Solid But Some What Overrated

Rating: 7/10 (15 January 2017)

Zero Dark Thirty was a film that I has heard quite a lot about, I'd heard people saying that it deserved Best Picture and was one of the greatest films of the century and I have to say that I agree with neither but still think this is still a solid film that offers real insight into the shocking methods taken to assassination Osmaa Bin Laden. Immediately my favourite thing about this movie was Jessica Chastain's performance, she was amazing in this film she started out as a real amateur who struggled with the methods she was forced to take in order to achieve her mission to a bold person willing to do anything to real her goal no matter the personal cost. Jason Clarke was really good in this film, he perfectly carried a few very disturbing scenes and really pulled off his experience and comfort in his methods. Another thing I really loved about this film was how realistic and gritty it was, there's no action in this film that feels like a film but more life like this is mostly due to Kathryn Bigelows direction. In her last film, The Hurt Locker, some of her techniques didn't work and pulled me out of the experience but she does away with a lot of that in this film and gives us real intensity, stakes and consequences. This film is hard to watch at times mainly due to the brutally disturbing torture scenes but it's admirable they chose to show the whole picture and not just make the Americans out as the good guys. The final sequence in this film which depicts the assassination of Bin Laden in technical terms was done perfectly, the lighting was fantastic as it made it feel more realistic, the action was gritty and intense, it was done really well and didn't feel out of place as it could have given as the actual events happened during the filming of the movie. However there are in my opinion so glaring issues with this film, mainly it's the massive lack of character development in the supporting characters, Chastian is developed perfectly and we understand her motivations but no one else gets that treatment so when terrible things happens to them the effects are lessened. Like I said technically the assassination is done perfectly but in some ways it wasn't particularly satisfying, his death is completely glossed over in a second and it actually took me a second to realise it has happened.
In my opinion, compared to Argo, that deserved Best Picture but despite the fact that I'll probably never go back and watch this film again I thought it was a really interesting watch, Jessica Chastain was amazing in the film, its very realistic and gritty, it offers some real insight into the steps taken to kill Bin Laden despite some character development issues I found this to be much better than The Hurt Locker and would recommend it to anyone interested in real life drama.
7.9/10: B+ (Solid)