The hollywood sycophants are already drooling all over the movie, hence the ratings. However it is amazing how quickly people forget that the creators betrayed the soldiers they were embedded with, while researching 'The Hurt Locker'. The soldiers portrayed in the movie behaved nothing like real soldiers - the creators claimed artistic license while dishonoring those who were kind enough to allow the civilians an unvarnished view into their world. This movie is much the same, again with Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal cashing in on the lives of those who give so much, so the rest of us may live out our lives in a safer world. Critics and audiences will rave over this movie because it is "real and gritty" - despite the fact they are lucky enough to know nothing about the world the movie claims to portray. This movie is nothing more than a sycophantic attempt by media liberals to burnish President Obama's image, while cashing in on the hard work and sacrifices of those who put their lives on the line for the rest of us. hollywood, Kathryn and Mark should be ashamed. The least they could've done is give an accurate portrayal of what happened… Expand

HBO's "Homeland" in its first season offered more suspense. All the raving about Jessica Chastain's performance is a complete mystery to me. She's a cardboard cutout. I had to fight to stay awake during most of the film. The fact that this tragedy of a film has a 90++ Metacritc score makes me even further convinced that film reviewers are in the back pocket of those that dole out the most swag to them in various forms. Don't bother.… Expand

The hollywood sycophants are already drooling all over the movie, hence the ratings. However it is amazing how quickly people forget that the creators betrayed the soldiers they were embedded with, while researching 'The Hurt Locker'. The soldiers portrayed in the movie behaved nothing like real soldiers - the creators claimed artistic license while dishonoring those who were kind enough to allow the civilians an unvarnished view into their world.

This movie is much the same, again with Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal cashing in on the lives of those who give so much, so the rest of us may live out our lives in a safer world. Critics and audiences will rave over this movie because it is "real and gritty" - despite the fact they are lucky enough to know nothing about the world the movie claims to portray. This movie is nothing more than a sycophantic attempt by media liberals to burnish President Obama's image, while cashing in on the hard work and sacrifices of those who put their lives on the line for the rest of us. hollywood, Kathryn and Mark should be ashamed. The least they could've done is give an accurate portrayal of what happened.… Expand

Well...truly amazing how bad a movie can be. Truly amazing how bad a script can be. Truly amazing how bad actors can act, I turned off the sound after a few minutes. This is worse than a home video of your dog catching a frisbee. Chastain is a complete miscast. Easily the worst movie of 2013, and the year has just started.

Yet another blatant exploitation of our nation's defense and security tactics. Everyone involved in this film should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. Clearly too much information was leaked and everyone should boycott this kind of movie. Anything that provides this kind of insight into our military tactics carries the risk of putting our soldiers into harm's way.

This movie is a plot hole mess from start to finish. Is it trying to justify torture? Is it trying to tell me the US Government didn't know where Bin Laden was all the while? Propaganda horse **** This is the land of the free right? Not communist Russia. FFS.

This film is so over rated, I expected something better considering the amount of positive reception this film has received via the critics. However as with anything to do with films,games, music etc it boils down to what the viewers personal opinion is and to be honest there is nothing special here. Apart from the last 20ish minutes which is the scene of the Seal's infiltrating and breaching the compound of where UBL was hiding, leading up to that point prepared to be bored **** As most people have said here it seems this film is just another way to promote itself as propaganda.… Expand

The first bad movie of 2013, this movie was so hard to watch. The only reason I can find as to why the critics are in love with this movie is because of what the movie itself is about. The man was a monster, the movie doesn't do the act any justice. I understand they put this together out of the information available, quite frankly if this is how it went down it was a very sloppy mission. This movie serves more as an attempt at Sony trying to cash in on the monsters death, I honestly cannot see any other reason for them to award this movie with such high regard. I would not recommend this movie to anyone, and it's ok to dislike a movie like this and be patriotic and against all forms of terror at the same time, Go Watch Something Else!… Expand

You might as well just skip the 2 first hours because it's only nonsense. I spent 2 hours and 30 minutes on this film, and only 10 of those minutes were worthy of watching. Production is good, and you could actually see the IR lasers with the NV mode. And supressed weapons actually sounded like supressed weapons and not laser beams, which is the reason I gave this a 1 and not a 0. Go spend your time elsewhere, or skip the first 2 hours.… Expand

A very disappointing movie. I have no idea what the critics are on about. The only acting with any depth was the bit part by Fares Fares, the rest were quiet, gentle, dimensionless drones representing the CIA and army personnel calmly going about their business (right).

