Invencibles

A SEAL team travels to globe to battle terrorists. Many of the lead actors are real life active-duty Navy SEALs. The problem about the use of real active-duty Navy SEALs is the limited acting skills. The action is more realistic. It's not all the regular Hollywood blow them up fare. The acting isn't really acting. They are just too uncharismatic. The story is just a series of action to uncover a terrorist plot. In the end, it probably doesn't matter. What does a plot have to do with a picture like this anyways. The action is good, but the acting is not so good.

The choice to utilize currently serving US Navy SEALs to headline this high-tech action flick means two things: the realistic set pieces are fricken awesome and the acting is really, really bad. If you can get past the latter and the occasionally awful dialogue then you're in for one helluva ride though. The SEALs are unsurprisingly epic and, along with the tremendous artillery on display, they lend the gritty action sequences – be it a covert rescue mission in Costa Rica or a loud and heavy gunfight with a Mexican drug cartel – an authenticity rarely seen in other movies. Act of Valor is an entertaining shoot 'em up, no more and no less.

As a debut producer/director team, Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh's Act of Valor is somehow reminiscent, for lack of better comparison, of Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down". While that comparison works for the genre this movie is suited up for, the highlights here are some fantastic action choreography unlike your typical Hollywood flash-bang formula. The results of which are perhaps due to the Omnipotent force driving this story – the use of active-duty Navy SEALs, acting as active-duty Navy SEALs!

Inspired by true events, the premise is an action packed illustration of the cogs and wheels behind the fight for freedom; or in this case, anti-terrorism. After undercover CIA operatives go missing in Costa Rica, a rescue mission by Navy SEALs leads to the discovery that a Chechen defector turned Jihadi terrorist is plotting an attack on America with such magnitude, it could make 9/11 look like a walk in the park. Lead by SOC Dave and LCDR Rorke, a team of seven Navy Seals are re-deployed to prevent Abu Shabal (Jason Cottle) and his undetectable weapons of devastation from reaching highly populated American cities.

Before addressing the reasons behind why this movie was received with mixed reactions, let me first dwell on what makes this movie different, and in my opinion, worth a watch. First and foremost is the obvious casting of real life Navy SEALs. It's one thing to watch seasoned action movie stars blow stuff up because you expect them to. Whereas, it is totally different when watching seasoned soldiers do what they have trained so hard to do. This is all too obvious from the way these protagonists talk, to the way they handle a weapon, and by their inherent swagger makes the "A-Team" look like Teletubbies. That said, our heroes are in their element when geared up for the mission at hand, be it stealthy eliminations or running and gunning or jumping off a high altitude aircraft. But like fish out of water, you can't really expect immersive acting when they are void of camouflage, burst frequency radios, or anything related to battle mode. Dialogue sounds cheesy and read, especially during sub-plots that try to reveal they are also ordinary men with dependent families. Mainstream critics have expressed that the story is packed with propaganda, rather unkindly suggesting Uncle Sam's invincibility and far reach. While I did feel the SEALs seemed rather invincible towards the end of the movie, I also felt a strong vibe of patriotism instead of the misconstrued propaganda. Perhaps that has something to do with the screenplay coming from Kurt Johnstad, the same person behind the very patriotic ethos in "300". If I have to nitpick, it would have to be the overdone first-person perspective of having the camera mounted onto the laser sights of assault rifles. One or two scenes would have been acceptable, but this gets so repetitive, it appears to be borrowed from a Tom Clancy page-turner or a PlayStation 3 "Call of Duty" game.

If "G. I. Jane" (also Ridley Scott) is about the level of intensity and determination put into becoming a Navy SEAL, then this movie succeeds in showing the world why average paid, low profiled individuals risk their lives so that freedom remains a birth right in America. Just before the end credits, McCoy and Waugh also show us the price paid since 9/11 by SEALs who have given up the American way of life, so that the rest of America does not have to. Essentially, Patriotism, not propaganda, is a philosophy other countries should rekindle to keep terrorists out. With that message radiating from the Prologue and epilogue, including acceptable elaboration in between, first time directors McCoy and Waugh have brought out a decent action movie with relevance to the genre as well as the ongoing 'war on terror'.

If you've ever wanted to know what Call of Duty: The Movie would be like then look no further than Act of Valor, the action packed war film featuring active duty Navy Seals as some of the main characters. It's the story of a team of Seals who go on a covert mission to rescue a kidnapped CIA agent from terrorists. It's an extremely patriotic love letter to the armed forces, a film that shows undying respect for these brave men and women, romanticizing their valiant efforts overseas. It feels more like a recruitment video than a film, and I think it might have been better off as one instead.

Act of Valor is a film that wants to be intense, super cool, and also profound. However, it's profundities are incredibly shallow and all of the observations the film makes on war are nothing new, and provide no new insight into war. But as far as intense and super cool goes, Act of Valor accomplishes that more than anything else. It's one giant firefight after another, exemplifying the blaze of glory that the Seals fight within. It's a finely polished and explosively grand picture of modern warfare.

But if you're looking for any kind of story, characters, or halfway decent dialogue then Act of Valor is not what you want. I said before that the film stars actual Navy Seals, so it should be expected that the acting will be dreadful... and it is. But I can easily forgive this. However, what I can't forgive is the paper thin story that is devoid of all substance, as well as the pathetically dry dialogue. The script is beyond awful with incredibly cheesy and lifeless dialogue and a terribly empty story that most certainly, perhaps even deliberately, takes a back seat to the visual spectacle aspect of Act of Valor.

All in all the story is practically non-existent here and the only thing this film has going for it is it's patriotism and firefights. But even the fighting gets a little tedious with it's overuse of the shaky cam and first person video game style camera work that gets overused to the point where it's almost gimmicky. I won't deny that Act of Valor is pretty cool and it certainly makes one proud to be an American, but I cannot say that it's a good film. It's a definite dud and there is little point in seeing this film, especially if you value story, characters, and dialogue.

'Act of Valor' is an impressive movie about the cult of professional warriors in the age of global terrorism. Directors Mouse McCoy and Scott Waugh collaborated with the US Navy and actual Navy SEALs to give the film a sense of battle tactics and environment on par with 'Black Hawk Down' and 'Saving Private Ryan'. What little is lost in the SEALs' lack of acting chops is more than made up for by honest performances from the men who actually do this stuff for a living and the film's gripping battle realism. The movie sidesteps an overt political point of view, wisely focusing on the men and their mission rather than commenting on the times in which they serve. Watch for a great scene where Navy swift boats extract the SEALs from a Central American jungle with an astonishing display of live fire. Plenty of battle action to see here that you've never seen before. Highly recommended.