Operation: Red Sea, a step of improvement in Chinese warfare cinematography, even if it's only a baby step. After having watching many of Chinese war films alongside with my mother over the past 16 years, it's undeniable that this could be one of the better made war films in its history. My focus however, is only on the battle scenes as I have no interest in its narrative style.
Let's begin with some good sides. There are a few improvements worth mentioning that is demonstrated in the film. Firstly, I think it's worth a round of applause that after who knows many years of making war films, they finally, finally show the audience some severed limbs during combat. Secondly, armament variety. In the majority of war films featuring modern Chinese military, Chinese soldiers will always carrying their signature weapons, their QBZ assault rifles and their QBU sniper rifles, if there is a sniper role. For this film, there is a much bigger variety, not only for different types of assault rifles, but classes as well. They finally brought in machine guns (light and heavy) and more usage of RPGs. And finally, actual usage of tanks. For most of their war films, the tanks shown in the film never see actual combat, at most used in simulation. We finally get to see some live action with tanks, even if it was horribly portrayed.
Now, the usual and usual bad stuff scene in Chinese war films. I think one of their biggest flaws in the film is consistency. When at first I saw the car bomb scene, I was surprised to see the focus on the reality of the explosion. It was only a one-time thing however. Many of the explosions portrayed later in the film failed to stay consistent with how damaging the explosions or "pyroworks" can be. I don't exactly remember which character it was, but I counted that he died at least five times just from explosions, whether it was from mortar fire, from grenades, or from other explosions. It was frustrating to see him still kicking like nothing happened and "beating the bad guys." In fact, I believe that in the scene with the mortars, half of the Chinese squad that was there should be dead including that French-Chinese individual. The scale of the explosion portrayed from the munitions exploding is much similar to the initial car bomb scene. In the car bomb scene, barely anyone survived, and if they did suffered severe wounds. In the mortar scene however, they were simply covered in sand, and not mentioning the classic Chinese style of over-the-top dramatic fallen teammates shots. From that range, if they followed the consistency, the mere shock wave would've killed them all.
And while we're in the sandy mortar scene, let's talk about that painful sniper shot. I counted, that shot of the fired bullet took a total of thirty seconds to travel from the mouth of the barrel to scratch the side of the fleeing sniper's face. A painful scene to watch. It's cool to see a shot like that, but overdoing it is another thing. Spending over ten seconds showing a shot like that is already too long, let alone the half-minute. The slow-motion was set into three parts: in front of the bullet, the side of the bullet, and finally the back. I can only explain that through the liking of Chinese cinematography to over dramatize.
One more scene from this sandy mortar section needs to be mentioned. I couldn't possibly let the acrobatic explosion scene slide can I. I get it that he jumped to escape the mortar round and that the explosion would push him further away, but the front flip? Who thought of that and actually put that in the film? And of course, he should be dead (I think that's the character that I counted that should've died for at least five times). And also, the fact that he gets up like nothing really happened, again is extremely frustrating to watch as he continues to "beat more bad guys." Also, also, just to add one more "should've died" scene, the sniper who was under mortar fire. The explosion was way too close for him to survive that shock.
Next off, the scene when the T-72 tank was first used to fire. Might as well mentioning why there is a label in the front of the T-72 tanks that reads "W 13"? and why the tank is painted with a Chinese army camouflage? This is another ridiculous scene, more of a WTF scene actually. The tank fired a shell that penetrated I think three stone columns AND THEN exploded? I get the fact that AP or armor piercing round can easily penetrate those stone columns, but then how in seven hells does it create such a massive explosion by hitting a house? A HE or high explosive round can do that, but then it can't penetrate those columns. It's a very dramatic scene that takes the term unrealistic to another level, to the point that even my mother, who lacks such knowledge, felt weird watching that scene.
Now, the tank chase scene. Does it ever occur to you that like in a video game, the enemies are scripted to have extremely poor accuracy? For some odd reason, the Arabic fighters are shown to be very capable, like their quick calculations in adjusting their aim for the mortars and their skilled sniper, but can't really hit that T-72 with four pursuing it. It's not just this scene, it's in every scene where when it comes to aiming at the Chinese soldiers, the Arabic fighters can't aim straight. It's like they have a cheat code for survival. Back to the tank scene, there are a few weird scenes shown here. A couple of frustrating ones are when one of the M60 tanks just stops as it no longer works after being hit with, presumably, a HEAT round on the reactive armor plating on the turret. The plating is gone but the turret is really undamaged, and yet it just stops. Another one where the the tank was hit in the turret, but its tracks are destroyed? consistency much?
