The Manhunt for UBL with a Feminist twist...

Rating: 7/10 (25 January 2013)

First off, I'd like to state that I saw this movie with no expectations.. When I saw the Hurt Locker I didn't really think much of it considering I had high expectations for a movie that won best picture (looking back, its really not a bad movie).
Anyways to the point. The film almost entirely focuses on Maya from start to finish -- with the exception of the 45 minute raid on UBL compound. The first half of the movie focuses a lot on the detainees, whom Maya and Jason Clarke's character spend a lot of time interrogating. In the beginning Clarke's character takes the lead on the interrogations, but for reasons unexplained they cut him out, so his female counterpart can take the lead. Now the torture itself wasn't very realistic -- none of the torture that they portrayed on screen (or even off screen), seemed believable. You hardly even see the CIA hit any of the detainees. I've seen more real and believable torture scenes out of PG13 movies. I'm not saying its enjoyable to watch, because even if they're terrorists I don't see how anyone could truly enjoy watching it, but it has to be believable if you're looking for the film to hold credibility.
One other thing that hurt this film's believability was Jennifer Ehle's character Jessica. Midway through the movie they think that they got "lucky" with a Jordanian doctor, and that hes going to spill inside secrets to them. Jessica forces the base commander to let their suspicious vehicle all the way inside the base without being checked at the checkpoints. Meanwhile she and Maya are IMing each other back and forth on their phones about the meeting like giggly teenagers. Oh yep, totally believable. After Jessica's character gets blown to bits, all I could think was, "Good riddance." Anyways on to the GOOD. The 45 minute UBL Compound raid was definitely the highlight of the movie. Very well shot (the lighting was phenomenal), and it definitely has you on the edge of your seat. The interactions with the troops and the civilians of the compound seemed very realistic, and having watched the History Channel special on the raid, they did not deviate from the actual events that occurred.
Overall it was an enjoyable movie, however I think they over-personified Maya to bring feminism into the movie. I think it would have been a lot better if they involved more people in the intelligence gathering/planning of the raid for this film, because by the end you feel like she is the only person in the CIA who actually works on this project, when in reality there was a VERY large team of people! 6/10