Pretty Average

Rating: 6/10 (27 February 2013)

Let's face it. This film isn't that great. I don't necessarily think it's bad, and it may have something to do with me comparing it directly to Hurt Locker, but I was expecting something better.
Chastain's character was not likable, not interesting, didn't really have much conflict and to be honest wasn't really acted that well at all. She was basically a lifeless prop until the two scenes where she raised her voice over not getting what she wanted. And those scenes, rather than feeling like desperate actions of a determined woman (as I assumed they were meant to be), they just felt uncharacteristic and came out of nowhere. The way I saw her was a snobby, stubborn cow that worked alone all of the time, had no friends and was totally cool with torture but wouldn't dare get her own hands dirty.
Also her friends that died in the car bomb, were hardly even known to the viewer, much less cared about. They didn't really give me that desire to succeed in their honour, kind of feeling.
The aspects I did like was the historical side; the facts. As an Australian, the Osama assassination wasn't something that many people really cared about, and thus we didn't hear much about it. But I enjoyed learning how they went about tracking him down, etc. That being said, I could have got that out of a History channel 1 hour special. In fact that would have probably had more content.
The scenes where they locate Abu Ahmed and then follow him to his house, was all exciting stuff and the take-down scene was pretty good too.
Music and sound was really cool, particularly the sound design in the take-down scene and aftermath.