Acting as good as can be with stillbourne script (see what I did there?)

Rating: 5/10 (12 August 2012)

Did anyone notice they played it out with the same ending theme song as Ultimatum? Is this arrogance, or are they right in assuming no one will care? Jeremy tried his best to save the script with good acting (Rachel not so much) to no avail. The story had steep hills to climb in act I, which they solved lazily with POOP-TONS of dialogue. Now granted, I bitch when I see a redundant graphics like "ALASKA SECRET TRAINING FIELD SITE!" Don't get me started on dumbed-down writing. But I found myself dozing off to clichéd scenes, like "How do you sleep at night knowing you're creating super soldiers? I just want to be an average sensitive guy!" or, "I don't know what the secret drugs are for, I'm just the scared, hot scientist who makes them! But secretly I do know, I just need to cry for five minutes, then you can threaten to leave me behind!"
Why certain reviewers see this as an attempt by Gilroy at being a great screenwriter, I don't get. It's straight off the shelf overwriting with signposted dialogue. Maybe this is DVD foresight -- who will buy it if all they remember is the complicated story? Actually, that's exactly why I buy a DVD. The story engrossed me. I need to see it again and again. That's why I don't own Avatar and never will, because "what story?" It's why I do own "Michael Clayton" which I can't believe he wrote, and not Bait, which I can.
At first I thought he had a different ending planned if Matt Damon said "yes," but since he didn't, the ending just tapers off with James Cameron-like rote lines, ala, the powerful "I changed my mind." Overall it's a sophomoric, minimally funded effort on a now waning franchise.