Review of Operation Chromite (2016) by Steve W — 13 Aug 2016

Character development be damned in this war mission movie that mixes a Korean cast with some American cast members. A special forces team of South Korean soldiers must infiltrate the North, and find a map that shows the sea mine placement so that General MacArthur can get a foothold during the Korean War. The first half pushes us right into the action, and we barely know the names of the characters. There's the leader, and the guy who always talks about his family, but when the mission gets intense and the guns are blazing, we don't feel for the other squad members who get zero character development. What I did enjoy was the high stakes tension and thrills, with Indiana Jones style action set pieces and shootouts and chases. After the movie turns into another direction, it ends up becoming a generic war action movie as the squad must then do more tasks during the beach assault. It gets rather melodramatic and over the top, so its not one of the higher ranked Korean war films. Check out My Way or TaeGukGi instead.

PS. Liam Neeson is a bit wooden in this movie, with not enough screen time to flesh out his role.