Mile 22 was...a marathon of awfulness.
An impressively bad film from a director/star duo that have proven remarkably consistent and enjoyable up to this point. Mile 22’s biggest and most glaring flaw is present from the very first sequence, the editing and camerawork is an utter disaster. No one likes shaky cam and this movie seems to have been filmed by someone having a seizure. Which is a damn shame because Iko Uwais (known for The Raid) has some of what I’m sure would be amazing choreographed fight sequences, if the camera would pan out so I could see what the hell was happening.
As for the editing, well, it just quick cuts constantly from one deliberately ugly camera angle to another. I think I understood what they were trying to go for, attempting to lend some legitimacy to the sense of live combat operations by making the filming process messy, many of the cameras used to tell the story are cameras that exist in the world of the film usually CCTV cameras of poor quality placed at unflattering angles. As an aesthetic choice, I can respect the attempt, but rather than increasing immersion it creates a barrier because it’s difficult to see what’s going on and everything is ugly.
For a film that wants to seem gritty and realistic they really don’t do their homework when it comes to presenting the military in any kind of palatable way, the uniforms are way off.
The movie is just not fun to watch, it wants to be this gritty, smart, thriller without giving us enough information to make us give a shit or even follow what it thinks it’s being smart about. It’s hard to criticize the acting since there’s so little of it on display here, Lauren Cohen’s character boils down to angry divorcee and the only real acting Ronda Rousey has to do comes through a mouthful of fake blood, the dialogue is clipped and forgettable, except for Marky Mark’s valiant attempts to give the film a little personality by simply existing as the only person in the film with any charisma to speak of.
By the end of the movie they seemingly realized the movie hasn’t given anyone enough information to connect the dots, so they have it go ahead and do it for you, the final moments of the movie are them explaining what just happened.
3/10 Don’t waste your money.
Movies that have a similar premise but are lot better: 16 Blocks, Tears of the Sun, The Raid, and Dredd.
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