Mantus

I was trying to figure out what happened to the film they advertised because this clearly isn't it.

Syriana touches on a very important and powerful theme. The coruption and cuckoldry between govenment and Oil and the supplication of the Middle East to their intrests.

The plot is rather black and white. Evil govenment, evil Oil, evil Middle Eastern leaders preventing the good people of the middle east from obtaining democracy and prosperity. The suicide bombers are driven to do what they do (though in the movie they don't take any inocent lives) by the evil forces.

I'll give the editors a big thumbs up. The pace of the film was great. If any scene in the film was a second longer I would have got bored but the story progressed wonderfuly and kept one engaged even though it was very base.

I am still not quite sure if the acting was terrible or briliant. I've never seen character interaction have this little energy. Every scene is totaly drained of energy and because of that you had the ability to analize and take in the relevance of the event rather then being lead along emotionally. However, the lack of chemestry between all the various characters in the plot made their development rather difficult. We judge people not only on their actions but on other's reaction to them. This lack of deapth requires the use of imagination to finish the character portraits.

This film is certainly not Traffic.

In the end I don't know how I should rate it. It's a very narrow portrail of the situation in the Middle East so I can't recomend it as an educational film. The vaguness of it doesn't really drive one to action but rather a feeling of "it's all messed up, there is no hope". It's not an action flick. It lacks any powerful drama. I would say to rent it but you might fall asleep on your couch, atleast in the theater you are forced to watch (might as well get your moneys worth).

Thats my take.