Movie Review: ‘ACT OF VALOR’

You might be wondering why we would be covering a film like Act of Valor on our website. Not only do we cover horror films, which is pretty much our bread and butter, but we like to cover action films which we think covers the “fantastique” portion that we mention on the site. Also, there is no doubt that the advertising of this film is a obvious exploitative method. Out of everyone I asked who was excited about the movie, none of them could tell me what they thought the film was about. The only reason why people would want to see it is because it looks like it will be action packed and that the advertising tells them that it has real, active Navy SEALs starring in the film. While you might hear some people claim the film is a modern propaganda film, I beg to differ.

The film mainly focuses on the friendship of two soldiers, Lt. Rorke and Chief Dave. Rorke has to leave to go on a special ops mission to save a CIA op who has been taken hostage by some bad dudes. Rorke leaves his wife who is expecting on this dangerous mission. Obviously this lays on the drama pretty heavy and the film is pretty melodramatic in these scenes where it is trying to execute a story.

Act of Valor has heavily been advertised as starring active Navy SEALs and that has been its main selling point. While general mainstream action fans might think this is a bonus, the SEALs act exactly how you would think non-actors would act – not very well. However, just like you might think, the action sequences are very well executed and are truly pretty damn thrilling. The only bad thing is that there are really only two big action sequences in the whole film. Other than those sequences there is a pretty humorous dialog with one of the bad guys (actor) and a Senior Chief (an actual soldier). It breathes a bit of life into what starts to feel like a bad, patriotic Hallmark tv movie.

What might interest some film fans other than the truly exploitative nature in its advertising would be the photography work done on the film as the majority of it was shot on a DSLR. DP Shane Hurlbut (yeah, the guy that Christian Bale bitched out on the set of Terminator Salvation) uses the Canon 5D Mark II as well as the Canon 7D with an compact ARRI 35mm camera. There is a documentary feel to the film that really lends some strength to it. The only issue that I had with these different formats of filming is it is very apparent as some scenes lose resolution in comparison to other scenes.

The film is directed by a couple of filmmakers, Mike McCoy & Scott Waugh, who used to be stunt performers and they have a tough time getting true dramatic performances from the SEALs when it is really needed. These scenes just feel like filler to get to the real meat of the film – the action sequences. While the second action sequence doesn’t really meet the bar that was set during the first mission action sequence, it still is pretty fun.

The other problem I have with this film is the fact that it borrows heavily from Call of Duty and other first person shooters that are popular among young guys now. The film is littered with HUDs that pop up to introduce the characters which in all actuality, do not help you remember the character names and serve more as a distraction than anything. Also, during the two action sequences there are POV shots from the guns being used by the characters which seems more like a tribute or a ripoff from those first person shooters than an actual stylistic choice from the directors.

All in all, Act of Valor might work better as a film that you catch on cable or DVD/Blu-Ray because you can skip through some of the bulk of the film that just doesn’t work. It is kind of disappointing that you had two directors that had the same state of mind instead of one of the directors who could have been more action oriented while the other focused on the more dramatic portion. There just isn’t enough effort put into the non-action portion of the film to help elevate it above mediocrity.