Rating of
2/4
The ending is not worth the wait.
memento_mori - wrote on 08/31/13
What exactly is so great about this again?
Oh yeah, they got Osama in the end.
First of all, Zero Dark Thirty is not about the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden. It's about empty conversations and atrocious torture scenes.
Kathryn Bigelow (the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Directing) directed one of my favorite films of 2009, the Hurt Locker. Filled with stunning acting and direction, an airtight script and a general interesting atmosphere, it was much more superior to her follow-up.
In search of information about the making of the film, I came across the fact that Bin Laden was shot and killed during the making of Zero Dark Thirty. And it really shows.
The pacing is completely off by miles. While other true stories had me hooked from beginning to end and had me interested, I found myself through this bumbling documentary-styled movie.
The last half hour is made out to be the best, some of the best filmmaking of all time. While it took me as interesting, it was far from great. It was shot in such poor lighting and the wobbly pacing from there rest of the film rested on this one scene's shoulders.
Throughout the two hours that preceded the impressive ending was nothing but awkward silences. There was barely any tension at all, Jessica Chastain's performance basically shouted 'Give me an Oscar!' and there are a dozen scenes that belong in a compilation of boredom.
Think about Zodiac, and how interesting that film was. Even when the killer wasn't present at all sometimes, David Fincher created an omnipresent static in the air and the acting was phenomenal, too. Take that as an example.
A good ending doesn't make up for a dull film. It could have been so much more, when all it was was an unsure mess.
