Sooo I was totally expecting a different kind of movie, eh? 

Triple Frontier, with its all-male cast of ex-special forces operatives who decide to rob a drug dealer's stash of cash, made you believe it was an action shoot 'em up with cliched one-liners about duty, honour and how their own society has rejected them as a bunch of marginal contributors. 

That's not this movie. 

Okay, there's some of that, but through its 125-minute run time, director J.C. Chandor makes sure the bursts of violence are small and short. In effect, he creates something more akin to Rescue Dawn than Lone Survivor, more survival film than action thriller. 

After a fruitless three-year chase of a drug lord, "Pope" Garcia (Oscar Isaac), is tipped off by an informant and finally manages to locate him. Rather than join forces with government or local military outfits, he recruits his ol’ buddies: team strategist Tom "Redfly" Davis (Ben Affleck), helicopter pilot "Catfish" Morales (Pedro Pascal), and brothers Benny (a hothead so generic he needed no nickname, but is portrayed well by Garrett Hedlund) and "Ironhead" Miller (Charlie Hunnam), to raid the drug lord’s house in South America. If it weren’t for strong performances from Isaac and Pascal, it was in danger of losing its audience quickly with Affleck’s performance, once again playing the leading man despite a kind of stiffness that feels like he’s simply reading lines.  

When the raid takes place midway through the film, you know something's up. Chandor had to be careful because the raid was so expertly and efficiently and brilliantly done, with gunplay and movements so exact you’d swear you were watching the real guys do it, that the film could’ve peaked early and ended up being a bore for the (usually) more important second half.

It’s actually not a bore, but the main frustration is with the characters and their suddenly fluid morals and ambiguous goals. I almost wish it was longer, an experience more like endurance cinema where you are forced to feel the struggle to survive minute-by-minute with the characters. It also just gives it a little more time to flesh out certain arguments the film is trying to lay out. It’s a bit of wasted potential with solid acting and really great camerawork and some shots that really need more time to appreciate.

It just falls short of feeling complete, as if there’s pieces of dialogue and scenes missing that would make the whole thing make so much more sense. I’m half-joking, but when we learn the trek took five days and the survivors still look well-fed and sane and Isaac’s hair is immaculate, I’m wondering what the hell actually is going on. The final scene, in particular, is cringeworthy for an obvious attempt to tug at the heartstrings, but also so awkward in its logic and a final shot so cliched I couldn’t help but think that Mad Max: Fury Road did it wayyy better.

Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal’s fingerprints are all over this (Boal got screenwriting credit) and gut-wrenching war dramas are really their thing, but you can’t help and wonder what-if the long-time duo returned and managed to turn Triple Frontier into a huge hit after Detroit crashed.

Triple Frontier gets three stars out four.