Review: Zero Dark Thirty

As soon as I heard that Kathryn Bigelow is going to direct Zero Dark Thirty, my mind was set, "I'm going to watch this movie!". Why, you ask? Well, Bigelow's previous movie, The Hurt Locker, is an amazing piece of war film. It was tense, suspense and almost perfect. So, Zero Dark Thirty, a movie about the hunt for terrorist leader, Osama bin Laden, has a lot to live up to.

Before the movie, everyone probably knows how the movie is going to end up, due to the massive news few years back, but this movie has done very well on showing how it gets there. The movie sent shivers down my spine the first moment the movie started, it started all blacked screen with telephone recordings of the Sept 11th, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre. Forget horror movies, hearing all the victims' last messages to their loved ones and emergency services with only voices and no videos are much scarier, setting up well for the movie.

But the scene after the opening might disturbs viewers with its torturing scene. I don't mind torture scene usually, but the torturing scene is so realistic and authentic, I found myself hard to watch the scene the whole time, this movie is certainly not for everyone.

Nonetheless, Kathryn Bigelow has done a brilliant job with Zero Dark Thirty, provide suspense and intensity throughout the movie even though everyone knows the outcome of the ending even before it started, and several subplots are just as interesting and intense, letting me glued to the screen the whole time, anticipating what about to happen next.

Let's not forget, Jessica Chastain's Oscar nominated performance, who portrait CIA agent, Maya, who is tasked to find the whereabouts of the terrorist leader. With her "end justifies the means" attitude and her determination is very well acted throughout the movie.

Lastly, the climatic scene where the op to kill bin Laden makes sure that the movie has the intensity from start to finish, with a totally dark environments and night visions camera guiding the viewers and the on-screen soldiers. This is very different from what we usually seen in war movie where the climatic battle is loud and all-out actions, Zero Dark Thirty offers a much more quiet but just as terrifying action sequence.

Zero Dark Thirty probably surpasses The Hurt Locker in every way, in terms of storytelling, actions and the intensity, but the torture scenes might turn a lot of people off. It's not for everyone, but if you can watch it, I recommend you to watch it. One hell of a movie! It was one of the best film of 2012. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Score: 4.5/5