“Lord of War” chronicles the life of Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage), a cocky international arms dealer with charm similar to Frank Sinatra.

The movie begins when Orlov sold his first Uzi. His notorious reputation begins to rise with a constant chase by Interpol agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawk). “Lord of War” chronicles the life of this arms dealer, including the money he made, his wife (Bridget Moynahan) and his drug induced younger brother Vitaly Orlov (Jared Leto) and his eventual capture.

 Written and directed and by Andrew Niccol, the movie delivers an intriguing sense of satire.

On occasion, you can’t help but to laugh, grin or even be surprised by how the satire dictates itself. Yuri states he won’t sell guns to Bin Laden because his checks always bounce. The trailer proudly displays a voice over by Cage stating “Say what you want about warlords and dictators, they always pay their bills on time.” Or after his capture, Yuri still continues to do what he does best and by the way, loves. And to top it off, one of the closing captions state five of the permanent countries in the U.N. Security Council are also the biggest suppliers of guns throughout the world 

Unfortunately, Niccol doesn’t seem to know how to develop his characters. Valentine, Fontaine, Vitaly, even a Liberian  dictator Andre Baptiste Sr. (Eamonn Walker) and his son Andre Jr. (Sammi Rotibi) bounce in and out of sequences as if they were commercials.  In the end, it wouldn’t have mattered if they were in the movie or Yuri’s life at all. It’s surprising to note this because Niccol’s reputation as a writer (“The Truman Show,” “The Terminal”) is worthy but as a director is not as prominent as a writer.

A movie such as this always brings up, directly or indirectly, the politics behind it. In this case, it is international gun control.

“Lord of War” shows two sides of Orlov’s conflict. He desires to make a profit while knowing that his product kills innocent lives. With minimal character development, “Lord of War” displays this conflict in a satiric outlook.