Green Zone: Review By Paolo Sardinas

Green Zone, the latest film from director Paul Greengrass and action star Matt Damon, was definitely a unique viewing experience. Whether it be the way the film was put together or just the way you take the information thats given to you. But either way, after watching Green Zone you will walk out of the theater with some sort of opinion, whether it be good or bad, or right or wrong, this movie, more so than Hurt Locker will raise plenty of political questions and discussions. The film takes place stars on March 19, 2003, the year that the Bush administration declared war on Iraq. Right from the get go you can already tell where this film is going. The film's story is a great one but it gets lost amongst the mindless action and miniscule attempts at suspense that do nothing but detract more and more away from the film's overall meaning. Whatever it is.

I myself am one of the few people who disagreed with the film's action style approach. While I loved The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum this film, with all of its sensitive subject matter, doesn't need a bravado macho man to jump around and kill bad guys. It needed a more serious approach. While many will be quick to blame Matt Damon for the film's flaws, there not his fault. Damon does the best he can with the material thats been given to him. Damon plays Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller who, along with his team of soldiers, are sent out on constant, almost daily, missions where the main goal is to find WMDs. For those of you who don't understand acronyms that means Weapons of Mass Destruction. Only there are none. Miller begins to question things he shouldn't and begins a one man journey to find the truth. Damon succeeds in playing the military man but he never seems to be as interesting or engrossing as he did in the Bourne films.

Director Paul Greengrass, armed with his handi-cam, goes out and shoots the film in a gritty, realistic way. Something I became quite fond of with the Bourne flicks and his controversial United 93. But with this kind of film, this film where the subject matter is so sensitive while still being relevant it doesn't seem like the director or crew took the source material very seriously. Based off of the book "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone" by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the film never uses the material to its advantage. The creators never bothered to really dig deep into the material, rather they decided to show plenty of kills and action sequences that border on realistic and ridiculous. Many complained that Greengrass's United 93 was a bit to early, well Green Zone, sadly, is a bit too late.