Plenty of Action but poor acting and characters

Rating: 4/10 (10 January 2014)

The worst part of making a true life story real is it needs to feel real this does not from start to finish. For me the devil is in the details. First thing you see in this film is real footage of the brutal training US Seals do, much like the SAS in England and Australia and other elite military out fits, and the people that can complete this training are super human, or super stupid, depending on your stance. This is all real and I hoped that the characters and story would feel real as well, it did not. For starters the location looks like it was shot in America (it was), it looks nothing like Afghanistan. If you have not been then maybe this wont annoy you like it did me, but when you see pine trees you know it does not feel right. Then in the lead up they talk about being bitten by a rattle snake, rattle snakes in Afghanistan come on guys... have some pride. The small shots of FOB's (forward operation Bases) are OK, a little like Afghanistan but this is not a major shooting location. But they may of been the most realistic thing in the film. As for the 4 main characters in the movie they just don't develop or click, there is a small attempt at humanizing one by connecting him to his wife and her love for horses but its very week and even though he is a good looking man Taylor Kitsch is a horrible actor. I have no idea why Peter Berg uses him in lots of stuff. Mark Wahlberg tries very hard in this film but the story is of incompetence and action, throw in a few Hollywood explosions and this is the film. If you want a play by numbers action that was a true story then this might be for you, but for me it felt like a cheap make of what could of been great story.