Act of Valor

Aren’t there security concerns with advertising the presence of active duty Navy Seals in your wide release movie? With the fact that this was the most heavily pushed aspect of the film, I guess not. Plus their full names are never exposed. Act of Valor stars those Navy Seals as taking part in a story based on real events. The goal was apparently to make the most realistic battle movie ever. Is it? I have no idea. You’ll have to ask the Seals. The plot follows a Seal team as they uncover a terrorist plot during a more routine rescue mission. Tracking events all over the globe, the team ultimately engages a group of suicide bombers on the verge of breaking into the US through a series of Mexican tunnels.

The fighting scenes come across as very calculated. There are rarely any moments of blind fighting that are common in big action movies. This is important to the story because of the discipline it shows on the part of the Seals. Even when an enemy is shooting every which way trying to hit a target, the protagonists wait for the clear shot. But since the focus is almost completely on the action elements, the dialogue scenes are wasted with incredibly weak acting and shots that would be well suited for a country music video. I of course have a huge amount of respect for these men and women, but a professional actor or two matched up with the team may have helped with the speaking parts.

If in fact Act of Valor is a realistic representation of Seal life, it does well to demystify the group quite a bit. The audience learns that the teams knows most of the details of the overall situations they are handling and are much more than feet on the ground. But there is also the sad truth that they elite soldiers aren’t unbeatable and some don’t make it home. The film plays out exactly as advertised. But the confusing first act and the fact that 90 percent of the acting is awful play strongly against it.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.