Movie Review - Operation Chromite

IN THIS South Korean war drama, which is inspired by events during the 1950 Battle of Inchon between the United Nations and North Korea, it truly feels like I’ve watched this movie before, except that it had a different cast and events played out a little differently.
Operation Chromite is ­essentially a fictionalised version of a historical CIA/military intelligence operation.
Tough as nails, no-nonsense ­American ­General ­Douglas MacArthur (Liam Neeson) ­dispatches eight members of the Korean Liaison Office on a secret mission behind enemy lines to carry out Operation X-ray.
Led by South Korean Navy ­Lieutenant Jang Hak-soo (Lee Jung-jae), the team is tasked to gather as much intelligence as it can about the North Korean’s battalion and strategies.
This covert operation is of utmost importance as it is the deciding factor for MacArthur to launch the daring Incheon Landing ­Operation. But standing in their way is the cruel North Korean Commander Lim Gye-jin (Lee Beom-soo).
Even without giving away too much, I’m pretty sure you can already guess how the movie plays out, and for the most part, the overall story arc is quite predictable.
There’s also quite a few plot holes that will ­definitely leave you ­perplexed.
When it comes to the ­performances, the two that steal the show had to be Jung-jae and Beom-soo.
Jung-jae portrays the very intense and focused Hak-soo perfectly, and Beom-soo just excels at bringing the very entertaining and villainous Gye-jin to life.
For the rest of the cast, their characters don’t really get fleshed out but still show plenty of emotion when things go south.
As for ­Neeson, he’s got a very small lead role but he brings MacArthur’s bravado to life with quite a bit of ­exaggeration.
At the end of it all, I would say Operation Chromite is a fairly ­entertaining romp. But at the same time, it just doesn’t do anything different, thus it ends up as just your standard and fairly predictable war drama.
Watch the trailer here :