I think this movie is the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. When you see a big gap between critic reviews and user reviews, the critics are trying to get you to buy a ticket so they can at least break even on the cost of this B rated movie. I want my money back.

It is unfortunate that the critics are fawning over such a mediocre and fictional film. The ending sequence is very exciting and well filmed, but the rest of the film claims, falsely, that torture provided information that located bin Laden. This claim is repeatedly refuted by the people that actually gathered the necessary intelligence. The Maya character is one-dimensional and poorly developed; we never learn what motivates her. In reality, Maya did not exist - the real "Maya" was actually several women who worked painstakingly for years, without torture, to get the necessary intelligence.… Expand

I think an Osama bin Laden documentray on History Channel would habe been ten times better. This movie had no story, no characters, and no real point. The actor's mumbled the whole movie. Even the part in which bin Laden himself was assassinated was not thrilling at all. I have no idea how the critics enjoyed this movie so much.

Over-hyped United States rubbish. Even if you see past the jingoistic propaganda you're left with a poorly executed tedious B-movie. Yawn. Avoid at all costs.

Dragged out and over rated. If you want to watch this movie because you feel it is your patriotic duty to cheer on 'merica for their fine torture skills, just watch the first and last 15 minutes, everything else is just filler. At least it stays true to reality, for most of the hunt for Osama no one is doing anything.

Also why are American critics ratings counted for this movie? you can not get more biased. most European or Canadian critics would give this a solid 50.… Expand

I glanced this film because many critics recommended. but really really boring and I didn't see the operation because of Dark Screen Effect. why this film get a high score by critics?? US government wanna show off or celebrate the success of the operation? Congrat~! but this film is really really boring~! absolutely~!

I wonder what happens.... This movie isn't historically accurate at all. I was almost turned off instantly when the trailer showed Seal Team 6 slowly approaching Osama's house. As if Osama and his guards wouldn't have heard the helicopter approach in the first place...

Boring, tedious, slow, Bigelow, Chastain, minimal story line and even worse dialogue, etc., etc. - I wanted to like this movie, I really did - but boy what a chore it was to sit through it. At least it picked up once the Seal Team arrived to save the day. Chastain will probably win awards (not many quality lead actresses this year) but I hope this movie doesn't win much - I don't think it deserves it.… Expand

Zero Dark Thirty is not one of the year's best films. It does not live up to its hype; for once, a bit of dramatic license with events concerning 9/11 would only have benefited the film, as in portraying every aspect of the hunt, tedious and important, it becomes a film that is sometimes good, but often very dull, in a way that mirrors the manhunt process itself.

This movie didnt really need to be two and a half hours long and i think it got released to quickly. They could have done a much better job on on the actual raid because the soldiers that acted in that scene are no way even close to how soldiers act. In fact it was a disgrace to soldiers in reality.

Judging by reviews, I was expecting a very different movie to what I actually saw. For the most part, this is a collection of people talking...and talking...and...talking. All this dialogue could easily have been cut down, but the director seemed to think that the audience would be compelled by all this for two hours out of a two and a half hour movie. Also, I'm wondering why this movie was made anyway and it didn't answer any unanswered questions. I sincerely hope everyone involved in this doesn't end up in danger due to the sensitive subject matter. I was led to believe that the final half hour was going to be an amazing action sequence but it was such an anti climax and the most quiet "action" sequence you'll ever see. The fact that we know what's going to happen means there is no element of shock or surprise. The acting is good and it was an interesting angle for a movie, but unfortunately, it doesn't hold up quite as well as the critics would have you believe.… Expand

God, punishing me for what ? I would like to look at it as an ordinary film, but unfortunately it is filmed to order the Pentagon and intelligence services, and that it is hell to feel. This is not a movie, but propaganda. From Mrs. perhaps you do not want to see anything .

