Story of a modern day hero. Engaging even if it gets slow at points.

Rating: 8/10 (16 September 2016)

This might be the first time that I have actually rooted for the protagonist of a biopic. His conflict has an emotional appeal to it that is rarely found in a factually based movie. I think the reason for this is how active of a protagonist/person he is. Often, historical movies are based around events and have somewhat flat characters. There are exceptions to this, and Snowden does much better than most in this regard. But what sets it apart is that the majorly historical press release was solely precipitated by Edward Snowden himself and wasn't influenced by any outside tragedy.
I enjoyed the first half of the movie more than the back half because it's more emotional and alive, whereas the second half is a little more weighed down with showing Snowden enacting his plan. I won't fault anyone on this. Historical movies will inevitably be limited by having to show certain things to remain accurate. Regardless, I enjoyed the more organic scenes in the first half that dealt more with Snowden realizing how the government was abusing the information available to them.
The characters were done very well. They all felt like real people and were easy to keep track of. I don't know if the portrayals were accurate to the real people they were modeled off of, but all are given respect and proper relevance to the plot. Shaline Woodley's character Lindsay probably came off the worst, but still wasn't that bad. I may not have liked her that much, but I cared about what she meant to Edward which is good. A major reason that many people don't act the way Snowden did is because they don't want to endanger their personal life, so it was important that we saw how much she meant to Edward so that his conflict felt more real. The villain character (Rhys Ifran) may not have been the most accurate portrayal, especially since the real person he represented probably wasn't that willing to give information to people who were going to make a bad guy out of him. However, I liked the arguments that he provided to challenge Snowden with. It's a lot like the argument of the Church in Spotlight: the U.S. does a lot of good and is a beacon of hope for many people, so we should keep it that way. It's a valid point, but it's not enough to overpower the abuses that we see through Snowden's eyes and the wrongs done to people.
The acting is decently impressive from all sides. I wouldn't be surprised if any of the actors get Oscar nominations, but I don't think any of them will win. The script is solid with dialogue that feels realistic and scenes that are purposeful and engaging. Also, you can get the gist of what each conversation is about without needing to know all of the computer-hacker jargon that is used in them. It felt pretty well shot and edited with a slightly Danny Boyle feel to it.
I recommend this as an adult film. There isn't that much mature content in it, but it's not the sort of movie that you'd go to with a bunch of friends. I will warn that there are a few political jabs that aren't too subtle. Obama and Bush get trashed a bit; not too badly, but enough to make people mad. There was also a line near the end where Snowden says something about "a leader coming along someday" and I heard someone in the audience whisper something about it being aimed at the Donald Trump campaign. It bears lots of similarities to some of the more acclaimed historically-based movies of the past few years like Spotlight, The Imitation Game, and The Big Short to a lesser extent. It's a great movie to see, but you have to be paying a moderate amount of attention the whole time and not get distracted. It's not the #1 bio-pic, but it's definitely better than most. Overall Rating: 8.4/10.