Review: Zero Dark Thirty

Normally, I watch a movie and it fills me with very intense thoughts and opinions of said movie. Zero Dark Thirty was a bit different. On many levels, I don't quite know what to think about it. I was expecting both more and less from it. Instead I got kind of bored at times and walked away just sort of thinking "okay, thanks for that I guess."

Lets not mince words here, the entire point of Zero Dark Thirty was "America, Fuck yeah." No, i'm not talking about the actual film making its self, I'm talking about how it's a movie about killing Osama Bin Laden. I'm sorry i don't care how you do it, if it's an American movie about killing Bin Laden, the unspoken point is "America fuck yeah"

But Zero Dark Thirty was classier than I expected. You could maybe say the "fuck yeah" was whispered. But like in a classy, under your breath way, not in a cheap porno kinda way. I liked that about it. It started out with some CIA asshole torturing a (presumed terrorist) prisoner. It was there to turn audiences off, to make them realize that this is a messy business. It was effective at setting a tone of, if not quite moral ambiguity at least moral questionability. This theme of keeping the "fuck yeah" a bit toned down comes to a head in the home invasion that eventually took out Bin Laden (oops spoilers! He dies!) No rock music, just very precise work by a bunch of marines and some pretty brutal shooting of people in the head, some of whom were not fighting back and many of whom were shot in front of their children. The audience doesn't feel particularly bad about it because of all that's happened in the movie, instead we're led to feel detached, which I think was interesting and intentional.

But not everything worked in Zero Dark Thirty. My biggest complaint was the pacing and the general story telling. The main character Maya, was decent enough and we got to witness some good character growth there. All fine and dandy, but the story somehow lacked continuity and years would pass in an instant. We would know this because a new date would pop up on the screen with a black background. Ok fine, informative but somehow lacking in flavor. The story just didn't flow as well as hollywood movies are supposed to. Now this could partly be because it was based on a true story making the heroes journey pretty useless, but the director bares some blame too. It was just kind of boring for much of the middle of the movie.

A special complaint goes to the inclusion of Andy and Pete (Chris Pratt and Mark Duplass.) There is nothing wrong with either of those actors, but there is something wrong with putting Pete from "The Leage" and Andy from "Parks and Recreation" into a movie about killing Osama Bin Laden. Both actors were just playing more intelligent versions of their roles in popular sitcoms. Both seemed to be put in for humors sake and while both were kinda funny it really took me out of the viewing experience. 

Zero Dark Thirty was interesting and boring at the same time. It's interesting as a movie, but is kind of a boring movie at the same time. Still, it's probably worth checking out if you like movies and have a strong stomach for seeing people waterboarded. I'm giving it a 6/10.