The film has no real plot or development, it almost feels like Prometheus it never gives good reasoning for anything, its huge time gaps arent confusing but makes it even more tedious. Movie skips through time and just presents situation without any background information like the audience is supposed to know everything to do with everyone and every location. The torture wasnt bad, depending on your tolerance, and it was definitely not a pro-Obama political film. The film is just about Maia and her arrogance and her acting bothered me, great, but vague. Film has tons of plot holes and mistakes yet the critics love it once again.… Expand

Tedious. Just because something compelling happened in real life doesn't mean it makes for a good movie. For the life of me I can't understand the critical acclaim here. Nothing in this movie feels believable, first and foremost Chastain's performance. She is miscast, shrill, and has no gravitas. I didn't believe for one second she was a "tough" high level CIA analyst. Most performances in general felt off and even the amazing Kyle Chandler was reduced to cliche. The movie feels cheap and shallow. There is zero character development, everything feels easy, the torture scenes are gratuitous, and then James Gandolfini comes bobbling in as Leon Pannetta? Although Homeland on Showtime has far-fetched plot lines, it is a thousand times more compelling and a million times better acted. Just don't get at all what the fuss is. And almost three hours. Ouch.… Expand

I've encountered this movie in a sneak preview and since people usually visit a cinema to get a bit of distance to reality and want to get entertained or even touched, this movie was possibly the worst choice for this event, especially as it was the 1000th sneak of my cinema and expectations were high. 16 friends were with me on this evening, 5 of them left during the movie for various reasons like too graphical expression of senseless violence like torture scenes or because they lost the struggle against the agony caused of boredom.

On a neutral point of view the topic of this movie is possibly only interesting to US americans where the documentary style of this movie might serve as the rehabilitation of a national trauma. To the rest of the world the topic is what it is. He lived, he blew stuff up, he died. Wheres a movie in that exept for Michael Bay? It's good stuff if you are into documentaries where you expect it to be boring but it fails as a movie.

The 95 metacritic make me feel as if it's opposit day. It's not rationally comprehensible since this movie lacks so much that a good movie has to offer. Not because of the topic or the documentary style of the movie but of the bad craftmanship the director and producers showed. Worst of all was, since we probably all know most of the events that were depicted in this movie and especially how the movie must end, the real torture that needs to be criticized is the movie itself since especially the last scene appeared as if it tries to reinvent dullness. For the major part of this movie it is just plane boring. There is no such thing as an arc of suspense and the only emotion the movie manages to create is disgust right at the beginning when you partake in the torture scenes. I actually expected/feared that they also would have show how a man get's his head severed or his throat cut in some dark shag in afghanistan in every painful detail. Luckily this didn't happen. Yet on the climax of the movie - the final scene - the director desperately struggled in an attempt, to make a scene artificially suspenseful, where no suspense could ever be found and in the very last ending scene so stagy, that the most natural reaction you have to this cheesy attempt of pathos is to roll your eyes like an eightball on its way to the pocket. To me this is the most overrated movie i encountered on metacritic for one reason only: because americans feel like this movie has to matter because of the subject it deals with. To everyone else it is revealed as the waste of lifetime it actually is where the strongest emotion it created was the feeling of relief when you finally could step out of the cinema and proudly say "Yes! I managed to endure that movie!"

Still i would give this movie one point for its excellent scenery. Everything appeared impressively authentic up to the house and the stealth helicopters. This was extraordinarily well done yet it isn't by far enough to turn it into an impressing film itself.. or even a mediocre one.… Expand

This film bolsters the false impression that the US's engaging in torture, though distasteful, is necessary by painting a false linkage between torture of "terror suspects" and the locating of Osama bin Laden. No information leading to the location of bin Laden was obtained via torture.

This movie is pure propaganda and celebrates the assassination of an unarmed man without a chance of trail. Due process is what America was built on and this film tries to undermine this by getting the American citizenry to accept that sacrificing this moral foundation is okay. This film is nothing but propaganda and is as far from a good movie as possible.

A real let down. I'm a sucker for a Black Hawk Down, Hurt Locker, Etc. type of movie. This is none of those and dont be fuled by the complete bogus marketing. A complete bore through the first 2 hours with a few explosions thrown in to keep the audience interested. The complete lack of character development including the CIA operatives, The Terrorists, and the 15 minutes of seal team footage was very surprising. Its basically 2 hours of a CIA operative pullering her hair out in front of a computer follwed by 15 minutes of explosions, and 15 minutes of seal team six. The ending was so hear it comes and there it goes. I have no idea why the critics gave this such high ratings.… Expand

This movie is perfect example of **** american propaganda. The movie is completely overrated by critics and should have never been nominated for best picture. its a generic action movie about american propaganda.

