"Green Zone" (2010) - Movie Review

Maybe it is a little too late in the arrival, because “Green Zone” is not a surprise. But again the knowledge I gained about these revelations were through several documentaries and keeping that in mind, may be for the regular audience this might come as a daring expose of behind the scenes events of the infamous ongoing Iraq War began by George W. Bush. Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon get their heads together again for this film.

It is a film with more shaky cams than the Bourne films and it gets irritating as we go by. The reason for this kind of film making is to take the audience into the action and making them a close participant thus bloodlessly visceral. Here it becomes a duty and sort of a resort to provide no detail whatsoever. And in the final chases scenes and the gun fights in the dark streets, it goes all over the screen and we are clueless of this technic.

Matt Damon is Chief Roy Miller leading the team in the damaged Baghdad for weapons of mass destruction. They are turning empty handed every new location they have been given. The intelligence comes from an unknown code named resource called Magellan as said by the Pentagon Special Intelligence officer Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinear). Amy Ryan is Washington Post journalist Lawrie Dayne getting little worried of publishing articles without any solid checking of the story she received from Clark regarding WMDs. Add Brendan Gleeson as the first ever known good CIA chief in the history of war prone Hollywood films, you get where “Green Zone” is going with.

Greengrass knows the direction of the script. In his previous films the actions are so well thought, choreographed that it made the audience not alone give an adrenaline rush but a little bit intelligent on figuring out the tactics Bourne came up with. Roy Miller is not Jason Bourne and rightfully so but the clarity of him in action is spoiled by Greengrass’ overdoing of queasy cams.

Regardless of the complaints, “Green Zone” is the full throttle ride the audience might seek for. It has very strong political stands in regards of the ridicule some of the warmongers in Pentagon resulted in. But if someone is not aware of those then there is some problem in the awareness. When the people are talking in the film, it draws attention, especially the one where we question how come no one verified the story. Trust runs too deep when the hunt is for reason to do the thing they planned.

One hour into the film, I sensed it is high wire film which targets on the genre and creates an action film with the Iraq war back ground as “Body of Lies” did. But as the same film, it fails when it begins to take a stands as though it appears there is crossing the line. The action it uses to falsely entertain its audience, begins to up on the face when suddenly people talking seriously about the issue of the war.

Khalid Abdalla as the local Iraqi man nicknaming himself Freddy is the side of the local person the films might miss. Not portraying much of the stereotype and not much as a strong anti-American soldier, Greengrass places him right where he wanted to. It is though too bad that we determine what he will be doing with a gun when Damon’s Miller chases the common target for truth General Al-Rawi (Yigal Naor). Matt Damon does not regenerate Jason Bourne and provides a character of a soldier in very much need of truth and the personal responsibility to himself and others.

“Green Zone” will satiate its purpose of existence though it shoots itself when it comes to taking a tone to the politics. Not that it is wrong but it does not unravel something we have not seen. The dark stories of lies and deceit to get the country to war is nothing new and several films have made their points and arguments against it. The only film which stood that test was “The Hurt Locker” which again did not take a stand of right or wrong and just invested itself on the character of James. “Green Zone” will succeed in box office but its final act tilts it to a mediocre films in my books.