Thoughts On Act of Valor

So, here we are my friends, at long last. I have been looking forward to this movie ever since I saw the first poster and read about the fact that this movie was to feature active duty U.S. Navy SEALS. I was, however, a bit skeptical that if they are indeed featuring real life military personnel, the acting can't really be that top notch. I really don't want to be that a-hole that is going to give this movie a bad review, and be declared all but treasonous toward this great nation of ours. I am glad to say that I will not need to be that treasonous a-hole today, as I very much enjoyed Act of Valor.

I'm just going to get this out of the way right now and say that I think this film sounds exactly how a first person shooter video game title would sound like, I.E Call of Duty or Medal of Honor. You can fight it all you want, but the title “Act of Valor” does fit right in there with the others. To be perfectly honest with you, the entire film kind of felt like a video game as well. As bad as that may sound, this actually helps the films more then it hurts it.

I can quite literally pick out a scene that, with a few exceptions, resembles a level from the game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare almost exactly, and the strange part is, it was actually done the way I would want to see it done. Many of the things that you would witness your digital brothers in arms doing (like, the motion of taking cover, breaching a room and the way they would actually hold and fire their weapon) are all actually done and performed in the same fashion in this film. With that kind of-gripe aside lets move on, shall we?

The film centers around an elite SEAL team who are tasked with going behind enemy lines and rescuing a captured CIA agent who is being tortured without mercy for information that she may or may not even have. Right off the bat we get the impression that these guys are trained, and ready to handle any situation that is thrown at them.

They can adapt to the situation in a heart beat and be ready to shoot on target without even thinking about it. These boys are the best in the world at what they do. They are in the best shape of their lives and ready to kick some serious ass at a moments notice. Whether it be doing halo jumps out of a plane, going in from sea in a mini sub, or just through the thick jungle, these guys can get it done, no problem.

Throughout the entire length of the film the audience (myself included) gets the impression that at any given moment any one of the members of the SEAL team would give their own life in the blink of an eye to save one of their brethren. I can't even tell you how well this works in this film. The title of this film is “Act of Valor” for god sakes.

Before anybody goes on about how they though that the script was unoriginal in any way allow me to point out that this whole movie was based off of actual events that the men in this movie went through themselves. How much more original can you get!? From a hollywood stand point maybe not, however, these guys have actually been there, in the sh*^. They saw it happen, and were nice enough to bring the moments where they were stopping major terrorists attacks and risking their lives back to Hollywood.

 I am glad to have spent the 12 dollars to watch this film in its entirety. I would also like to add that I really hope that a Call of Duty movie is never brought into production, or Medal of Honor, or any other “Military Shooters” that are currently circulating their way through the video game market at this point.