It’s amazing that this never captured the public imagination. Doug Liman, despite his tendency for shaking the camera incessantly, delivers spectacle on a level reminiscent of James Cameron. The cast is fun. There’s a real beating heart at the core of this thing.
I don’t think the third act totally works. It’s too dark and underexposed, making the action hard to see, which makes the payoff difficult to visually process. Unlike, say, Aliens, which ends in the dark but remains well lit, this is so mired in shadow that I don’t think one can make out what’s happening from one frame to the next.
But everything up to the final ten minutes is smart, interesting filmmaking.
I would have loved to see more of these.