Military film Act of Valor doesn’t live up to its name

Let’s get one thing straight.

There’s nothing wrong with watching a simplistic, thrilling action movie.  Sometimes what’s needed is a ton of excitement, delivered at a fast pace and with such fist-pumping energy that you can’t help but smile. Timur Bekmambetov’s Wanted (2008) is a perfect example: the premise is ridiculous, but the witty direction and the humorously gratuitous use of CGI and slow-motion make the film a rollicking good time.

Let down · Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh’s Act of Valor disappoints with amateurish directing, poor writing and unconvincing acting. - Photo courtesy of EPK.TV

Watching the trailer for Act of Valor, it’s easy to see this sort of potential.

“The characters in this film are portrayed by active duty U.S. Navy SEALs,” the trailer states. “The story is fictional, but the weapons and tactics are real.”

The trailer goes on to show off some intense, inspired combat scenes, full of dramatic moments and firefights that get the adrenaline pumping. It’s a promising start to what appears to be an indulgently entertaining film.

Good news: The action scenes are, as the trailer promises, a lot of fun to watch — smartly choreographed with sharp cinematography and pacing.

The bad news? There’s not enough action. In fact, Act of Valor’s action sequences are few and far between. And the rest of the film is so atrocious that it’s painful to describe it.

Act of Valor doesn’t have much of a plot; it begins with the kidnapping of a CIA officer, which predictably develops into a rescue scenario. Past that, there’s not much to describe: The story stumbles aimlessly ahead with the premise that the SEALs discover a terrorist plot that must be stopped at all costs. More than anything, the storyline is there to support the depiction of military missions in random international locales.

To be fair, the combat missions are well portrayed. The soldiers depicted in the movie are perfectly convincing in battle — they are active-duty military men, after all — and it’s quite obvious directors Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh have a sense of how to show this action unravel, even if they do dabble in some suspiciously cheesy first-person camerawork.

If McCoy and Waugh had stuck with their strong suit, Act of Valor would’ve been fine, if nothing more than a bloody guilty pleasure. Unfortunately for audiences, the film’s few battle scenes can’t redeem it.

That’s because these scenes are tucked between gargantuan expanses of what must be one of the most poorly written, directed and acted narratives possible.

For all the novelty of watching real-life SEALs on-screen, Act of Valor reminds us why most films do not employ soldiers: They can’t act. For the most part, the performances in the film are akin to what one might find in a seventh-grade production of Grease: incredibly awkward, stilted and humorous for all the wrong reasons.

And McCoy, Waugh and writer Kurt Johnstad are apparently content to break every rudimentary film school rule. There’s no attempt to convey what’s going on in the film in a compelling way.

Mostly, Act of Valor’s narrative is explained through characters standing around, asking questions and receiving lengthy, literal answers about what will happen. Whatever happened to “show, don’t tell”? This is dialogue that even Meryl Streep and Gary Oldman would struggle to make interesting.

Even more embarrassingly, there is a lot of amateurish directing and cinematography; the camera is noticeably out of focus in certain shots, and not in an intentional shaky-cam sort of way. Coupled with the shoddy plot, these faults make Act of Valor an abject disaster.

What’s most infuriating about the film is that it tries to show off as a noble salute to the men and women serving in the military. Act of Valor wants the drama and emotion of Saving Private Ryan or The Hurt Locker, without any of the narrative effort; a funeral scene at the end of the movie does nothing to create genuine emotion and only feels exploitative in its forced histrionics.

Why even bother to show a funeral when the movie blatantly fails to address the human complexities of the men and women who serve in our military? Act of Valor isn’t an honest look into why we should honor soldiers — it’s a mere caricature of it.

There’s no reason, then, to see Act of Valor. Though the use of real-life SEALs in the film is intriguing, their involvement does not elevate the action beyond what you’ll find in other, more impressive war films. Want a real look into war? Watch Restrepo.

Act of Valor is simply fiction filmmaking at its worst, somehow simultaneously pointless and boring where it could have been at least entertaining.

With the film dedicated to American soldiers, they deserve far better than this.