Decent concept, bad delivery

Rating: 6/10 (1 January 2008)

Lord of War is an interesting concept for a movie: an illegal arms dealer, Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage), making his way up through the ranks, eventually becoming successful enough to supply the world's armies. This is a movie that tries to raise some moral questions about the business of weapons dealing while simultaneously instructing us about it, but its downfall is in how it is presented. On the one hand, the film seems to be glorifying weapons, through heavy use of gun-porn and informative bits of narrative from Cage that could have been taken straight from Wikipedia. On the other hand, you have the ethical side: Cage's character contemplates his position as the movie makes it clear that his job is to give people tools to kill each other with. You get the sense that the director is trying to be ironic, but the acting and writing is so bad that you don't really know (or care).
Cage has never been my favorite actor, but his performance here is especially wooden and uninteresting. I think he was going for the cool, calm feel, but it just comes off as boring. The whole time it sounds like he's reading from a legal document. Bad things happen to Yuri but you'll find it hard to care. Jared Leto and Bridget Moynahan are equally mediocre in supporting roles. The film's potential depth is ruined as much by its uninspired script as it is by its uninspired acting. It spends a lot of time informing us; some stuff is kind of interesting but you'll often find yourself thinking "okay, but how does this relate to the plot?" The movie basically becomes a documentary trying to make a political statement.
The best thing about this movie is probably its darkly humorous portrayal of third-world plight, led by Eamonn Walker (Kareem Said from HBO's Oz) as a sadistic West African dictator. Somehow being able to smile in light of genocide, child soldiers, and AIDS makes it seem that much more real, and this film does a good job of making the viewer think. It's an unusual approach to making a social statement but it has the same effect as the typical depressing-scene-after-depressing-scene. Walker's performance, along with Sammy Rotibi's role as the dictators bloodthirsty son, saves this movie.
All in all, this is a decent film with a premise that will keep you interested if you can stand stale acting, annoying narration, and a plot that doesn't really exist. I can't say I liked it, but it impacted me enough to go ahead and write this review. That's basically what you'll get out of Lord of War: not necessarily enjoyment, but food for thought. 6/10