Captain Phillips! Thrill as he outwits the Somali pirates to save his ship, the Maersk Alabama! Chill as they fight back with tactics of their own! Cower as the climax unfolds bit by heart-chilling bit! Indeed, Captain Phillips is a tension-filled and satisfying tale of terror at sea, but does the movie truly delve any deeper to excite? Not quite, not as it tried, because although screenwriter Billy Ray tries to incorporate deep thought and feelings into each character to carry the overall feel, his efforts come across as a cheap trick—a rouse with dialogue too clichéd and direct for the characters to jump into another dimension of feelings and life. The story still exists though, and it does indeed still excite.

Paul Greengrass directs the shakily filmed Phillips, enhancing the degree of danger and choosing to slow the action in many cases for a choice of deeper atmosphere with danger and a realistic fear. Greengrass is best known for The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum and does not derail from his usual style, holding the audience hostage at times to his own will and story, forcing their patience for the sake of his film. Although Tom Hanks, our brave Captain Phillips, only part for the majority of the film is to remain calm and handle the pirates with a leader’s mind, he still brings his best foot forward and follows the tone and mood perfectly. Without his calm, cool performance, the film would fall into a rickety, comical catastrophe.

However, the film stays cool and collected itself throughout the duration. The tension is built nicely, from the first scene starring our Somali enemies to the last, smoothly, without any major bumps or sudden spikes in the music. The flow is steady, gripping; it sucks in the most uninterested patrons from the very start with a quaint opening that cannot last. In fact, the constant tension may be the key to what success the movie does muster; engulfing every scene, surrounding every character like a giant white elephant, forcing our minds to stay tuned to the problems of the sailors and pirates alike. Every member knows the situation, and due to the superb circumstances of the dark ship, the night sky with its shadowy foreshadowing, the audience knows it just as well.

Captain Phillips offers no cop-outs or sugarcoating either, which is a relief when compared to the constant sequels being churned out for the explicit purpose of pleasing the viewers. The film itself never detours from the story it tries to tell. With each corner turned and with each corner to remain, Captain Phillips steers straight ahead and focuses on the next battle, the next struggle for the crew and the Captain. What the trailers have shown is the exact movie the audience sees; an honest depiction through the marketing department which, too, is an honest relief.

For every positive aspect though, a distracting flaw hangs over the entirety of the film, a nagging aspect of complaint that never fades, holding onto the very end without letting go. The pirates, our Somali enemies who interrupt the quiet tranquility of the Captain and wreak havoc among the crew and the Navy, are from the very start given a voice in the film. But, also from the start, it is apparent that Greengrass hasn’t the faintest clue as to how the Somalis act. Instead of genuine dialogue and emotion flowing through their performances, the pirates are cornered with clichéd American mannerisms and dialogue, from the head-nod of greetings to the talk of strength and honor carrying the pirates forward on their raid. Not offensive in the least bit of course, but the actions and sub-titles fall flat and miserably in their effort to give the audience an inner glimpse of the pirates’ motives. Instead of a mysterious, silent enemy for the crew of the Alabama to contend with, the filmmakers present talkative, squabbling, incompetent foes. This attempt at humanizing the villains only succeeds in slightly interrupting the tremendous flow that steers the movie constantly. Instead of the pulse-pounding thriller hiding within the movie, Greengrass chose instead a story of strife dividing the true enemies and making an underdog story of Muse, the main pirate’s, semi-success of taking the ship.

Despite major inaccuracies in translating the true events, Captain Phillips is a solid thriller that will suck the breath out of its audience at some points, but ultimately the choice to portray the pirate’s feelings and challenges of their own alienate the film into mediocrity and preventing it from becoming a staple of the terror at sea genre.