Trivialized a very serious subject and made it look outright silly. At the end of the movie you feel like killing Osama was a personal errand run by the analyst. And if the movie was meant to focus on the emotions and experiences of the brilliant lady analyst behind the whole operation, it totally failed it's intent as well cos there is no character development and the actress was also a misfit for the role. Whole movie lacked intensity and depth… Expand

Zero Dark Thirty only proves the ability of Hollywood to conflate its own pompous self importance. The hype around this film is totally unwarranted. The narrative comes off like a flat reading of a history book. Zero Dark Thirty chokes under its own self-importance, and the obvious ego of its sub-par director.

Terrible. Slow, choppy, and boring. I found myself wanting to leave half way through and wish I had. The acting was at best mediocre and the script was just not believable. First, the film was obviously rushed to production, as it premiered only 20 months after the actual event. In that time, the movie had to be researched, the script drafted, the scenes shot, and the film edited. In addition, much of the material the movie would have to rely on is undoubtedly still classified. Given that, can anyone really believe that the film is at all accurate? No way. It would have been better to wait a few years for material to be declassified, let the historians write the books and shoot the documentaries, and then 10 to 15 years from now shoot a quality film based on accurate material. There was no need for Hollywood to rush this movie to the theaters. Has anyone seen Argo?… Expand

I love Kathryn Bigelow, but goodness, this movie is languid and poorly paced. Ironically, the movie had 3 hours to move us by its characters, but came up short, I have no connection with the characters in this amazing story. I think the movie comes across as a dramatic documentary and we as the audience only watch this story, not be engaged by it. Seriously, they could have cut about a dozen establishing montages by half or entirely, and made the movie 2 hours shorter. The whole thing felt a little melodramatic and it it wanted to be like The Year Of Living Dangerously or All The Presidents Men, and have that grit and docu feel, but the dialogue was laughable, and emoting seemed artificial. I am stunned at the fanfare behind this movie, it's almost like it's being touted as so the world watches it, and sends some sort of perverted message about the tenacity of the US, or like, don't mess with us thing. Zero Dark Thirty feels like a Saturday afternoon movie or mini series for Discovery or History channel, or it would have done well on HBO. But not the best KB has made. Even still I dig her work.… Expand

One of the worst movies I've ever seen in my entire life, zero character development, parts of the movie jumps around year to year, and the last 30 minutes where boring; shooting at unarmed civilians? HAHA nice american propaganda.

Jessica Chastain is one of the most annoying and terrible actors I've ever encountered, and her character is even worse- WHO CARES about some 'super woman' who single handly took down OBL.

A few good actors do pop in for a few seconds, but then go away and appear for no reason a hour later.
The "best" part of the movie, is the suicide bomber who was let into a get this... Tier 1 base because they said he'd get "scared off" of he got searched... LOL, the best part was she was texting a friend and you know from 500 miles away that when she died maya would send a few texts saying "You there? Please respond if you get this"

Never, NEVER watch this movie. Maybe if you have no idea what happened with OBL , but if you're not american there is no point to watch this mound of ****

**** THIS MOVIE… Expand

Being former military, at times working very closely with JSOC, i found myself nit-picking the action at the end of this flick. I understand that making a movie and showing reality are two different things... but i feel there is more fiction here than reality. From the (non) dynamic entry of the seal team into the compound, to the CIA analyst siccing her attack dogs to "kill" rather than capture he most valuable intelligence asset in the world at this time. Laughable really. But then again Hollywood has re-written lots of wartime history...remember all your friends who swore Inglorious Basterds was based on true events. So in the end, i'm neither better informed nor entertained after watching this.… Expand

With this movie I feel that they have forced out 2 long, boring hours in order to do a movie about one of Americas greatest achievements. There's was nothing special about this movie, just a large amount of pointless talking and meetings. I do not understand the large amount of positive reviews from critics. There may be some biased acclaims seeing as its a story all Americans are proud of, but I doubt this. All I can say is if you are ever going to see this movie, you may want to drink something a little stronger then soda… Expand

