I was worried when the movie started with a wall of text, then more worried when the Obviously Symbolic Dinosaur appeared, but the movie won me over as it ratcheted up the tension.
Then it started over from a different viewpoint, and it mostly lost me.
The it started over again from yet another viewpoint, and it pulled me back in a bit, but not all the way.
Then it just… ended.
I get what Bigelow was doing with the repetition. The first version is the full bureaucracy angle, showing all of the agencies coordinating to deal with the attack. The second version focuses more on the smaller group of people doing everything they can to avoid escalating the situation, and the third narrows even further to one man deciding whether to start a nuclear war. We see tons of people worrying about the consequences of their decisions, but we never see any of those consequences (and sometimes we don’t even see the decisions).
…but maybe that’s my problem. Tons of people loved this movie. All I know is that I got one of my best/dumbest fake movie posters out of it.
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