McCoy and Waugh, both former stuntmen who have produced adrenaline-fueled sports documentaries like “Step into Liquid’’ and “Dust to Glory,’’ put their cameras as close to the men as possible. The film opens awkwardly and somewhat absurdly with them explaining into the camera how they wanted to put the “audience in the boots’’ of the soldiers and why acting can’t replicate what the SEALs do.
It’s both a boast of the film’s realism and an excuse for its dramatic deficiencies.
The action revolves around the abduction of a CIA agent (Roselyn Sanchez) in Costa Rica following a terrorist explosion at a school in Indonesia. The SEALs are dispatched to a rescue mission in Costa Rica, which unspools a global terrorist plot that stretches to Somalia, Mexico and — if they don’t act fast — the United States.
The team is led by Lt. Cmdr. Rorke and Special Warfare Operator Chief Dave (they’re referred to only by their first names), who, in between missions, banter about getting home and Rorke’s soon-due child. But such conversations are a tiny, wooden part of “Act of Valor,’’ just enough to suggest the basic emotions of fatherhood and the urge for home.
The main thrill of the film, which was written by Kurt Johnstad (“300’’), is its action pieces — chiefly the storming of a jungle compound in Costa Rica and a raid of a tunnel system at the Mexico border. The former is a remarkable sequence that captures the extreme precision of an elaborate mission fusing parachuting, overhead drones, an amphibious approach, sniper shooting and a swift boat getaway.
The directors follow such scenes — shot with real ammunition — with worshipful awe and a reverence for their bravery. The SEALs, from whose point of view we often see as in a video game, have a preternatural calm in battle. Through the duration of the film, they won’t make a single error. In baritone voices, they speak almost entirely in jargon.
