The story is pretty simple. ISIS kidnaps all the students in an all girls school, then finds out that some of them might have important families and now demands a ransom. One of them is politically connected, which ends up getting the US military involved. This sends a group of skilled specialist soldiers to rescue the selected group of girls.
The intelligence and infiltration mission is pretty good. Some corners have clearly been cut to make the writing easier, but it was still interesting. The extraction mission in the end shifts the movie into a B rated action movie. It was fun and entertaining with all the gunfights, explosions and an extended boss fight, but to me it was a completely different movie. I was hoping for a more intelligent conclusion to the story.
There is no telling what happens to the rest of the girls who were kidnapped. Only the selected group were rescued for the IRIS.
The primary cast were all women. There was a vague explanation in the beginning of why it was important that most of the crew on the mission had to be women, but I did not really get it when you look at how they actually intended to execute their plans. Anyway, that does not really matter, as they all delivered medium to high performances as specialised soldiers. Eva Green was notably good.
The fights, action and explosions were at the high end for a B rated action movie, or slightly at the low end for an A rated blockbuster.
If you enjoy movies about counter terrorist action in the Middle East or slow moving extraction movies that end up with a bang, then this might be something for you. Personally, I think they had a hard time figuring out what kind of movie they actually wanted to make and ended up with something that could have been a lot better. I give it six out of ten.
