Old Reviews: Zero Dark Thirty

My initial review is a thumbs down. Other than Argo, this is the most overrated movie of 2012. Here's how I see it. Kathryn Bigelow faced a dilemma before making this movie. On the one hand, she makes an institutional-level procedural with a matter-of-fact tone. If she chooses this path, she must focus on more than one character, must not make other characters (e.g., bosses and military personnel) one-dimensional and she must therefore make a mini-series or a tv show on HBO to give the entire institution it's due. Perhaps David Simon could write it for her. On the other hand, she makes a movie about a decade of subjective experience with a, well, subjective tone. If she chooses this path, she must focus on one or two characters and make a less than three hour movie. Kathryn Bigelow chose neither. Instead she choose the matter-of-fact tone with a focus on one character. I did not hate this movie (it has some redeeming qualities (e.g., there's no manipulation of emotions as in Hurt Locker)), but it is not a good movie. I do not recommend it based on this opinion. But I do recommend watching it so that you can form your own opinion. Well maybe I do and maybe I don't. I don't want to make this movie seem more important than it is (hell, maybe that's why I didn't have a positive experience; after all Ebert called it a "slam-bang action picture" really?). Bigelow seems to have a skill set that only allows her to make military men on a mission interesting.