Writer: Dzamira Dzafri

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Watch this if you liked: “The Hurt Locker”

With all the hype from the Oscars and the American media, the anticipation to watch this film was sky high. But coming from the amazing Kathryn Bigelow who directed "The Hurt Locker" with Jeremy Renner before, "Zero Dark Thirty" turned out to be a little bit disappointing in comparison.

"The Hurt Locker" was Bigelow's pride. It had won the coveted Academy Award for Best Film during its reign and the story and theme was fresher and more entertaining. "Zero Dark Thirty" may have had the same feel and modern military theme, but it still didn't have as much punch as Bigelow's pride and joy.

However, this film did have some stand-out factors that would make this film a must watch, as it still is worth the Oscar nomination.

Jessica Chastain's performance was brilliant, and it was a shame to see Jennifer Lawrence win the Best Actress Oscar instead because in all honesty it would have been preferred if Chastain won instead. Her gutsy and candid character was what made the movie.

It was so refreshing to see a female character that did not need to be feminine or well-liked as the lead, or to be misconstrued automatically as a lesbian when the film was not about her chasing after guys.

It was also really exciting to see how much she kicked butt in this film. Not literally of course, but she certainly ruled her territory, and when people tried to step over her she stood her ground. The character was certainly a good example of a strong woman that many should follow, if they dare.

The other standout characters were Mark Strong's George, Kyle Chandler's Joseph and Chris Pratt's Justin. Mark Strong is one of the coolest actors of this modern age, so let us all just sink in first that he is in this film, let alone playing a character with an American accent.

Seriously, if you are used to his British accent, you would almost not be able to concentrate on what he is saying sometimes because you are too awed by how great his American accent was. The scene where he was angry was also fun to watch.

Kyle Chandler played a bigger part as Joseph Bradley, the Station Chief of where Chastain's character Maya worked, in Islamabad. That one scene where he and Maya were screaming at each other was a terrific scene to be remembered.

But now that it had been mentioned, there had been an awful lot of screaming and yelling in this film, but it was needed to project how stressful the workplace was in the field they were in, which is to track down and eliminate terrorists.

Chris Pratt does not show up until the end of the film near the climax, and he brought his sense of humour with him to balance out the long and dragging scenes in most of the movie where it was basically a wild goose chase. So expect a really long middle part of the film that does not really lead anywhere for a while.

While the story might not have been as impressive as what was expected, the cinematography of Bigelow's work never ceases to amaze. The movie is strangely beautiful, and it was weird because it was pretty difficult to capture the beauty of an Afgan dessert, but it worked well. The movie did not glamourize the places, they just simply sought out the beauty that was already there and they caught it for us to watch.

It is pretty difficult not to compare this film to "The Hurt Locker" because the latter was certainly more preferred, when it comes to the story and entertaining an audience. It does have its exciting moments but it feels like this topic is so 2001 (is it still too early?) and to be frank it is getting really tiring to see how bad Muslims are portrayed. It might not be on purpose or too obvious but it still shows how white people are the heroes and everybody should see how great they are for the world.

Cinema Online, 22 March 2013