Has Katherine Bigelow gone one political misstep too far? This film is informative in a breathless journalistic way and intermittently intriguing but its really just a contrived, arrogant, over-stuffed mish mash of left and right wing view points that ultimately is hugely dull.
The Hurt Locker, Bigelow's 2009 movie, came out during the Bush administration and probably began production around 2005. But it is a thrilling but personal antiwar movie. Recall the plot? The hero cannot bear to remain at "home," the place he is protecting. There was a narrative and soul at the core of this film. you were able to invest your time to it. Zero Dark Thirty, as a piece of cinema, just totally misses the mark and leaves the viewer to decide its questions posed.
It seems to navigate deviously too. the torture scenes, though harsh are by no means controversial to the story, but they are shoved aside to then tell a tale of moral ambiguity and gung-ho American hero worship. The fact remains that the general public, no matter how clear they think they are with their opinion, will never know the truth. Yes there are misguided, fanatical jihads out there but there is too much corruption, greed and inconsistencies to label America the true heroes.
Oh, and back to the film..Its boring! And Jessica Chastain has to be the least convincing CIA agent ever. Not subscribing to this film's accolades at all.… Expand

Did not particularly enjoy it. Painstakingly slow with no real suspense . I thought when the actual raid occurred it would at least have made the movie somewhat worth seeing but even that didn't help. I just feel the whole movie was not overly believable. Obviously only a handful of people know what really happened but i felt like there was too much creative/artistic license afforded by the director. All I really wanted was for the movie to have a crisp flow with lots of suspense and be somewhat believable and most of all entertaining. I'm afraid it failed on all accounts.… Expand

It was bland, boring and featured a horribly unemotional female lead. I honestly can't believe this movie was nominated for 5 Academy Awards, while superior films (Django Unchained) were left with table scraps.

The entire movie portrays the Americans in a terrible light. There are multiple events throughout the story in which a number of Pakistani or Afghani citizens are killed, but the only time there is any mourning or empathy whatsoever is when a group of monkeys are killed, offscreen.

And a nomination for best screenplay? I laughed my ass of when the gruff American interrogator quipped "Everybody breaks, bro. It's biology." Seriously? The entire thing is a confused mess that is about as historically accurate as Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.… Expand

horrible film that shows senseless perverted violence and doesn't even bother to make a point
as a documentary it fails to answer or even stab at the real question WHY? Why did the US with all the resources of richest country could not locate a single man and/or destroy organization which he stood behind.
This film's entertainment value is nonexistent

The CIA trained and funded Bin Laden as part of their effort to create militant Islamic ideology to combat the Soviet Union and Marxism back in the 70s and 80s. This agency gleefully provided torture coaching and assistance to Pinochet and the Argentinian Junta. It concocted false evidence and testimonies in the run up to both of the Gulf wars, and has been further destroying America's reputation worldwide for over a decade by torturing and murdering its way through the Middle East. And now it has somehow been allowed to make an undisputed, seemingly authoritative account of history in a way that both serves as PR for the CIA, but also makes a serious case to absolve the agency of its crimes by pointing to their utilitarian necessity.

Imagine a film about a serial killer, who in the early stages of his life, and indeed throughout his initial murders is trained, and assisted both in tactics and funding by the cops, the good guys who spend the rest of the film chasing the killer and finally capturing him. It would make you feel conflicted, and would raise questions about who the 'good' guys are, and just how 'good' they happen to be. Now consider how Zero Dark Thirty avoids the difficult task of confronting the reality. It relies on ostentatious badassery aimed at teenage boys who think the word must be met with obligatory laughter. It strives to induce war-nerd boners among cargo-pant wearing gamers. And it reduces a contentious moment in U.S.history, the true events of which is kept under lock and key by an agency apparently incapable of acting morally or even legally, to your common or garden variety of detective fiction.… Expand

i heard one of the terrorist shot was named garfield
0/10000 DONT BOTHER WATCHING

I clearly must of been watching a different movie to everyone else this movie was bland slow moving and dreary. I can only assume that in the land of the free they don't actually have much to celebrate and cling onto anything the deem as national pride. This moving is neither a compelling or gripping retelling os the obl story. The actual news coverage was more impressive and that wend on for 10 years without becoming tiresome something which this film achieves in 10 minutes.… Expand

It's a documentary on the tracking and killing of Osama Bin Laden.
Too slow, too dull and obviously predictable.
Disappointing from the Director of the Excellent `Hurt Locker'.

