Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)

8.5/10
I was a little unsure of its episodic format, but I think it generally worked well. And I can't really imagine another way to have done it. Everything I was supposed to feel and didn't with The Hurt Locker, I felt here. The pacing was tight, the acting was great (though as much as I like Chastain, I don't think she was that unbelievable) and the direction was superb. The final sequence plays out like a masterclass of maintaining tension and suspense in direction...with the added challenge of playing to an audience who knows how it all ends anyway. Excellent.

The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008)

7/10
I think I need to stop reading about movies. I've been consistently underwhelmed by almost all the movies in the Oscar race this year and THL wasn't an exception. It was a good movie, but I expected more. I only felt the much-lauded tension at a couple of points, and at others I felt virtually nothing at all. I also thought it was a bit cheap to (spoilers) introduce random/very minor characters (the specialist at the beginning, the cameo crew with the flat tire, the colonel, only to instantly kill them off as if the movie was too afraid to take out anyone who mattered to the plot - although with only 3 main characters, there probably wasn't much else they could do. The movie was beautifully shot and directed though, and it was at least a very "real" look at what I imagine the life to be like.