First the Rock, then Kane, now John Cena. The march of WWE stars continue, and like Kane's See No Evil, The Marine showcases an impressive wrestler but takes away much of the charisma that made the wrestler famous in the first place. The Marine is a generic, bare bones action movie with touches of attempted humor. It places Cena in the emotionless role of John Triton, an ex-Marine trying to start life again after his tour of duty. Triton lives and breathes the military. He cannot envision staying at home, although this is exactly what his wife Kate (Kelly Carlson, Paparazzi, 3000 Miles to Graceland) wants. He tries working at a bank, but that doesn't go too successfully.

In an industry where people complain about a lack of plot, director John Bonito and screenwriters Michelle Gallagher (Strange Hearts) and Alan McElroy (Wrong Turn, Ballistic) take this criticism and go the wrong way. There is half an hour of setup, most of it useless. Bonito shows Triton in action, then shows him out of place at home. Triton adjusts to his new job, and doesn't like it. Meanwhile, Rome (Robert Patrick, Firewall, Walk the Line) and his crew steal a large amount of diamonds, and the police begin chasing them. After nearly a third of the movie, Triton agrees to go on vacation, and everybody has a fateful meeting at a gas station.

The plot finally starts up. Morgan (Anthony Ray Parker, The Matrix, The Frighteners), token black man and the most psychotic of Rome's crew, gets nervous and kills a policeman. Rome and his crew panic, try to kill the other policeman, and steal Triton's care, taking Kate as a hostage. Triton was in the gas station at the time, and needless to say, is a bit irked at the entire situation. He takes off after Rome as a one-man army. Nothing can stop him, even as Rome's men (and one woman) shoot an armory's worth of bullets into a police car. Everything is a bit mindless, and Cena doesn't really need to do much except run, jump, and do other assorted stunts.

To be fair, Bonito wasn't going for some deep film. There are touches of humor throughout, usually courtesy of Parker, and one great reference to T2. Aside from the beginning, everything moves extremely quickly, although the number of explosions does get a bit ridiculous. Rome is running through a swamp. The police, with their squad cars and helicopters cannot track him. The only one who can is Triton, who is his own combination of a terminator and Rambo. The real drawback of The Marine is that it will basically be for Cena fans only. They know how much charisma he has, and how enjoyable he can be to watch outside the ring during wrestling. Here, he is emotionless (the stuff at the beginning isn't great, and isn't promising). It's about the same as watching a clip reel consisting of explosions and stunts cobbled together from other movies.