I expected much more. Torture yeah yeah we know it's nessecary but not really enjoyable to watch. Someone said "Just because a women directed it doesn't mean its bad' what she got to do with this its still bad I have scene female directed films that wer 8 stars.

And who is Mia besides a great agent? Who is she as a human character? What’s her backstory? Why is she doing this? Would have been more involved if one of her family members died in the September 11th Attacks or something but the movie won’t go that far because they want to stick to true accounts. The only emotion we see from her other than the eagerness and get Bin Laden is her sadness wss when Al Qaeda bombed that CIA base that her partner was at and the tears that come out her eye after she confirmed that it was Bin Laden that was shot. It would be great if there was some interesting backstory. If there was a reason she was doing this that could be shown to make the audience like her more. If we take out the context of Al Qaeda and Bin Laden, and just look at the story of Maya fighting terrorists and catching a highly sought after terrorist leader, can her story stand on its own legs? Not to me, it can't.

Maya’s confidence is a big theme in this movie but the consequences of her being wrong is not addressed in a conflicting or dangerous manner.

Consequences: The possibility of Bin Laden not actually being in the Abbotobad compound was heavily addressed through the uncertainty of most of the characters beside Maya. However, the consequences were not explored! Because this movie is a true account, we know what is going to happen at the end. But why should we care if we are not sure of the consequences of what could happen? In Argo, we know they’re going to escape but there are some minor consequences we hear about: death by execution, foreigners getting caught in the airport, being hung in the streets. Even those consequences were weakly displayed. But what are the consequences if Bin Laden is not in the compound? Whose head will fall? What effect will it have on America? On the President? On Leon Panetta? On the continued activities of the CIA? Why aren’t people getting angry or playing politics on what could happen? Why is there no serious conflict here? What about other consequences? What if the Pakistani air force attacked them? What if the local police or militia did? Most importantly to the story of the movie, what happens to Maya if she is wrong?

Put Aside The Story of Maya: Did the film producers create the film because they had this unique story about a young, ambitious, female CIA agent who managed to deduce the location of a highly wanted and highly elusive criminal target? Or did they create the film because they wanted to show the steps taken to find and kill Osama Bin Laden? I think the film producers were “sold” on making the film based on the latter whether or not their interest began with the CIA agent story.

True Accounts: I read the basic Wikipedia summary on a handful of potential consequences and strategies surrounding the raid and these summary items went in so much more depth than the movie did. What if there was a bunker underneath the house? Why did they choose to do a raid instead of bombing? Or instead of a targeted drone strike? What was going on with Obama during this time? Just like in Argo, where we see nothing strategic and deep with Jimmy Carter, we see nothing interesting with President Obama, who is the final decision-maker in this whole process. We see no strategy in how the U.S. would know if the Pakistanis released the fighter jets because they have a deal with the Pakistanis that the jets given to them by the U.S. would be under 24-hour surveillance? What if Osama was wearing a suicide vest? How would they have handled it? What if there were mines on the doors? And these are just little wikipedia summary items that I skimmed. I expect a producer of a film to do highly extensive research and give me all the good stuff. There’s so much reasoning and strategy that is just dropped from this movie.

Other Ways To Tell The Story: Telling the story from the perspective of many people instead of the CIA agents would have given the movie a lot more depth. It would have been great to see what Obama, Panetta, the Admiral, and the CIA director were going through. How they didn’t want to be wrong. They could have told this story from many different perspectives and many different people. But they chose the story of Maya which is boring to me.… Expand

ZD30 is the second most boring film I have seen to date, the first was The Blair Witch Project, and I slept all the way through that, woke up when it ended, in the middle of the day even. In my opinion ZD30 is a film that really wants to be a documentary, but for various reasons isn't. At first zd30 is a dull docu-drama, then in the last ten minutes it decides to try being an docu-action movie, but the persistent desire to be a fly on the wall documentary leaves even Navy SEALs, shooting Osama Bin Ladin in the head feeling bland and boring.… Expand