Act of Valor Review

Going into this movie, I was joking about it being like Saving Private Ryan, and in a sense, it is, but also completely different. However, the two are completely separate movies, so I’ll just focus on Act of Valor. It’s about the actual events of the U.S Navy Special Warfare Combatant Crewmen. What are the actual events, well the first half of the movie consists of the team venturing to save an abducted CIA Agent by the name of Morales. While she is being tortured, trying to get information out of her, the team arrives to save her, recovering her and a cell phone that reveals important information about what a terrorist is trying to do to sneak his suicide bombers into America and cause a huge economic collapse. The second half of the movie revolves around the team uniting with the Mexican Special Forces to stop the terrorist before he 

sneaks himself and his bombers into America.

The team itself was played by active-duty Navy Seals (whose full names are not released), all portraying Navy Seals. Many criticisms I’ve read have criticized them for being “unemotional” and just plain bad actors. This blew my mind on so many levels. My approach is this, they’re Navy Seals portraying Navy Seals; you cannot get more authentic than that; so saying that they’re bad actors just seems like your over-analyzing the movie. These men are not actors acting in a movie, they are Navy Seals being Navy Seals in an accurate representation of real life events, and how the hell can you criticize that? I, personally, found them to be just fine in the movie. You feel for them and their dilemmas during the mission. They show accurate human emotion and you can see the respect they have for each other, its not like we’re talking about Vin Diesel from The Pacifier. Widgett Walls from “NeedCoffee.com” really summed it up well. He said:

   

    “If you expect them to act and banter like the marines from Aliens, you're gonna be disappointed. But that's not what the film promised, nor what I showed up for.”

 Well that’s my little rant on that, what else is there in the movie? The story... well since its true events, I can’t really criticize that, but the story was fine; A Navy Seal operation to protect America would be a simplification of the plot. The action scenes were superb; the Seals didn’t just run in an armed area and shot everything that moves Schwarzenegger style, they used real military tactics and procedures which, in the movie, are executed great and while watching, you feel like you’re there with them (to a point). The camera work stunned me; it showed the standard third-person action scene but also switched to some first-person views, which was a nice touch and executed very well, especially during the peak of the action scenes. The special effects were great and added to the huge intensity of the movie, which is the right word to sum it up: intense. There are a few sequences (about 75% in the beginning exposition) weren’t top notch. Some lingered too long, some weren’t explained enough, there were a few that were over explained; it was a mess. However, there are a lot of edits that were actually really good. I especially like how they introduced us to the team and the edits between place to place on the globe was done really well. The dialogue was fairly well, but the high points were the military codes and sequences which used a lot of actual military dialogue. If you’re like me, you understood it all and knew exactly what was happening. If you were like the woman sitting next to me, you were constantly being told by whomever was with you what would happen, so I can see how this may be a problem to some people who aren’t caught up on military lingo. With me, once the ending came along, I could feel the lump in my throat and I felt my eyes water. I became emotional, which is very rare for me and is also a sign of a good movie that I was really invested in. I also thought it was clever to put the title at the very end of the movie and end on a solid quote with the scrolling of names of soldiers who protected and served for our country. But for me, this was an intense movie that makes me appreciate the military even more for their constant protection of America. I extend a big-thank you to all those people who continue protect and serve our country and preserve our freedom.

Final Rating: 4.5/5 Except for the few editing and a few points of dialogue, this was an amazing movie that made me leave the theater thanking that we have the freedom we do due to the men and women of the military. I recommend you see it; Act of Valor was well worth the cost.

Written by Edan Mejias

Cast: Roselyn Sanchez- Lisa Morales   Nestor Serrano- Walter Ross   Emilio Rivera- Sanchez   U.S Navy Seals and U.S Navy Special Warfare Combatant Crew- Everybody Else

Directed by Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh

Rated R

Runtime: 110 min