can't shake the feeling that this changed direction serves no useful purpose, especially since the series rediscovered itself so well in the 2008 revival, "Rambo."
What do you think? Is the sci-fi direction a bad idea? Or is it a breath of fresh air for a stagnating series?
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