Movie Review: Thirty Dark Zero

Saw the movie.

It was really good. Not great, but really good.

Perhaps it was all the hype about being the best movie of the year/ever made that made my expectations so high. The trailers were very powerful also.

But although the subject matter was very heavy, the movie felt somewhat light, like it was missing some connectedness...that is, until the end.

The Navy Seal team got into their super-stealth helicopters to fly into Afghanistan to the compound that supposedly housed Bin Laden. Apparently it was filmed in the same amount of time the mission took, so we were viewing it in "real time."

This is when the tension really started. This was the part that made the movie good for me.

It was nerve-wracking. There wasn't a sound in the theater. Everyone was quiet, fixated on what was taking place on the screen. This was it - what were we going to get to see? How does this all play out?

And then, just as the Navy Seals were closing in on Bin Laden, the sound in our theater quit working.

At the pivotal climax of this super-hyped film, we had no audio.

It was such a monumental letdown. The removal of the audio, accompanied by the feral rage pitched by the audience, took me completely out of the moment.

The tension was gone.

After what felt like forever, the sound came back on. It was probably  about 25 seconds, but these were crucial seconds.

Anyway, there were good performances by the main actors. Jessica Chastain was captivating. She's just a pleasure to watch. Glad she won the Golden Globe.

The scenes with the torture were not pleasant to watch. The behind-the-scenes as the agents are looking for anything that would lead them to Bin Laden were entertaining, and individualy were great. But when they were all put together, it sometimes felt disjointed and forced.

SPOILER:

The first minute of the movie is audio only. It's of a 911 call from someone in one of the Twin Towers, speaking with a 911 operator.

It was incredibly chilling and sad and devastating to hear, because of what was said and how it went and what happened at the end of the call. It was so hard to hear. However, I thought it was the perfect way to start this movie. It reminded you why this story needed to be told.

It's definitely a movie you should see in the theater.