Fast forwarding to the sandstorm scene, the "convenient sandstorm" scene, I think this is one of the dumbest scene ever made. First of all, why would anyone disembark their intact, not exploding anytime soon, vehicle into a sandstorm? Do they not know how deadly a sandstorm is? Secondly, the portrayal of the sandstorm was extremely poor; we were able to see clearly what was going on inside that storm. From what the film initially portrayed, that storm should've reduced visibility to close to nothing but about a few feet in front of you. Disregarding the sandstorm, there was a scene with a M60 tank laying down MG fire on one of the Chinese soldiers as another destroyed the tracks. Tell me why and who is stupid enough to leave its combat vehicle just because the tracks are destroyed? Those Arabic fighters just left all their firepower just because they lost mobility, at which they were moving at snail's pace anyway. And the final face-off scene between the two tanks, the drone. . .I don't know how it managed to hit the "hostile" one, maybe there was dialogue I missed? And speaking of, the communications in this film is atrocious. Their screaming and yelling is nearly impossible to understand without subtitles. My mother couldn't hear half of the conversations. And with this poor communication, how did they pull off not killing their own since both tanks are M60 tanks? In a sandstorm "like so portrayed," it's impossible to use visual confirmation, and I would assume thermal targeting. They didn't even show a scene like that in their too. . .on how they targeted and hit the tank (they love doing those dramatic scenes).
Oh right, I almost forgot about the scene with the warship. Funnily enough, warship looks a lot like the US Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyer. Is it true that the Chinese have a rip-off version of the Arleigh Burke? Anyways, that scene where it defended itself with the Phalanx against the seven missiles is absolutely ridiculous. Based on what the scene is portraying, by the time the crew kicks in with the Phalanx, the missiles are already in a close danger range, and with how tightly packed they are, there is no way none of those missiles hit. It was impossible for them to completely wipe out all those missiles that are later portrayed to come is looser packs. All that UAV launching and support fire is pretty bull. That destroyer would be rendered combat ineffective, or worst sunk as it would be hit broadside.
I think that's enough. . .just one more thing: the classic "time shall stop when our teammate is hit and is about to die, maybe." This never gets old does it? I'm not sure if it's unique to Chinese cinematography, but the way they do it, it's way too unrealistic and dramatic. My mother complains all the time: "and they would just stop shooting?"
Yeah, that's all. I don't know if I can say disappointed. I heard that this film is the most well-made in terms of fighting, which I can see. It's an improvement, but having watched many other foreign war films like from the US, the UK, Malaysia, Korea, Russia, Germany, etc., Chinese war films just can never achieve the "audience on edge" effect even though its seems like the film was supposed to have that effect. And the way Chinese war films try to portray patriotism and heroism, it just feels very over-dramatic and it's really poking fun at themselves rather than having us feel that patriotism, that heroism. In worse terms, they're disgracing what it means to be a soldier. Horrible, absolutely horrible, and even in this film that style doesn't change. I really would've gave it half a star, but another half for effort.
Let's begin with some good sides. There are a few improvements worth mentioning that is demonstrated in the film. Firstly, I think it's worth a round of applause that after who knows many years of making war films, they finally, finally show the audience some severed limbs during combat. Secondly, armament variety. In the majority of war films featuring modern Chinese military, Chinese soldiers will always carrying their signature weapons, their QBZ assault rifles and their QBU sniper rifles, if there is a sniper role. For this film, there is a much bigger variety, not only for different types of assault rifles, but classes as well. They finally brought in machine guns (light and heavy) and more usage of RPGs. And finally, actual usage of tanks. For most of their war films, the tanks shown in the film never see actual combat, at most used in simulation. We finally get to see some live action with tanks, even if it was horribly portrayed.
Now, the usual and usual bad stuff scene in Chinese war films. I think one of their biggest flaws in the film is consistency. When at first I saw the car bomb scene, I was surprised to see the focus on the reality of the explosion. It was only a one-time thing however. Many of the explosions portrayed later in the film failed to stay consistent with how damaging the explosions or "pyroworks" can be. I don't exactly remember which character it was, but I counted that he died at least five times just from explosions, whether it was from mortar fire, from grenades, or from other explosions. It was frustrating to see him still kicking like nothing happened and "beating the bad guys." In fact, I believe that in the scene with the mortars, half of the Chinese squad that was there should be dead including that French-Chinese individual. The scale of the explosion portrayed from the munitions exploding is much similar to the initial car bomb scene. In the car bomb scene, barely anyone survived, and if they did suffered severe wounds. In the mortar scene however, they were simply covered in sand, and not mentioning the classic Chinese style of over-the-top dramatic fallen teammates shots. From that range, if they followed the consistency, the mere shock wave would've killed them all.
And while we're in the sandy mortar scene, let's talk about that painful sniper shot. I counted, that shot of the fired bullet took a total of thirty seconds to travel from the mouth of the barrel to scratch the side of the fleeing sniper's face. A painful scene to watch. It's cool to see a shot like that, but overdoing it is another thing. Spending over ten seconds showing a shot like that is already too long, let alone the half-minute. The slow-motion was set into three parts: in front of the bullet, the side of the bullet, and finally the back. I can only explain that through the liking of Chinese cinematography to over dramatize.
