Annapolis, Maryland: home of the United States Naval Academy. "Annapolis" the movie: a film veiled under the premise of a young man attending the Unites States Naval Academy that somehow ends up being almost entirely about boxing.
In terms of military movies, it goes without saying that viewers are not expecting "Annapolis" to be as gritty as say "Jarhead." Instead, they are looking forward to two hours of basic Navy shenanigans — lots of yelling, lots of sweating and definitely not a lot of complicated plot. Sure the nuts and bolts are all there with "Annapolis," but somehow the audience cannot help but feel cheated out of their set expectations.
The film centers on Jake Huard (James Franco, "Tristan & Isolde"), a young blue-collar man stuck in his father's life. Working endless days at the local shipyard and frustrated with his standstill situation, Jake has spent his entire life dreaming of attending the infamous Naval Academy.
Needless to say, his dream miraculously comes true when at the very last minute he is bumped off the waiting list. He squeaks into the highly competitive class of freshmen (numbering a mere 1,200) and is given a chance to honor his late mother, make his father proud and most importantly prove to himself that he can have a future.
Known as plebes, the incoming students have a rough year ahead of them filled with a multitude of challenges that are both physical and mental. Constantly teetering between quitting and getting kicked out, Jake is the loose cannon that no one believes in. In turn, he does not rely on anyone else for help. But like any good underdog story, along the way Jake must learn some important lessons about soliciting help from others.
The set up is all well and good, providing decent potential for a simple, but fun flick. However, as mentioned before, the overarching journey of Jake's first year is all to often brushed aside, choosing instead to focus a lot on the Brigades — the Academy's in-house boxing tournament. Although it does give a set structure to the film, following him through training, semi-finals and so on, the boxing ends up detracting from the movie's cohesiveness. With the numerous training sequences and fight scenes "Annapolis" depicts, all of the side plotlines become drastically abbreviated.
It certainly does not help that there are about five too many side characters either. Jake's obligatory romantic storyline with a training officer named Ali (Jordana Brewster, "The Fast & the Furious") is diluted from start to finish and consists of perhaps four substantial scenes. Nonetheless, Brewster does exactly what she needs to — stand there looking absolutely gorgeous while spitting out the occasional playful remark in Jake's direction. But it is never a good sign when the flimsy love interest is the best a film has to offer.
The other relationships that Jake develops are completely lacking of any depth whatsoever. Hard as nails Lieutenant Cole (Tyrese Gibson, "Four Brothers") is set up as Jake's nemesis and, of course, serves to be his greatest teacher. Coincidentally, Cole is also who Jake must spar with in the ring during the Brigades Championship. However, from the get-go the audience never gets a good reason to despise Cole and his supposed cruel attitude. Although Gibson is headlined along side Franco as the other principal, his presence is never given substantial importance and he is subsequently lost amidst the crowd of characters.
Although Cole's presence should have been expanded, Lieutenant Commander Burton (Donnie Wahlberg, "Saw II") should not have been there at all. Burton is the one guy who takes a chance on Jake, keeping a close watch over his progress throughout the year. However, their relationship is completely arbitrary to almost anything that happens in the film. He shows up on screen every 20 minutes or so and each time the bewildered audience must wonder, "Why the hell are you in this movie?"
Add in Jake's father, a friend from home, a boxing coach and a handful of other incoming freshmen and the cast of "Annapolis" is such a tangled mess that in order to keep things straight the viewers should probably be jotting down names on some scratch paper.
Franco tries his best to keep "Annapolis" together, but he can only do so much. Every so often a humorous or heartening moment arises, but altogether with the jumble of characters and the insipid boxing development, viewers are ready to abandon ship long before the closing credits.
Rating: 1 out of 5
