Wasp Network: Rede de Espiões

Way better than it's current rating of 5.8 would indicate imo. With a great cast ( how can you go wrong with Penny Cruz, Ana de Armis and Wagner Moura ?!) and interesting storyline it's a cross between Narcos and Syriana with better landscape.

Really watchable even though it hops around a bit in timelines and highlights the duplicity of both the Castro and US governments.

Hello! An automatic corrector keeps modifying my original text, creating a real nonsense; hence the following modification, withnhopes that it will appear unaltered:

The film proceeds in a deliberately disjointed manner, slowly revealing the human aspects as well as complex ramifications in the Cuban diaspora in Miami, as revealed through two women for long held in ignorance, and especially through the character interpreted by Penelope Cruz, remarkable in her constrained sensitivity. That story is widely documented, for anyone being genuinely interested in knowing the truth, including the fact that the Cuban air force had indeed deliberately shot down two planes from the "Brothers to the Rescue association" whilst they were back in international space. Also widely documented is the central role of the abominable master-terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, acting as the armed right-hand man of the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), led by Jorge Mas Canosa and Alberto Hernandez. The very Posada Carriles, having been for a decade involved in illegal operations of the CIA, from Irangate to the Contras; furthermore involved, with Pinochet's DINA and other anti-Castrists Cubans, in the attack on former Chilean minister Orlando Letelier and the explosion of commercial "Flight 455 Cubana" in 1976. In a subsequent interview published by the New York Times, he also acknowledged the fact of being the organizer of the series of bombing in numerous Havana hotels in the nineties. The fact that such a character did so often and for so long benefit from the complicity (i.e. his escape during trial in Venezuela) of the CIA, as well as the protection of the U.S. diplomatic, political and judiciary apparatus remains a historical question. As to the "Cuban Five", the evidences are that they were neither granted a fair trial, in violation of U.S. rules of procedures and constitutional rights, nor proper conditions of detention. To the extent that the United Nations Commission on Human Rights was led to adopting a report stating the following: "it arises from the facts and circumstances in which the trial took place and from the nature of the charges and the harsh sentences handed down to the accused that the trial did not take place in the climate of objectivity and impartiality that is required in order to conform to the standards of a fair trial as defined in article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States of America is a party."

I live very far away from the American hemisphere, I dunno much about the politics involved with the Wasp Network and my knowledge on the historical accuracy of the incident shown is virtually zero. As a movie fan of military and espionage trillers, I found Wasp Network very neat, engaging and in fact thrilling at places. In fact knowing nothing about the incident prior actually worked in my favour, in terms of enjoying this spy flick.

Cinematography was good overall, especially the Ariel photography involving multiple aircraft. Screenplay was very good too, though it had lot of choppy cuts in the middle affecting the smoothness of the story's flow. Direction, music and makeup were all par. Considering the budget of Wasp Network, Production design and costumes were excellent. Though the movie boasted some big names among the cast like Wagner Moura and Penolope Cruz, acting in general was good, with nothing exceptional.

Overall, sans any knowledge about the incident involved in the movie, I enjoyed the movie. It was very engaging throughout and in fact gripping at some places. I would definitely recommend this movie to action movie fans around the world, for a wonderful Sunday afternoon watch. Wasp Network is definitely one of the better Netflix Original movies, in a series of recent duds. 6.9 stars out of 10 for Wasp Network's ability to spring surprises.

Many people here gave this movie a bad review because they don´t agre with it´s political views. I think that´s dumb. The movie is bad because it´s BORING and it doesn´t care about what it´s telling. Not because it might be historically innacurate or not being anti-castro enough!

BTW, Lots of hollywood movies despict historical events wrong or tergiversed but nobody seems to care this much, usually because they like that version more. They only care about the "agenda" in a movie when it´s different from their own, not when there is one.

Olivier Assayas' 'Wasp Network' had the opportunity for substantial dramatic material with its fascinating based-on-a-true-story plot and a star-studded cast. Unfortunately, the story is so jam-packed with various narratives and characters it becomes convoluted, confusing, and tiring to watch. Quite a mess.