A wonderfully tense movie: gripping a refreshing manner

Rating: 8/10 (5 December 2013)

I would recommend it for its cinematic value over its story.
The characters are intense: the unpredictability of the pirates, the desperation of the captain; they compliment each other so well, and surprisingly in a way that doesn't paint it all black and white. The pirates' desperation isn't conveyed "terrorist-like" at all but rather incredibly human. For all that their aggressive nature throughout the film keeps shocking you, the movie never tries to convince you that these are terrible men, but rather shows them as humans who have been pushed to the edge, one can almost relate to and come to understand them.
The camera work was great: erratic and short-burst scenes imitate that loss of controlled and peripheral vision that you too would lose in this sort of stressed situation. And the score throughout the film is also highly suiting, but just indistinct enough to never overpower the visual.
Finally a word on the issue of propaganda. I honestly feared this, the wide angled-panoramic shots of the navy ships, the sniper scenes... from the trailers it all looked like it could become one of the Michael Bay movies, "courtesy of the us army".. but to my pleasant surprise the Navy scenes feel dry when pitched against the much simpler yet emotion-laden and suspense-ridden scenes of the pirates and hostages. In fact, I felt that every scene that switches to the navy felt awkwardly cut and dry, almost like the movie purposefully makes those scenes forgettable.
While obviously (and I'm guessing this will have been for product- placement / sponsoring purposes) the film doesn't escape without a little bit of a sense of "the great navy", in the context of the film as a whole though I felt that these short, chopped and emotionally cold parts were completely overrun by the loaded acting of the pirates and the captain.
All in all a gripping and suspenseful movie, definitely worth watching!