I often end up seeing movies after their initial run in theaters, which is both fortunate and unfortunate. While I try to avoid spoilers—though I admittedly don’t always succeed—I do still read reviews of films because a good review should tell you what the reviewer thought and give you enough information to decide if it's something you’d enjoy, regardless of their opinion. Those reviews, combined with the widespread praise this film has received, led me to believe I would be captivated by its suspenseful and carefully constructed story about the hunt for and eventual assassination of Osama bin Laden. I couldn’t have been more mistaken. The beginning is promising: under a black screen, an understated sequence plays audio—whether authentic or dramatized, I can't say—of phone calls made on September 11, 2001 during the terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon. The film then introduces Maya (Jessica Chastain), one of many CIA employees tasked with finding those responsible for the attacks. We follow her journey over twelve years, seeing glimpses of how she develops from a determined but uncertain interrogator into someone whose sole purpose is to locate and capture bin Laden. The film’s production was lengthy, and the ending had to be reworked to account for the actual raid on bin Laden's compound, which resulted in his death. This proved to be a significant advantage for the movie—and for the country—as the thirty-minute assault that serves as the film’s finale is an astonishing and breathtaking sequence, depicting Seal Team Six entering the lair of America’s most notorious terrorist and emerging victorious. Unfortunately, the two hours leading up to this incredible climax are simply dull, lacking almost any character development or good writing, and structured in a way that undermines what should have been an epic and potentially fascinating story. Chastain, one of the finest actresses of her generation, fluctuates between moments of brilliance (such as trying to convince her superiors of her ideas or her final scene) and seeming ill-suited for the role. Chastain possesses uncommon grace and beauty, and casting her as a hardened federal agent doesn't quite work. The rest of the cast is adequate, but the script—more on that shortly—doesn’t give them much to do. At least the SEALs fare somewhat better, with Joel Edgerton and Chris Pratt (known from TV’s 'Parks & Recreation') creating memorable impressions despite their limited dialogue. The script itself is a mess. Written by journalist Mark Boal (Oscar-winning screenwriter of Bigelow’s 'The Hurt Locker'), it's filled with nonsensical lines (“Bin Laden is there. And you’re going to kill him for me.”), flat and uninteresting characters, and, most disappointingly, it reduces what should have been a deeply satisfying story—the eventual retribution against the person responsible for the deaths of 3,000 innocent Americans—to a personal quest driven by the loss of coworkers during the twelve-year search. I understand that finding bin Laden involved years of monotonous work and routine, occasionally punctuated by threats (many of which seemed fabricated for the film, though even those pale in comparison to what the real scenarios must have been like). But Bigelow’s decision to convey this to viewers by boring them as well is not an effective way to create drama. It's almost the opposite of Steven Spielberg’s 'Saving Private Ryan'. While ‘Ryan’ isn’t a great film (the script is terrible), the skill, inventiveness, and sheer directorial talent on display in that incredible opening sequence elevate it to one of the greatest scenes in cinema history. Here, Bigelow stages her own version at the end of her film, with equally gripping and visceral results. Based solely on that scene, Bigelow (like Spielberg) deserved consideration among the Academy’s nominees for Best Director. However, outside of that, I find the film's critical acclaim completely baffling. The movie as a whole is fundamentally flawed, a waste of money, and a disservice to one of the best true stories of modern times. If you can, just watch the final section, but spend the other two hours doing something better.

Source on TMDB