America! F*** YEAH!

Rating: 6/10 (2 February 2013)

Let me just say, the technical aspects of this movie are great; the cinematography is top- notch, and I'm almost positive that ZDT is taking home the Oscar for sound editing. Not to mention that the acting is pretty top-notch, especially the leading lady herself, Jessica Chastain.
That being said, the script itself disappoints. All in all, the message of the story is simple, and there's no need to even have a spoiler alert, as the entire story ended just last year: a woman thinks that Osama's hiding somewhere, and she's right. Other than lead Maya's undying passion and certainty carrying us through the film (which, admittedly, they do well), the screenplay lacks depth. The entire story is just the top half of a double-layer cake, and you want more out of it.
While the screenwriter does try to cloud this fact with a lot of military jargon and vocab- word-laden sentences, that only serves to make the viewer feel confused at what they just saw; there were more than a few points where I spaced out for two or three seconds, and when I made myself focus on the current scene, I was completely lost. Cinematic intelligence comes from being smart, not sounding smart, and that can be done without needing to go too fast for the audience.
I guess the large-scale problem with the screenplay is that there are so many essential events that the writer has jammed into it that even with the two-and-a-half-hour runtime, it still feels like they're struggling to get this suitcase to shut.
With all this confusion going on, it allows you to step back and see what's really going on: this film is an ego-stroke for America. With us being demoted to a AA nation, Hollywood decided we need some self-esteem, and what better way to get it than for them to tell us, "Hey, remember when you guys killed that super infamous terrorist? You do? Well, now you can remember on the big screen." In the end, it just felt like an attempt to beat Team America: World Police for most patriotic film, but only managing to beat Argo (which I liked a lot more than Zero Dark Thirty).
All in all, Zero Dark Thirty is a film that rewards multiple viewings, only with what should've been rewarded the first time around. But, at the same time, the behind the scenes work really does make this movie worth seeing. A lot of the smaller moments were suspenseful, and even though the final reel is very much expected, it is put together so well that you can't help but be a little excited. I never saw director Kathryn Bigelow's previous film, The Hurt Locker, but if this is any indication of her usual talents, then I'm excited to see what she has in store for us in the years to come.
Let's just hope it's something other than a military film this time..