Benevolent, powerful spirit gruesomely massacres officers on board an old Naval ship(nicknamed as a "Naval Museum" by the military)on Middle Eastern waters. Commander Combs(James Russo)decides to send in Captain John Willets(Lance Henriksen) and his team of Black Ops soldiers to see why the ship hasn't reported in the last several days. What Willets finds is a slaughtered crew with only his son, Colin(Gary Stretch), the engineer Slab(Robert Pike Daniel), and what is presumed to be a Muslim terrorist(Lee Majdoub). What the Black Ops team soon discovers is what is exactly behind the bloody rampage, the spirit of a Nazi killing machine, Gunther Neumann(Grant Mathis)whose power is "fused" with the ship, a concentrated energy which can possess humans, using their bodies as a vessel of destruction. So Willets and his men have quite a battle on their hands, to say the least. They also must halt the ship from entering Iranian territorial waters by any means necessary. Along with the Black Ops team are a duo of paranormal investigators, and we later learn of why they are on board, their mission is to "capture" Neumann's essence, to use it as a weapon in the field!
Look, I could pick apart the plot contrivances, along with the gaping holes of the script, but, when it comes down to it, the movie is about soldiers combating a supernatural force throughout the darkened corridors of a 60 year old warship. Black Ops soldiers consider their mission rather routine, boarding the ship in a goal to find and destroy the enemy, which is, in their mind, a terrorist. The whole Gunther Neumann storyline, I admit, is preposterous and really is a bit hard to swallow. But, the idea of a vengeful spirit attacking members of an elite squad seems entertaining enough, but when the details are revealed behind who it is and how he's able to move about, it's hard to take it seriously. I disagree with others regarding Henriksen just cashing a check with some non-performance..I felt he was quite well cast, even at an older age, as a strong authoritative figure who competently guides his men through a very troubling situation which grows more and more implausible by the minute.
The hurled insults about the lighting, I also disagree with. You are watching men marching deep into the bowels of a ship, and I thought there was enough light to see characters clearly. I think, in the case of "Black Ops", that the use of hand-held cameras works because there's a free-flowing nature adopted by director Roel Reiné, and he's able to capture the action within confined, claustrophobic spaces and areas where movement would be difficult otherwise. The violence itself isn't too graphic, and this could be used against "Black Ops" as most of the attacks aren't visibly shown in elaborative detail. The production history behind this movie is rather interesting, how the filmmakers put together a quick story, were allowed to shoot on a ship similar(..but not quite)to what the Navy has in their arsenal. For a "cheap jack" production, it works rather well. I, for one, thought it had some spooky, suspenseful moments here and there before the Gunther Neumann revelation rather sucks the wind out of the sails of the movie. The "Body Snatchers" plot element is worked into the plot and seems to take away from what could've been a rather intriguing actioner shrouded within a ghost story.
Look, I could pick apart the plot contrivances, along with the gaping holes of the script, but, when it comes down to it, the movie is about soldiers combating a supernatural force throughout the darkened corridors of a 60 year old warship. Black Ops soldiers consider their mission rather routine, boarding the ship in a goal to find and destroy the enemy, which is, in their mind, a terrorist. The whole Gunther Neumann storyline, I admit, is preposterous and really is a bit hard to swallow. But, the idea of a vengeful spirit attacking members of an elite squad seems entertaining enough, but when the details are revealed behind who it is and how he's able to move about, it's hard to take it seriously. I disagree with others regarding Henriksen just cashing a check with some non-performance..I felt he was quite well cast, even at an older age, as a strong authoritative figure who competently guides his men through a very troubling situation which grows more and more implausible by the minute.
The hurled insults about the lighting, I also disagree with. You are watching men marching deep into the bowels of a ship, and I thought there was enough light to see characters clearly. I think, in the case of "Black Ops", that the use of hand-held cameras works because there's a free-flowing nature adopted by director Roel Reiné, and he's able to capture the action within confined, claustrophobic spaces and areas where movement would be difficult otherwise. The violence itself isn't too graphic, and this could be used against "Black Ops" as most of the attacks aren't visibly shown in elaborative detail. The production history behind this movie is rather interesting, how the filmmakers put together a quick story, were allowed to shoot on a ship similar(..but not quite)to what the Navy has in their arsenal. For a "cheap jack" production, it works rather well. I, for one, thought it had some spooky, suspenseful moments here and there before the Gunther Neumann revelation rather sucks the wind out of the sails of the movie. The "Body Snatchers" plot element is worked into the plot and seems to take away from what could've been a rather intriguing actioner shrouded within a ghost story.
