A lot of people have torn this film to pieces for its inaccuracies. Well I've never attended a service academies, but I feel this film has a lot more to be criticized for besides how inaccurate it is.The only character who really belonged there was Cole. None of the others have any business at the academy. There's the a-hole DC whose character really only exists to give a face to the frustration the plebes feel, who uses methods of hazing that I doubt would be tolerated at the Academy. There's this roommate of Huard who is only there because he has nothing better to do with his time as he lets everyone around him know at every opportunity. There's the obligatory love interest who despite at first seeming very serious about Academy life doesn't realize or care that when they say no fraternization they mean no fraternization. There's that one overachieving cadet who appears to be the most competent of them all and depending on how you view him is either the only one among the main character plebes with any kind of real future as a competent officer or just an a-hole who thinks he's better than everyone just by virtue of being somewhat better adapted to the academy environment, but since he doesn't get much in the way of character development I just assume he's the latter. There's the poor black kid who is going there mainly to make his parents proud.And then there's Huard. As far as gaining the audience's sympathy, the film throws every advantage in the book his way. He has a dad who never believed in him, a CO who is skeptical of his potential as an officer, an plebe unit who hates him because he keeps screwing up, yet in spite of all this he is determined to make it through. Yet I still could not find it in me to relate to him without a lot of effort.Huard does not deserve to be at the Academy. His motivation for being there is to make his parents proud and prove to himself that he can do it, rather than any desire to serve his country. Cole even tells him so outright, and Huard's following dialogue does nothing to refute that charge, it just tries to reestablish him as the hopeful underdog whom we need to root for. The fact that the tropes have been set up in such a way as to cast him as the underdog does not make him an underdog. So he had a father who never believed in him, there are people who graduate from the service academies with a lot more going against them than that. In fact as far as I can remember the film never really establishes that the father "never believed in him", only that he never believed he was Academy material. For all we know he has a lot of good reasons to think that. Maybe he realized his son simply did not have the proper attitude. Because I was able to realize that pretty quickly. Again, he's not an underdog, he's the kind of person who has known success all his life but is more comfortable in this specific environment being the "underdog", and anyone who has actually met this kind of person whether in the military or in civilian life should realize this. None of the bad things that happen to him at the academy happen because of an undiagnosed disability or lack of support by his fellow plebes or being sabotaged by a rival cadet or anything like that, they all happen due to the fact that his head is in the clouds and he has no concept of what his proper role within the academy environment is. If I were in his cadet platoon I would probably hate him too. During the scenes where his fellow cadets get hazed as a result of his failures, such as when they all missed out on their lunch because he bet their meals on a trivia question that he was only 65% sure that he knew the correct answer to, or the water bucket scene, the film does a lot to focus on how he personally is suffering/being made uncomfortable through the process, and none showing him coming to any realization that his teammates were suffering because of his indifference toward the Academy curriculum and that he needed to shape up or ship out. In fact the whole time, his goal just seems to be to get through plebe year, with no eye toward four full years at the Academy much less a full and proper career as an officer.Halfway through the film suddenly decides to add a Rocky plot element with the Brigade boxing championship thingy. Huard's redemption arch from being a pathetic looser to a proper cadet with a future is somehow tied to whether or not he can win that championship. Instead of staying up studying his texts and in general trying to improve himself as a cadet and a leader, he spends his spare time training in boxing, and we are supposed to see that as him improving as a character. The fact that he does end up beating Cole in a round as the glorious payoff really just serves as a red herring against the fact that at the end of the movie he still has not made up his mind as to why he is there and has not improved in any virtues that are expected of an officer besides hand-to-hand combat. The forbidden love interest even gets off his case and lets him become her boyfriend for no clear reason other than she apparently is impressed by his boxing skills. It can't be because he has finally gotten over himself and started being a team player, because the film offers no evidence that that has happened

This was a tale that didn't really need to be told. In fact, it was more of an advertisement for the navy than an actual movie. Franco does little to create a 3 dimensional character, and is not helped by being thrown into 2 hours of navy recruitment without first establishing why he's there, or why he's facing such adversity. Other weak plot points included the silly coincidental bar flirt...................which turned out to be a superior officer! What, no way! Who would have thought? Plus the entire end of the movie became a determination to win a boxing match, which was irrelevant to the previous plot of the movie - getting into the navy.

In the boxing ring, men flock to see hunky James Franco (as Jake S. Huard) strut his six-pack abs. He also works as a ship-welder for his father, but Mr. Franco would rather join the Navel Academy at "Annapolis". Franco gets his wish when Donnie Wahlberg (as Lieutenant Burton), a self-described "36-year-old out-of-shape lieutenant," who can be caught ogling Franco in the opening fight, pulls some strings to get Franco signed up. Franco, who "came straight here from high school," meets Tyrese Gibson (as Commander Cole) in the ring, makes goo-goo eyes at pretty superior officer Jordana Brewster (as Ali), and trains to be a better boxer.Other than seeing handsome Franco's bugling muscles, you may not think Justin Lin's "Annapolis" is worth watching. The story is ordinary to a fault, and clichéd beyond hope. But, it's not too poorly produced. And, you can see how supporting and featured players can make something out of an assignment - going to the head of the class is Vicellous Shannon (as Marcus "Twins" Nance), who does an exemplary job with his character. Sporting more fat than muscle, Mr. Shannon milks every drop out of his script, without overdoing it, and takes the title "Best Supporting Actor" in a film that will wasn't ever going to win any awards.**** Annapolis (1/27/06) Justin Lin ~ James Franco, Tyrese Gibson, Vicellous Shannon, Jordana Brewster

We have seen this film before. It a boring compilation of scenes lifted from films like 'An Officer and a gentleman' and 'Rocky'. Every single character is a walking cliché and the whole thing feels predictable. It's not a bad film, just very disappointing. The fault clearly lies with the script. A little more imagination and better craft would have made this film watchable. James Franco is competent but can't rise above the material. As a tribute to the naval academy or a recruiting tool, the film's alright. But it's simply not worth seeing for its own sake. Avoid.Overall 3/10