Untied (Not a Typo)

I can't shake the feeling that I'm a bad person for falling asleep during United 93. Twice. In 30 minutes. And was only prevented from doing so again by the need to take a piss.

But seriously, it's boring as fuck. In the first hour the only motivation to keep watching is the dramatic irony: you already know how it ends and want to see that shit go down. Thus the details involving the military and Air Traffic Control and the airport terminals becomes fluff. Rather thick fluff, I might add, like that damn marshmallow fluff that you cannot get off a spoon without hard scrubbing.

The cinematography is the same as that of Crash and Syriana, which I personally find annoying as hell. And like these two movies, United 93 shows events in plot with such scrutiny paid to details that I nearly yelled out "Come on already." Example:

[SPOILER]

In the first hour, the most exciting moment is when a slow-moving little green blip disappears from a black screen.

[END SPOILER]

And what's more: the movie has NO PROTAGONISTS. The frequent cuts back and forth appear to center on a few key players, but since everybody keeps screaming out the situation and how they don't know anything and how the military isn't doing anything these characters are made flat and disinteresting. The only characters one has enough patience to tolerate are the terrorists. It's sad; the only characters who show any signs of life and evoke sympathy are the ones who hijack the plane and kill everyone. That was probably another spoiler, but fuck it.

As Vivian said, "It kind of makes you want the terrorists to do it". Seriously.

Take note that this is the only movie during which I have been relieved to walk out of the theatre.

Cinema provides an escape from reality and shouldn't strive to mimic it too closely. "Drama is life with the dull bits cut out" (Alfred Hitchcock), but this movie is life as a rerun with superfluous detail. The actual events were tragic. The movie was an insult.