You’ve probably heard a lot about The Hurt Locker the last couple weeks. The film has won a lot of film critic awards, but how does the film really stack up for the typical movie fan?
The Truth
The Hurt Locker is a film you’ll want to absolutely fall in love with, but will struggle to see what all the fuss was about. Director Kathryn Bigelow takes us into Iraq, with an elite Army bomb squad unit, and attempts to show us the inside life and struggles they have to endure.
Sounds great in theory, but then the film takes off in a dozen different directions. It’s a plot you’ve seen before, when you see the ‘rogue’ unit leader doing things he shouldn’t, things that keep demonstrating time and time again his mental instability.
The Hurt Locker focuses on lead character William James (Jeremy Renner), and his off-the-wall approach to disarming bombs in Iraq. His small support crew find him dangerous (yeah, it smells like Top Gun to this point) but follow him anyways.
The Hurt Locker drifts from side plot, to side plot for most of the film. We never really get attached to anyone, we aren’t sure when the real action is going to start, and there really isn’t much regardless.
I was amazed at how many characters were introduced in the movie, only to see them killed off later in the movie. This predictable part of the movie was rather tedious, and odd.
The Action
Surprisingly not much. I thought The Hurt Locker would have a ton of action, but it was mostly anticipation instead.
Why should I watch it?
If you have 2 hours to spare, you could do worse than The Hurt Locker.
What’s bad about it?
Zero character attachment and a plot that meanders far too much for my taste. I found Jeremy Renner’s character far too phony and predictable, the whole ‘rogue squadron leader’ thing has been done to death.
The Hurt Locker was slow and predicable, at times I thought the Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty and Renner were ‘overacting’.
What I learned
Most bombs can be disarmed by simply snipping the wires, or removing the detonator from the C4.
The Hurt Locker Verdict
More hype than substance. The Hurt Locker was decent, but you’ll find better representations of the war in Iraq in other films.
