Some poor production decisions and pacing made what could have been a really good movie drag down to a disappointing level. The third in a line of Afghan rescue films this one has a simpler and better story than the convoluted Kandahar, with a much smaller budget but does not compare to the superior Guy Richie's The Covenant.
To start with the movie drags for no reason what so ever and is at least 30 minutes too long. The slow pacing was set in the very first scene with drawn out drone cinematography shots and prolonged, unnecessary radio discussions. I suspect the director wanted to try and give the movie a dramatic mood but instead just made it seem like they were waiting around half the time and not really in a rush to escape from the enemy. So you don't get any build up or sense of urgency. Films like this need a quick pace that accelerates to the finale. This movie would start to get some momentum and then they would drag out the literally repetitive fire fights to a point where they made little sense.
The interactions between the lead and the five year old girl were excellent but you never felt they were escaping from the enemy and instead on some stroll through the woods. The lead did not even pick her up to carry her until half way through the movie which makes it unbelievable that the enemy did not catch up to them before this while walking at the speed of a five year old.
The military aspect of the film was better than I expected in a few parts and completely laughable in others. 1. The lead is not going to survive a 50 foot fall out of a helicopter without broken bones. 2. For a Special Forces Operator he was wasting a ton of ammunition for no reason and taking a lot of shots at rocks. 3. He appeared to constantly be doing weapon malfunction drills though I believe they were trying to show that he was clearing a jam. I am sure this was intended to make it seem more "realistic" but properly maintained HK416s or custom Noveske AR-15 platforms are highly unlikely to have all these failures. 4. He loaded magazines and racked the charging handle instead of more quickly using the bolt release. 5. He always seemed to have the same amount of magazines on him no matter how many rounds he shot. I do not understand why films cannot get this right and have one person simply keep track of this number so the reloads and remaining ammunition in these situations seem realistic. 6. He had no magnified optic and instead only a close range holographic sight. A magnified optic combo would have been more realistic and given him a significant advantage over the enemy and made a better film. Instead he only had a slightly more accurate weapon with a quicker ability to acquire a target over his enemy. 7. I will give him credit for not only picking up an enemy's weapon but also a spare magazine something no one ever does in most other films though it would have been better if he picked up more than one. 8. The lead appeared to use very little in the way of tactical sense and only managed one tactical surprise the entire film. 9. This film includes the worst filmed scene of a sniper "aiming" I have ever seen. 10. Special Forces Operators attacking an enemy with cover in a tree line, from open ground by walking slowly towards them, standing straight up and yelling each other to stay in a line is something a child dreams up.
The special effects were obvious CGI, not the worst I have seen but a few shots were really bad (him falling out of the helicopter, and in one firefight they had the AK muzzle flash about 2 feet away from the barrel). I just hate fake weapon effects and you immediately notice them here but they are workable for much of the film.
The worst part however was the use of what appeared to be the same rock outcroppings for three or four scenes where they were supposed to have traveled miles in between. I swear they shot around these same rock formations but simply changed the camera angles. It ruined the entire film's immersion. How hard is it to find an outdoor area, map out a path a few miles long and just walk or drive at least a couple hundred yards along this path between shots?
I actually found the sound effects and musical choices to be solid for what this was going for and one of the better aspects of the film.
Overall I am disappointed by too much of the film. It honestly had great potential to tell a simple story in a gripping action oriented way with good character development and quick pacing, instead it only hinted at this throughout. The lead could definitely play this role as well as the young girl they simply needed a better director and producer. It is what it is and all I can say is I have seen much worse and much better films.
