It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This film is about Maya (Jessica Chastain) a potty mouthed CIA operative and her one woman crusade to get Bin Laden. It starts off with 9-11. Maya is a composite character. The CIA is not as dumb as this film portrays. She visits CIA black sites around the world through their revolving door. It appears as if she got all the intelligence on her own. We know this was not the case.In comparison, I must say "Seal Team Six" was a far better film as far as plot. What this film offers is an obsessed Jessica Chastain who borders on insanity. Her character seemed unrealistic at times, but compelling at other times.Much has been made about the politics of this film which I found they took great lengths to be non-controversial. Sometimes facts have a bias to them. There is excessive torture at the beginning of the film. Information is gathered from people that have been tortured, but not necessarily because of it, as there is a disconnect between the two events. The audience is allowed to decide on its effectiveness. Seal Team Six appears late in the film, almost as an afterthought. The other film was superior in presenting the Navy Seals.Obama and Bush aren't mentioned per se. Obama appears speaking in the background on TV. There is a new policy concerning torture that is alluded to, but the details are not given. One remark was, "You don't want to be the one caught holding the dog collar."There is a reluctance on the part of some to invade the Bin Laden compound due to the WMD/Iraq disaster although no blame is specifically placed.Chastain does an excellent job and is the best aspect of this feature. In an idea world she would have played Maya in "Seal Team Six." I found the political criticisms unwarranted as was the praise given to this film when "Seal Team Six" was clearly the superior production in presenting the tale. If you haven't caught "Seal Team Six" check it out.Recap: Chastain great. Rest of movie so-so. "Seal Team Six" superior over-all.Parental guidance: F-bombs, no sex, some male prisoner rear nudity.

Zero Dark ThirtyBetween all the factual accuracy and controversies and unfortunate events the film fails to bind all of these into one entertaining drama resulting into an exhausting experience of 156 minutes of just plain old news. Zero Dark Thirty is of course written explicitly and executed with conviction but there is not a single lose thread for the audience to hang on to it until the curtain drops. Jessica Chastain holds on to her part of the role tightly till the end and is convincing throughout being aware of the pressure she has on this project since she is the only glue that binds it all and if they'd have given that character more gravitas and depth along with some high pitched dramatic sequences, it would have just worked. Zero Dark Thirty is the slow pill that takes its time offering weird sensations and some pain along the long road and then results into being the same old pain killer.

Movie Review: "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012)When on May 2nd 2011 the assassination of Osama Bin Laden (1957-2011) had been announced through the administration of the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama, Academy-Award winning journalist-turning-screenwriter Mark Boal takes on an event-horizon occasion to present a screenplay toward a second time collaboration with Director Kathryn Bigelow, who had been searching further cinema-worthy content despite directing a TV-drama for HBO (Home Box Office) in season 2010/2011 after her surprisingly-received Best Director Academy-Award for the 2008-shot "The Hurt Locker" on an Iraq-invaded operations of U.S. army military elite bomb squad. Columbia Pictures presents this CIA-operative thriller also-produced by Megan Ellison for production company Annapurna Pictures, where Director Kathryn Bigelow relies completely on her leading actress Jessica Chastain, playing the character of Maya as task-forcing CIA-undercover agent on the constant as determined run to fight and convince Washington DC-representing officials in sparely decorated rooms of quickly-engaged conference meetings, when further supporting roles, including Mark Strong as range-playing hands-on-table crushing CIA-research team leader George, Jason Clarke as interrogation technique of water-boarding performing character of Dan in opening scenes of controversy, when a highlighted accurately-represented sequence of title-justifying raids-before-dawn in heavy state-of-the-art U.S. military gear portrayals by actors Joel Edgerton and Chris Pratt performing as members of a Navy Seals squad team engaging onto a secret family-living of the notorious terrorist's hide-out; a fortress-like compound out of plain concretes with no paint somewhere in rural-Pakistan-mimicking desert exterior set, when cinematographer Greig Fraser delivers digitally-received visuals in high-sensoring contrasts of striking light sources in the dark, fading shadows of emotionally-prepared cameos of Middle Eastern children of innocence after blown-off metal doors under night-visioned sparks of fire.The 150-Minute-Editorial by William Goldenberg keeps its pace, when Academy-Award-nominated Jessica Chastain's interpretation of Maya carries the majority of scenes toward a fulminate mesmerizing premise close-up shot by the end of beat-twisting "Zero Dark Thirty" to such an extent of staying gripped in the spectator's mind as realistic central intelligence thriller with the previously-mentioned military action highlighted scene that prevails truth to the core of an news-spreading event of historic event striking victory by the U.S. government.© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

I'll make this quick so you can read all the other reviews rightfully slamming this movie. Zero Dark Thirty is a glossy, oversimplified, distinctly Hollywood re-telling of the CIA's version of how the Osama Bin Laden hunt went down.Every character on the roster can be described in 2 words: tough guy.I imagine the casting department had fun auditioning all the potential actors. "Can you read that scene again but without a hint of a soul? Also say your lines as if you're trying to impress your high school prom date. You know, be a tough guy!" (Even the women)If you can see where this is going, congratulations, you have a brain and will probably dislike this movie. Zero Dark Thirty attempts to glorify everything the USA did, and it does this by portraying the CIA as a tough guy, too-cool-for-school gang of superheros. Torture, "accidentally" killing civilians and general ignoble behavior is glorified because, tough guys are always right, and they get the job done. Because they're cool.If you've seen "The Spy Who Came In from the Cold", an excellent EXCELLENT espionnage thriller about how the USA obtained intelligence during the Cold War and the repercussions thereof, then I can explain Zero Dark Thirty in one sentence: it everything that "The Spy" was not.The whole movie seemed like all the rejects from Predator and all the rejects from Aliens decided to have a tough off. And the winner was... definitely not the audience.