R.I.P.D. Review

R.I.P.D. desperately wanted to be a franchise. It will never happen, but man did it want to be. What's been done here is director Robert Schwentke (RED) decided that instead of sticking with the last obscure comic book adaptation he made and successfully turned into a hit (which coincidentally opened against this film) he would go on and make another one with the hopes that he could push another three or four films out of it and be set for the rest of his career. It makes sense and they obtained all the right parts to make R.I.P.D. a flashy summer bonanza. We have the two big name leading men, we have a large enough budget to pull off some serious action scenes and CGI and they have source material that in some corner of the globe has a fan base that might appreciate it while also riffing on plenty of other, very successful, summer blockbusters before it. Why this didn't work at all though seems to be from a lack of any kind of faith in the project. Though, the studio shouldn't have been surprised by its final product as this comes to us courtesy of the guys who wrote such things as The Tuxedo, Aeon Flux and Clash of the Titans. What exactly were they expecting? They wanted a mindless actioner that told the familiar story of a buddy cop film where the older, experienced cop gets a rookie partner and they fight at first and can't stand one another only to have that relationship blossom into something special by the end of their first adventure together. That, with Men in Black-level genre elements thrown in. It is an easy comparison to make, but that is essentially what R.I.P.D. is. Take out the aliens and replace them with dead people, take out the government and replace it with God. Simple as that. Hire a few studio writers and a director who was able to make a profitable enough hit with his previous potential franchise-starter and you have all the ingredients, right? The failure of this film presents solid proof that the system doesn't always work and the calculated way in which these studios try to push new franchises down our throats doesn't pay off when you're trying too hard and R.I.P.D. is trying way too hard to be something it didn't have to be.

First Trailer for R.I.P.D.

I'm all for goofy genre mash ups and supernatural comedy sits fine with me, but I have to be a little curious as to why Universal has waited so long to debut the first trailer for their summer action flick R.I.P.D. which stars Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges as two deceased crime fighters who are trying to protect the earth from evil souls who haven't left yet. The premise sound silly? The trailer looks a little silly, but that seems the intended tone here so I will reserve total judgment. It is easy to make comparisons here to Men In Black (young rookie partnered with veteran know it all who have to fight crime against the dead rather than aliens at the discretion of the human race) so I will. Like MIB what is either going to make this a stand out, fun summer film that spawns a franchise or break it is likely the chemistry between the two leads. Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith were a gold mine and while Jeff Bridges more than has my attention in anything he decides to do the fact Reynolds is cast as his cohort here makes me feel like this will be more Green Lantern that Curse of the Black Pearl. I reference the Pirates movie for the fact that it came out of nowhere in the summer of 2003 and surprised audiences by how good it was and surprised studios by how much money it made thus the reason we now have three more of them. There always seems to be that one film every now and then that will break through the sequels and super hero movies in the summer and become a surprise hit that will eventually have sequels that aren't such surprise hits in the future summers. Will R.I.P.D. be THAT movie of summer 2013? I don't know, but I'm still betting on Pacific Rim and putting this in the most likely to disappear from theaters within a month category. Think I'm being a little harsh? Check out the trailer after the jump and let me know what you think. The film also stars Kevin Bacon, Mary Louise-Parker, Stephanie Szostak, Marissa Miller, and James Hong and was directed by Robert Schwentke’s (Red). R.I.P.D. opens in 3D on July 19th.