THE Perth premiere for the latest Iraq war thriller, Green Zone, coincidentally took place the same night The Hurt Locker won a swag of Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
The Hurt Locker broke new ground for films set amid the continuing conflict of the Middle East.
Rather than glamourising war for entertainment’s sake, The Hurt Locker is set to become a modern day Apocalypse Now for its gut wrenchingly realistic view of what is really happening in Iraq.
Sadly, Green Zone continues the trend of Hollywood-produced films that are confused with how they should handle the Middle East crisis.
Helmed by Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum), Green Zone uses the Iraq conflict to make sweeping contentious “what ifs” about the war, which all seems like a shallow excuse to give the action director extraordinaire a manic backdrop to display his epic chase scenes.
While the action sequences are breathless, heart-pounding scenes of the highest quality, the preposterous storyline only confirms why the accolades for The Hurt Locker have been so overwhelming.
Green Zone is set in late 2003, during the Bush administration era when the search for WMD (weapons of mass destruction) has reached fever pitch.
Matt Damon channels Jason Bourne in Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller, a do-gooder who believes that something is amiss in regards to the elusive WMD.
A social commentary on how the missing WMD situation was handled and serious questions about the US Government’s knowledge and motives would make an interesting film.
Unfortunately, Greengrass has used this faux situation as nothing more than a shallow backdrop for his top visual effects.
It is frustrating that this film attempts to raise so many issues and is on the cusp of asking some serious questions about the “true” history of the 21st century Iraq situation, only to back peddle and throw off the audience’s attention span with brainless action sequences.
Green Zone (M)
Directed by: Paul Greengrass
Starring: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan
Rating: Two-and-a-half stars
Screening: Now