Review of The Assault (2011) by Dan O — 29 Aug 2012

**Action sequence spoilers**.

This could have been so much better. Interesting setup but it completely fell apart in the final showdown inside the plane for one big reason: the entire firefight consisted of quick edits of jerky, handheld, super closeups. The result was a disorienting & incoherent firefight. I couldn't tell what the heck was going on. It seemed like there were only a few SWAT members (with pistols!) near the pilot cabin, being picked off one by one - or was it the same one or two guys shown over & over? Who knows? It felt like we were watching the same moment over & over again.

It also looked like the bulk of the SWAT team (with machine guns!) headed to the back of the plane and it takes several minutes before it becomes clear that they were busy getting the passengers off through a rear exit. The sharpshooters on a distant building roof don't seem to do anything. It wasn't clear what their perspective was, whether they could see anything or if they even took a shot. Later, they're seen running off the roof.

We see two people jump out the front cabin window, but then it turns out there are still 2 pilots left inside, along with several terrorists. How many people were actually in there? There's no clear sense of who is where, who's shooting at whom, how far away they are from each other, the general physical layout... after investing time sitting through the film's setup, I was "rewarded" with basically a music video of closeups of guns & people's faces. I wanted to like this film, but it's really hard to enjoy something that's nothing more than an endless barrage of disconnected images. Which is unfortunate because unlike films directed by hacks like Tony Scott, Michael Bay & others who use this type of mindless & incoherent action staging, the fighting in The Assault could really have had some emotional impact.