One more scene from this sandy mortar section needs to be mentioned. I couldn't possibly let the acrobatic explosion scene slide can I. I get it that he jumped to escape the mortar round and that the explosion would push him further away, but the front flip? Who thought of that and actually put that in the film? And of course, he should be dead (I think that's the character that I counted that should've died for at least five times). And also, the fact that he gets up like nothing really happened, again is extremely frustrating to watch as he continues to "beat more bad guys." Also, also, just to add one more "should've died" scene, the sniper who was under mortar fire. The explosion was way too close for him to survive that shock.
Next off, the scene when the T-72 tank was first used to fire. Might as well mentioning why there is a label in the front of the T-72 tanks that reads "W 13"? and why the tank is painted with a Chinese army camouflage? This is another ridiculous scene, more of a WTF scene actually. The tank fired a shell that penetrated I think three stone columns AND THEN exploded? I get the fact that AP or armor piercing round can easily penetrate those stone columns, but then how in seven hells does it create such a massive explosion by hitting a house? A HE or high explosive round can do that, but then it can't penetrate those columns. It's a very dramatic scene that takes the term unrealistic to another level, to the point that even my mother, who lacks such knowledge, felt weird watching that scene.
Now, the tank chase scene. Does it ever occur to you that like in a video game, the enemies are scripted to have extremely poor accuracy? For some odd reason, the Arabic fighters are shown to be very capable, like their quick calculations in adjusting their aim for the mortars and their skilled sniper, but can't really hit that T-72 with four pursuing it. It's not just this scene, it's in every scene where when it comes to aiming at the Chinese soldiers, the Arabic fighters can't aim straight. It's like they have a cheat code for survival. Back to the tank scene, there are a few weird scenes shown here. A couple of frustrating ones are when one of the M60 tanks just stops as it no longer works after being hit with, presumably, a HEAT round on the reactive armor plating on the turret. The plating is gone but the turret is really undamaged, and yet it just stops. Another one where the the tank was hit in the turret, but its tracks are destroyed? consistency much?
Fast forwarding to the sandstorm scene, the "convenient sandstorm" scene, I think this is one of the dumbest scene ever made. First of all, why would anyone disembark their intact, not exploding anytime soon, vehicle into a sandstorm? Do they not know how deadly a sandstorm is? Secondly, the portrayal of the sandstorm was extremely poor; we were able to see clearly what was going on inside that storm. From what the film initially portrayed, that storm should've reduced visibility to close to nothing but about a few feet in front of you. Disregarding the sandstorm, there was a scene with a M60 tank laying down MG fire on one of the Chinese soldiers as another destroyed the tracks. Tell me why and who is stupid enough to leave its combat vehicle just because the tracks are destroyed? Those Arabic fighters just left all their firepower just because they lost mobility, at which they were moving at snail's pace anyway. And the final face-off scene between the two tanks, the drone. . .I don't know how it managed to hit the "hostile" one, maybe there was dialogue I missed? And speaking of, the communications in this film is atrocious. Their screaming and yelling is nearly impossible to understand without subtitles. My mother couldn't hear half of the conversations. And with this poor communication, how did they pull off not killing their own since both tanks are M60 tanks? In a sandstorm "like so portrayed," it's impossible to use visual confirmation, and I would assume thermal targeting. They didn't even show a scene like that in their too. . .on how they targeted and hit the tank (they love doing those dramatic scenes).
Oh right, I almost forgot about the scene with the warship. Funnily enough, warship looks a lot like the US Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyer. Is it true that the Chinese have a rip-off version of the Arleigh Burke? Anyways, that scene where it defended itself with the Phalanx against the seven missiles is absolutely ridiculous. Based on what the scene is portraying, by the time the crew kicks in with the Phalanx, the missiles are already in a close danger range, and with how tightly packed they are, there is no way none of those missiles hit. It was impossible for them to completely wipe out all those missiles that are later portrayed to come is looser packs. All that UAV launching and support fire is pretty bull. That destroyer would be rendered combat ineffective, or worst sunk as it would be hit broadside.
I think that's enough. . .just one more thing: the classic "time shall stop when our teammate is hit and is about to die, maybe." This never gets old does it? I'm not sure if it's unique to Chinese cinematography, but the way they do it, it's way too unrealistic and dramatic. My mother complains all the time: "and they would just stop shooting?"
Yeah, that's all. I don't know if I can say disappointed. I heard that this film is the most well-made in terms of fighting, which I can see. It's an improvement, but having watched many other foreign war films like from the US, the UK, Malaysia, Korea, Russia, Germany, etc., Chinese war films just can never achieve the "audience on edge" effect even though its seems like the film was supposed to have that effect. And the way Chinese war films try to portray patriotism and heroism, it just feels very over-dramatic and it's really poking fun at themselves rather than having us feel that patriotism, that heroism. In worse terms, they're disgracing what it means to be a soldier. Horrible, absolutely horrible, and even in this film that style doesn't change. I really would've gave it half a star, but another half for effort.