Incredibly Gripping

Rating: 10/10 (15 January 2013)

This movie isn't for everyone. It isn't for people who are vehemently anti-torture. It isn't for people who need a feel-good story with a happy ending. That being said, this movie had me literally on the edge of my seat for 2 1/2 hours and is a fantastic f-ing movie.
People will want to compare this movie to the hurt locker, which is fair in the way that it locks you into scenes and is a war movie. The hurt locker was more of a pure war movie, whereas Zero Dark Thirty uses more dramatizations and has a more coherent direction, while still being an incredibly suspenseful movie.
Some people might criticize this movie for a lack of character development, but they are really missing the point of this movie. It's not your typical Hollywood movie that introduces a protagonist and develops him/her until the conflict is resolved. This movie is about tracking and killing Osama Bin Laden, and the way they used the main character as a metaphor for America as a whole was really impressive, even while refraining from your typical, often boring character developing scenes.
Much more than your average action movie, Zero Dark Thirty was a combination of badass scenes, phenomenal editing, and music, and a fantastic (mostly) true story with epic scope that I can't wait to see again. This is the BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR, and this is coming from a huge batman fan who also just saw Django Unchained a week ago.