Ridley Scott is always going to be one of my favorite directors. His work on movies like Blade Runner, Alien, Black Hawk Down, and Kingdom of Heaven always stick in my mind after I watch them. I wasn't expecting much from him for this film, however, so I suppose it is best that way. The trailer didn't interest me very much and it's my personal opinion that Ridley needs to do more sci fi if he wants to socially commentate properly.The film is an adaptation of a novel of the same name about a CIA agent who has to gets a ground's eye view of the things going on in the Middle East. The message it's trying to send is good, but I think it gets lost in its own setting.
Going into the film, people are focused more on the overall good vs. bad conflict and they lose some of the nice subtleties Scott throws in the background. And subtletly is one of the things I always thought he does well in his films. For the most part, we're getting hung up on trying to catch the terrorist and put less emphasis on how that happens, which is a major problem when you want that to be the focus of your film. Otherwise, the overlying plot itself is unremarkable.
I like all of the people involved in this project (yes, I can sit through two hours of Leonardo DiCaprio). I even think there are moments in this film that show you the clout of the man working behind the camera. The issue is that it gets muddled up in the fact that it's a "catch a terrorist" flick with undertones of "how do we best go about that?". That second part intrigues me a great deal, but if I had a nickel for every "catch the terrorist" movie that's come out since 9/11, I'd be able to make a movie of my own. I still think Ridley Scott is a good director, but I think he needs to take us out of our present conflicts so he can best make his point.