i saw that flick. the review is well done, because it's very much a well-executed (from a technical perspective) paint by numbers affair that uses all its creativity in service of avoiding the topic of american militarism.
the only thing i felt engaging was the target location. one of the TIER 1 OPERATORS muttered, "villain lair vibes", which i gotta say was dead on.
the place looked bad ass and was more intriguing than the rest of the movie. basically, it was an old, smaller scale hydroelectric dam that was, i believe, originally built by the empire of japan during the occupation. the control house/monitoring structure and built environment surroundings on one side of the river was remodeled into a probably 3000-4000 sq ft residence. looked like something that was once brutalist, but then hollowed out to create a lot of breeze ways and open air spaces that would comfortable under typhoon, monsoon or full sun/humid conditions. the scale of the dam would obviously provide more than enough consistent energy for anything, even some kind of energy intensive industrial or computing power, and would be completely remote. the original location had a tunnel complex developed with a lot of exits/entrances and dug by the japanese occupation as some kind of redoubt, and this place made use of them and made customizations.
more than likely, any other island inhabitants would probably get their power from this location and have some arrangement for control of the downstream water level. like, the dam alone creates a situation where the guy is a little lord and if he were "generous" with electricity and amenable to requests for changes in water levels, it would probably engender some sense of loyalty or at least a willingness to kick some staple crops his way (rice, beans, fruits), though he's obviously got a helipad and loaded and probably flies in the very finest treats. i mean, we're talking about some extremely remote island in the phillipines, so it's not like there's anybody but this guy around... who is apparently some kind of "plays all sides" arms dealer, and therefore not somebody to threaten. it didn't get into the guy's relationship to the rest of the island's inhabitants... for all i know everyone there was some kind of employee of his, and they brought everything in. but one wouldn't have to live pretty comfortably.
the layout and nature of the location made it so the only point of access was crossing the maybe 8' wide pathway on the dam, so with a few concrete block forms, there was a ready made moat for this fortress that frankly, from an initial glance (especially overhead) just looked like some old ww2 era piece of small infrastructure. actually looking at it more closely, from ground level, revealed its very fine landscaping and comfortable touches, like a pretty decent, if large, airbnb. then kind of taking it all in, the rocky hills, sheer from quarrying forming a barrier, the river and the dam, the thick concrete walls and surfaces... it's totally a little base with tons of spots to chill in any weather, its own unlimited electricty and fresh water.
they spend no time at all going over these details in the movie or the guy who lives there/what his situation was. i could legit watch an entire movie just about the guy who remodeled that place and his thought process/goals.
