To say “Act of Valor” has a split personality doesn’t do it justice.
It was good … and then it wasn’t. It was gripping, suspenseful, and tense … and then it wasn’t.
This film jumped back and forth from being awesome to boring so quickly, it was remarkable.
When the credits rolled, I walked out unable to decide how I felt about what I’d just seen.
The highs and lows in this movie were ridiculous. The action scenes delivered thrills every time. Yet, some of the slower parts in the film, with the men talking or giving horrible, “clichéd” military speeches, were so terrible … I found it hard to stop myself from dozing off.
The problem with “Act of Valor” is the premise itself. The acting is awful because the stars of the film aren’t actors. They are real, active-duty, Navy Seals.
This gimmick is what propels the movie to such great heights during the combat sequences and such extreme lows during the conversational scenes.
These men aren’t trained to act out a convincing back and forth relationships with a loved one before they’re shipped out for duty. They’re trained to save a hostage from a heavily guarded Costa Rican insurgent camp without losing a single man.
The fictional story the filmmakers provide for the Seals doesn’t help the movie’s cause. It’s predictable and completely unoriginal.
The team, led by the two most prominent “actors,” Lieutenant Commander Rorke and Special Warfare Operative Chief Dave, are sent to rescue a CIA agent who’s been taken hostage.
They end up discovering a secret terrorist plot to attack the U.S., and it’s then up to Rorke and his team to stop the terror threat before it’s carried out.
“Act of Valor” has been promoted really heavily and rightfully so. This is a movie unlike any before, and it’s an interesting concept for sure.
I imagine the thought process behind this film was something along the lines of “Hey, let’s use real Navy Seals to make an awesome action movie. It’ll be better because they’ll all know exactly what they’re doing for the combat scenes, and it won’t look forced or fake like it might with an actor.”
I wanted to like “Act of Valor” a lot. I tried to like it a lot. I caught myself getting swept up in the action and magnitude of the combat sequences.
Unfortunately, there was always that scene right after each mission which would totally kill the vibe. I’d lean back in my seat, and restlessly wait until another shoot-out took place.
There’s no other consensus I could come to, but to split this one right down the middle. It’s half amazing/half awful so I’ll give it the 50 percent it deserves.
