红海行动

Who'd have thought that the first live-action SPEC OPS action movie with realistic effects work would be made by China (starring their Navy SPEC OPS "Sea Dragons")? I guess I was wrong to think that without a rating-system, Chinese movies wouldn't dare to show anything -- it turns out that they have no qualms about showing everything (without lingering over it like Hollywood gore porn, of course) if the movie/genre was right...

Featuring 5 main escalating missions/set-pieces -- which are always strongly grounded by detailed sniper tactics and expertly strung together with clear plot-points as well as characterizations -- all the usual Hollywood war/military movie "fat" (such as "character arcs", "grand narratives", "social justice" polemics, etc) has been trimmed off, so that military enthusiasts can simply immerse themselves in the gritty and heart-pounding SPEC OPS action.

Just for its utter lack of pretension (to appear more "balanced", "diverse", profound", etc.) -- 10/10, would BANG again!

Those who thought the movie was pure war scene should watch the Pacific, which also solely described the war scene in WW2. You could feel it, you could see it, you could witness the brutality, you could be shocked by the reality, that's filming. You wanna see superhero killing thousands of bad guys without injury but do not want to face the terrible war that is going on in the Middle East. Those who thought it was propaganda should comment the same under the American Captain and under the First Blood. Biased eyes could not see the fair world.

Dante Lam .. I think it has been too long since I saw a movie of his. And watching this, I have to say, if he can do one thing right, it is the action sequences. No prisoners taken and all that. A lot of (CGI) blood and a lot of death. The stunt work here is amazing to say the least! The sound effects, the tension, the adrenalin ... everything is working just fine here.

There may be a little patriotism, but other than that ... also like with Wolf Warrior, it's not like we are not used to that from US/Hollywood output. So it is more or less the same, just in chinese. But the action actually is one might say better choreographed than the American counterpart ... or at least as good.

Actually, most of the film is just above average, and the score would be like 7/10. However, the action sequences between Minute 100 and Minute 120 are incredibly brutal, realistic, bloody, traumatizing and unbearable, and are among the finest action scenes I've ever seen. Thus, I would give the film a 8.5/10 overall rating.

Similar to the Chris Nolan's "Dunkirk" and the action flick "Operation Mekong" in 2016, also directed by Dante Lam, this film "Operation Red Sea" sacrifices plot and character development for action, and fortunately it works. The cinematography, film editing, sound editing, sound mixing, visual effects, action choreography, original score and production design are just speechless. The film borrows ideas from several Hollywood blockbusters, such as the moral debate in "Saving Private Ryan", the special force fights of "Black Hawk Down", the war scenes at "Hacksaw Ridge", the tank battles from "Patton" and most importantly "American Sniper"'s sniping sequences.

I finished the movie yesterday, still fell unreal. It's like a civilian first time experiencing real war, not the kind of wars that were shown in the Hollywood war movies, but an extremely realistic one, the one that you will experience when you walk right into the middle of an ongoing armed conflict . I have watched countless war movies from all over the world but I have never felt the way like I had on yesterday. I heard from my Chinese friends about modern Chinese young netizens love to see China gets into a war with other countries to demonstrate the ability of their Military force. I strongly advice them to see this movie, to see what will really happen in a war.