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| Mission Extreme Movie |
Yesterday I went to a cinema hall for the first time in a year. The last film I watched in a hall was Bishwasundori, in December last year. I was excited about Mission Extreme, so I planned to see it in the theater. I'm sharing my review with you.
The film opens by showing militants planning a major attack in the country. For this they have picked some urban young men, inciting them toward extremism in the name of religion and "jihad." Some members of an Anti-Terrorism Squad are given the responsibility of stopping the attack. What attack are the militants planning? Will the officers be able to stop it? Or will the militants succeed? Or will something else happen in between? That is what Mission Extreme is about.
Mission Extreme was well ahead technically. The camera work was good, especially the drone shots. The camera work during bomb blasts and in showing characters' reactions in various situations is not usually seen in Bangladeshi films. The sound effects (at the moment of the bomb blasts) and the cinematography were good. However, the BGM, screenplay, and VFX were not very good. By Bangladeshi standards, the VFX was passable. I found the song "Jani Tumi Chile" quite melodious, but its visuals felt disorganized. In many scenes it is noticeable that a good budget was used in the film.
I liked Taskin's acting the most. He was the only one who didn't step out of his character even slightly. His voice and look make you take him seriously: a calm-minded, planned, perfect villain. Arefin Shuvo (Nabid Al Shahriar) did well in his role, though in some scenes the acting felt average (the family scenes). Seeing Shuvo in every scene because of his fitness was a pleasure, his movements in the action scenes are worth noticing, and his expressions in some scenes were brilliant. Sadia Nabila (Era) and Sudip did well enough in their roles. But everyone else's performance was average. As a debutant, Oishee was decent (except for one emotional scene), but her character wasn't very important to the story.
The screenplay of Mission Extreme was very weak and could have been stronger. More thrill and terror could have been built into the story. Because of the short screen time, the Shuvo–Oishee chemistry didn't quite come alive, but even in that short time their chemistry could have been built from a different angle. I felt a love angle could have been shown with the character Era, which the audience could have related to. Shuvo could have had a full, separate fight scene (there was only one chase scene). The investigation could have been shown in more detail. There was a scene where the officers are seen directly raiding Safe House (01), but shouldn't it have been shown in detail how they got that address and from what source? There were so many big-name actors, and they could have been used properly by giving them more space. Manoj Pramanik and Fazlur Rahman Babu were completely wasted.
I was very hopeful about the movie, but it disappointed me. The audience with me was disappointed too. At some point I wondered whether the screenplay was really written by the same person (Sunny Sarwar) who stunned everyone in 2017 by writing Dhaka Attack. A movie is in the director's hands, and he can shape it as he wants. Mission Extreme needed a perfect director (like Deepankar Deepon was for Dhaka Attack). Because the screenplay was weak, I couldn't connect with the story. Some scenes felt pointless. The first half was very boring, the story moved along properly in the second half, and there was some tension at the ending. Honestly, it didn't feel like a proper ending to me. The whole story could have been finished in one part. There was hardly anything in this part. Mission Extreme is nothing compared to Dhaka Attack.
Arefin Shuvo addressed Fazlur Rahman Babu with the informal "tui." I accept that Shuvo is a senior officer and Fazlur Babu played an informer, but the respectful "apni" could have been used here. A person died in the bomb blast, yet the Samsung phone in his hand was unharmed. Suddenly inserting some romantic scenes out of nowhere after the exciting scenes felt really bad. Finally, the line "The war is not over" could have been spoken by Taskin instead of Shuvo.
After reading the whole review, many will say I watched the movie just to write a negative review, but that isn't true. If it were, I wouldn't have wasted my time going to the theater after reading so many negative reviews.
I'd say Mission Extreme was a good attempt. If you watch the movie in theaters and point out its flaws, the makers will be happy and will try to do better next time. We should stand by good local films and encourage producers and directors for their work. Then they will give us even better things later.
Compared to the kind of films usually made in Bangladesh, Mission Extreme can be called different. But it would be wrong to compare it with international standards. I hope Part 2 of Mission Extreme will be good.