Damn, son. This shit was intense.
Yeah, it's an American movie about an American operation with American clichés. But without the unnecessary over-patriotism and glorification of the importance of whatever damn operation they got going on before shit hit the fan.
I'm having a pretty hard time actually finding things I disliked about these 2 1/2 hours of superb entertainment.
The story was based on real events, most certainly a little bit dramatized, but that's okay. For a war movie, this was a damn good story.
The cinematography was amazing. Seriously. Impressive camera work with a smart use of drones, a perfectly set atmosphere (with a couple of hick-ups in terms of lightning, but I think that's just me being overly critical) and some of the best special effects that I've seen in years.
The soundtrack and general sound mixing didn't leave any room for criticism, too. It all just flowed perfectly and the orchestral music even gave me some goosebumps here and there.
And guess what, even the acting wasn't bad. It's a war movie. With actors who are actually good. I'm positively amazed.
Michael Bae(sic!) and the rest of the folks involved in this movie simply did a great job on all ends.
And now I finally have a new war movie I can recommend.
No. Just no.
I was really excited when I read the plot, because there's so damn much potential there. And unfortunately, story-wise, they probably did everything wrong that one could possibly do wrong.
About 20 minutes in, I jokingly said 'Hey. You know what the worst way this could play out be? If, as hinted at the beginning, they'd all be oh-so in love with their AI that they'd do something utterly stupid that causes it to escape, kill everyone and face that risk management gal in a final showdown, just to reveal that said gal was an AI itself.'
Being through with the movie, I conclude that actually watching the rest was just a waste of time.
I mean, in terms of cinematography they'd created something really great! If it'd come down to both that and the plot, Morgan really would deserve 8/10.
But seriously, the utter lack of creativity, desperate attempt at creating suspense and straightforward pseudo plot twist, paired with less than mediocre acting created a movie that brought back long-dead memories of House of Wax; only without it embracing the fact that it's trash.
So, then again, not even from this standpoint it's fun to watch.
I'll finish my rant by strongly advising to skip this movie and enjoy these 80 minutes of quality time by doing something that's actually satisfactory.
