Operation Red Sea

Who'd have thought that the first live-action SPEC OPS action movie with realistic effects work would be made by China (starring their Navy SPEC OPS "Sea Dragons")? I guess I was wrong to think that without a rating-system, Chinese movies wouldn't dare to show anything -- it turns out that they have no qualms about showing everything (without lingering over it like Hollywood gore porn, of course) if the movie/genre was right...

Featuring 5 main escalating missions/set-pieces -- which are always strongly grounded by detailed sniper tactics and expertly strung together with clear plot-points as well as characterizations -- all the usual Hollywood war/military movie "fat" (such as "character arcs", "grand narratives", "social justice" polemics, etc) has been trimmed off, so that military enthusiasts can simply immerse themselves in the gritty and heart-pounding SPEC OPS action.

Just for its utter lack of pretension (to appear more "balanced", "diverse", profound", etc.) -- 10/10, would BANG again!

Dante Lam .. I think it has been too long since I saw a movie of his. And watching this, I have to say, if he can do one thing right, it is the action sequences. No prisoners taken and all that. A lot of (CGI) blood and a lot of death. The stunt work here is amazing to say the least! The sound effects, the tension, the adrenalin ... everything is working just fine here.

There may be a little patriotism, but other than that ... also like with Wolf Warrior, it's not like we are not used to that from US/Hollywood output. So it is more or less the same, just in chinese. But the action actually is one might say better choreographed than the American counterpart ... or at least as good.

Those who thought the movie was pure war scene should watch the Pacific, which also solely described the war scene in WW2. You could feel it, you could see it, you could witness the brutality, you could be shocked by the reality, that's filming. You wanna see superhero killing thousands of bad guys without injury but do not want to face the terrible war that is going on in the Middle East. Those who thought it was propaganda should comment the same under the American Captain and under the First Blood. Biased eyes could not see the fair world.

This movie was actually better than I expected. Though not perfect, it provided a decent storyline and lots of action. It's definitely worth seeing at least once.

I see some of the more critical reviewers saying how it is just Chinese propaganda. I would argue it's not much different than most of our American movies that display sacrifice and heroism (such as films like Act of Valor).

Besides, the trivia section of this movie even states that this film was "a gift for the 90th Anniversary of the Founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, as well as the Communist Party's 19th National Congress." So what do you expect? And quite frankly, who cares if it's propaganda-like for the Chinese citizens?

Give this movie a shot. It is enjoyable and definitely worth seeing. you may be surprised how well the story moves along with multiple battle sequences. I also appreciated seeing another country's attempt at an action/military movie.

Similar to American made war movie in terms of action, equipment, tactics, but more realistic showing that enemy's capabilities and good guys getting hurt and shot! Some people say it's Chinese military propaganda, I'd say it's about the same level of s**t as u see American war movies. If only bad guys die so much more often than good guys, we wouldn't have so many wars. 🤔. A good change to see heroic action movies that don't speak English!