Zero Dark Thirty Review

I am reviewing every single movie I see this year, whether it came out this year or not, and whether or not I have previously seen it.

Zero Dark thirty is getting a lot of oscar buzz, however I did not see why. The characters throughout the film are not really developed and tends to drag during certain parts.

The first 30-45 minutes of the movie are torture, or as my dad kept correcting me enhanced interrogation, this is done to show that torture does work while interrogating people and is constantly referenced throughout the entire movie. I felt this part was well paced and accomplished what it set out to do.

The main character is a bitch who has one goal and that is to find osama. This works, as she shuts herself out from having friends or relationships and is completely committed to the task at hand and everything a CIA agent should be.

The movie suffers in the middle portion though, and this is why I feel it was good but not great. The entire middle part is essentially a list of all the historical events that occured during the time when the hunt started and when it ends. It felt more like I was watching a history channel documentary than a movie at some times, and this is why I felt it is not oscar worthy. For instance there are many times when they set up a historical scene, show it, followed by the reaction of the characters and them coming to the conclusion "lets try to find him..HARDER!" Also we all know what is coming, but setting up the actual ending(the seals barging in) took way too long in my opinion, the pacing of the movie could have been better.

The ending was fantastically done however, when the SEALS went in there you know what was going to happen but it was riveting. I will not summarize everything, but they do act like how SEALS act so they were true to form. They did not leave out any of the details, and it was great.

Overall I would give the movie a 7.5/10, good, but not great. The pacing was just too off for me and it felt like a historical documentary at times instead of a film.